Your PSP can be a travel guide

Many of you that travel are probably familiar with the Lonely Planet series of travel guides. These handy books offer things like restaurant ratings, out-of-the-way spots, and lists of handy stopping spots like shopping...or hospitals, for those inclined to get in trouble. Of course, if you're big into travel and you're a tech enthusiast enough to read this site, you probably also have some sort of portable game system...like the PSP. So why not combine them?

That's exactly what Lonely Planet was thinking when it created "Passport to...", a site devoted to putting Lonely Planet's travel guides right on your PSP. All of that handy information will be at your digital fingertips, and you're not stuck carrying around one of those archaic tomes made of that stuff they call paper. Currently, the site supports six European cities, though the number will certainly increase if the concept flies.

It's a pretty slick idea, assuming you can swallow the price tag of $49.95 USD per city. The paper volumes are only $19.95, so there is certainly a cost to the digital conversion. On top of that, putting the information in a digital format leaves the possibility that your battery could die at just the wrong time. Theft could also be a bigger problem, as a PSP would be much more a target than a travel book.

Will it be worth not carrying a paperback volume? Would you use it? What if it were the same price as the paperback? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.