Something To Declare: travel guides and Menorca

Destination of the week: book shops

You're off on holiday in July. Should you buy a guidebook now or wait to see if a new edition is about to come out?

This month, Rough Guides is publishing updates of its travel guides to Britain, the Ionian Islands, Sweden, Seattle, Sydney, and Tuscany and Umbria.

Lonely Planet is releasing 12 new editions in June, including guides to Switzerland, Cyprus, the Baltic Republics, Hungary and Edinburgh and new "Best of" guides to Dubrovnik and, curiously, Belgrade.

AA Publications plans Explorer guides for Brittany, Cyprus, Israel and Mallorca this summer, plus its 2007 UK road atlases.

Bargain of the week: Menorca

The number of services to Mahon, capital of this beautiful Balearic island, is proliferating. Ten years ago, just one scheduled airline served Menorca (above) from the UK: Monarch Scheduled (08700 40 50 40, www.flymonarch.com), flying from Luton . This year, Last month, Monarch launched services from Manchester and Birmingham. Fares for departures on 10 June, returning 17 June, cost £142 and £176 respectively.

Competition is stiffest from Gatwick. Here, easyJet (0905 821 0905; www.easyjet.com) takes on British Airways (0870 850 9 850; www.ba.com), which has just stepped up its flights from the Sussex airport. Leaving Gatwick on the weekend of 17/18 June for a week, the lowest return fares are £109 on BA and £97 on easyJet.

From 20 July, easyJet will also fly from Bristol to Menorca; two days later flights start from Liverpool. Finally, the link from Luton continues; the return fare from 10 to 17 June is £138.