Discovering a new city on your own can be great fun but also a little hard work, and even dangerous at times. This is why it's always good to have a travel guide to carry round as you go.

The Top 10 series of travel guides from Dorling Kindersley has always been a favorite of mine. These days though, I always seem to have more and more stuff to carry on my trips so I've started installing guides on my PDA so I don't have to stuff a book in my pocket along with my phone, wallet, camera, sandwiches and map.

The Barcelona DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide & Map is designed to guide you through the highlights of this wonderful Spanish city, furnishing you with information about the best places to visit, and, more importantly, details of how to get there.

After installing the travel guide and the city pack, you're presented with a large array of different sections, represented in the form of icons. Among the options here are Highlights, Top 10, Streetsmart, Index, Metro and train guide, and Favorites. I felt perhaps these options would be better presented in the form of a more traditional menu interface, but nevertheless one tap on any of the icons will take you directly to that particular section of the guide.

Exploring the various sections is almost like perusing the city itself such is the wealth of information packed into the program. It details all of the major sights and attractions, as well as lots of lesser-known places that are worth visited. I particularly liked the 'Top Ten' section where you get loads of top ten lists to help you plan your trips, including everything from the best tapas choices, through the pick of the markets, to the most impressive paintings in the Picasso museum.

Living in Barcelona myself, I can vouch for the accuracy of the information and many of the interesting facts littering the guide were completely new to me. The zoomable maps and metro and train guides are clearly presented, and I love the way you can plan the best route between two places with ease.

I should point out though, that some of the train and bus prices are a little out-of-date so perhaps it's worth checking these online before you go.

On the whole though, this guide manages to translate the quality and depth of the famous travel book series into an accessible mobile companion.