Browse the travel section at a bookstore and you’d be forgiven for thinking that everything in it is written for the fanny pack crowd (Frommer’s, Fodor’s) or backpackers on a budget (Rough Guides, Lonely Planet). Travelers looking for more than the typical tourist fare may feel a bit neglected. What if you want to find the best spa in Tokyo or the most sophisticated bar in Prague?

According to Grant Thatcher, creator of the Luxe Guides (“for people who don’t wear their luggage”), there has been a “blatant, gaping hole” in the market for travel guides. But in the last few years, series such as Luxe, Louis Vuitton City Guide, and the Wallpaper City Guides—nearly all published by small presses, some unavailable at bookstores—have emerged to fill the niche.

Each series has its own take—Wallpaper is minimalist and photo-focused, operating under the notion that traditional guidebooks contain too much information; Luxe’s accordion-fold directories are full of cheeky slang. But almost all are small, and their covers make them look more like highbrow novellas than tourist tomes. And all of them lay claim to the choicest insider information: “Discerning travelers will find the best of everything in these compact guides,” Louis Vuitton says; “Our mission? To seek the top hotels, locate the best rooms, and select the finest restaurants, and be the first at the latest openings,” touts the subscription-only Nota Bene. Wallpaper “presents a tightly edited, discreetly packaged list of the best a location has to offer.” So can you judge a book by its aspirations?

A Hedonist’s Guide to …
(Filmer Ltd., $16.95)
Territory: 15 cities; coming soon, New York and Buenos Aires.
Size: Compact (4.5 by 7.5 inches); it’s also hardcover and heavy.
Tone: Tries to be trendy—“The buzz in the cocktail lounges and the beauty salons of South Beach is that the Delano has lost its touch.”
Best feature: As organized as a great executive assistant; each listing has a photo and is identified on one of the maps.
Worst feature: Geared more toward where to be seen than where to get the best of anything, the reviews target younger, trend-obsessed travelers.
Worth noting: Purchase provides access to regular updates on its website, hg2.com.

Louis Vuitton City Guide
(Louis Vuitton Malletier, $92 for the European set)
Territory: 30 European cities and New York.
Size: About the same as a Zagat guide.
Tone: Formal, restrained, and a little stiff, like Louis Vuitton’s stores—“Situated just off the Croisette, this discreet luxury hotel was once the meeting place of European royal families.”
Best feature: Includes the occasional gem of a little-known restaurant.
Worst feature: No maps and little practical advice, unless you consider the locations of Louis Vuitton stores practical advice.
Worth noting: Sold only at Louis Vuitton boutiques.

Luxe City Guides
(Luxe Asia Ltd., $9)
Territory: 20 cities in Asia, Europe, and Australia; new this year, Rome.
Size: A tiny (3 by 6 inches) foldout pamphlet.
Tone: Sassy and slangy. On the Grosvenor Hotel, “For urban glam the Grosv is tops.”
Best feature: The Blah Blah section in the front offers useful tidbits of information, such as a warning to look out for the timed light switches in Paris loos.
Worst feature: No maps; all-caps text can be hard to read. Almost half of the guide is dedicated to shopping itineraries.
Worth noting: Can be found at specialty travel shops and online.
 
Nota Bene
(Nota Bene, from $740.85 for 10 issues)
Territory: More than 40 cities, one per issue.
Size: Thin and a little smaller than a typical magazine.
Tone: The best at evoking the spirit of a place, with loads of detail and honest assessments. About L.A.’s Mondrian Hotel, “We detected too much of the hotel-staff ego thing.”
Best feature: Each month the Credo column mulls a different travel topic, such as tipping or up-and-coming hoteliers. Guides cover unexpected destinations like Marrakech and Napa Valley.
Worst feature: The hefty price.
Worth noting: Cities are regularly updated. At nbreview.com, you can also get back issues.

Wallpaper City Guides
(Phaidon Press, $8.95)
Territory: 40 cities on six continents; new locales for spring include Dubai and Cape Town.
Size: Pocket-friendly paperback.
Tone: Straightforward, a bit cheeky. On posh southwest London, “You can’t move for lords, ladies, oil-funded Arab royalty, Russian oligarchs, and the odd Hollywood A-lister.”
Best feature: The 24 Hours section maps a gently paced one-day city tour that doesn’t focus on the usual attractions.
Worst feature: Lack of background information. Like the magazine that spawned the series, these photo-heavy guides leave little room for text.
Worth noting: Sold in specialty shops and online bookstores, and at wallpaper.com.