Have you ever wondered how it is that you sometimes arrive at your holiday destination, book into your accommodation and suddenly find the pictures in the holiday brochure bear little resemblance to where you actually are? Well, help is at hand. Because holiday "truth" guides are now being made available to anyone who surfs the net. The guides, which are produced by OAG Gazateers, are considered an authoritative, although sometimes sarcastic source of information on resorts.

In Britain, they were previously only available to travellers to thumb through at the travel agents while booking a holiday. However, now VirginNet, the Internet arm of Virgin Group has put the OAG guides online through its Resort Finder service.

For example, Tenerife's Playa de Las Americas is described as characterless and "popular with the British", but, alas, also with "low-lifers and drug peddlars."