The most amount of people prefer to do it using travel agency, as they want to spend their holidays with comfort and convenience. They just have to pay money and the tickets will be booked, the room in hotel reserved and a comfortable plane will get them to the place. They will spend a week or two on the seacoast, and then come back to their boring job. The next several months will be spent expecting for another vacation.
But you may try to taste the traveling of such kind: some people call it "wild traveling", when a person just has an idea that he wants to go somewhere and nothing more. The next step: he packs some of the clothes into the bag, goes to the railway station or to the airport. He may choose the route of his traveling directly on the place. It can be a big city, a small town or even a far away village, it doesn't matter, if wants he will be able to get the most exciting pleasure he ever expected.
Travel guides will be useful in this situation. Just imagine, you are alone in the unknown place and nobody can help you. You don't know where to sleep or where to eat; moreover you want to visit some sightseeing. A small travel guide will be the best assistant for you there. It usually includes the list of the expensive and non-expensive hotels, restaurants and clubs, theatres and galleries. Moreover a special part of travel guides is usually dedicated to the sightseeing this place is famous for. Add here some picturesque photos of some places and people and it will replace the real guide whose excursions can be boring and uninteresting.
Using travel guides you will become your own real guide and will have the possibility to choose the places to visit.