Lonely Planet, the world’s largest travel publisher, has ported its full color Discover series to the iPad, it announced August 3.

The books are now available on the Apple iBookstore, with Lonely Planet saying that the series “takes the ebook to a new level.”

Using the iPad’s touch-screen functionality, users can navigate between reviews and points of interest on a map, bookmarking key sights and taking notes using the iBooks application.

Whilst on the road, users can also look up information on Google or Wikipedia, or click through to websites directly from the app using the iPad’s Safari browser.

For a short time, the new titles are on offer – Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, and Ireland and are normally priced at $17.99, £12.99, €15.99, although a special launch promotion has them at $14.99, £9.99, €11.99 for a limited time.

Publishers were quick to see the opportunities the iPad offers for travel publishing — even before it was launched, Penguin Books demonstrated its DK travel guides on the device, which allowed users to demonstrate itineraries and use interactive, GPS-based maps.

Lonely Planet boss Matt Goldberg says that the iPad provides a chance for travel publishers to reinvent themselves.

“Travellers’ needs are constantly changing and the iPad has given us the opportunity to reinvent our Discover guides as e-books for a completely new travel planning experience,” he explains.

“In developing our Discover e-books series, we’ve pushed Apple’s e-publishing technology to its limits creating immersive and intuitive guides to help travellers get to the heart of a place and enjoy the very best each destination has to offer.”