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#1
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Best Travel guide books?
Hi
I'm wondering if anyone has any recomendations on which travel guide series are any good? I'm thinking about the eyewitness account ones since they combine many cities in one book. I sometimes get the feeling that one book on one city may be too much if only going away for a short break.. Are there any guides in particular that folks here swear by? Any help appriciated before I buy one. Best Regards Mike http://www.soundclick.com/bluemenagerie "We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams" |
#2
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Mike Azzopardi wrote:
Hi I'm wondering if anyone has any recomendations on which travel guide series are any good? I'm thinking about the eyewitness account ones since they combine many cities in one book. I sometimes get the feeling that one book on one city may be too much if only going away for a short break.. Are there any guides in particular that folks here swear by? Any help appriciated before I buy one. I always find Let's Go guides useful. They do, I believe, do a limited number of specific city guides. If you're near a library, check out a few different companies- that might give you an idea of what you're after- tastes and budgets for travel obviously vary- Let's Go is aimed at budget conscious travellers. -- David Horne- www.davidhorne.net usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk |
#3
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I think Time Out and Rough Guides are the best. Time Out only has
guides for individual cities, but they are aimed at locals rather than visitors, so they are much better at pointing out interesting places that aren't on the tourist trail. Rough Guides has the best all-Europe guidebook, and unlike most guidebooks it is very good at telling you which things are skippable or overrated as well as which things are must-sees. Rough Guides is also much less common than Lets Go and Lonely Planet, so the places it recommends don't fill up months in advance. Lonely Planet has some excellent guidebooks and some horrible ones - the Europe on a Shoestring and Western Europe are in the latter category. They tend to try too hard to cover absolutely every part of a country or region instead of focusing more on places that are actually interesting, and don't give nearly enough coverage of major cities. Newsflash: people who want to cover lots of Western Europe in 1-2 months are going to spend a few days each in a couple of cities, and are not going on long treks in the Dordogne. Lets Go really sucks. The college students who write it aren't allowed to say anything negative, so every single place is "spectacular", "fascinating", "amazing", ad nauseum. If you want to stay in youth hostels full of American potheads, eat in cafeterias and fast food chains, and not actually experience any of Europe's history or culture, then Lets Go is for you. Fodors and Frommers are too stuffy and are aimed at older travellers. They can be good for describing museums and historical sights, but are very weak on nightlife, neighborhoods to explore, or interesting things that don't fit into a conventional tourist itinerary. |
#4
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#5
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"Des Small" wrote in message ... writes: r.t.e Italy guru Barbara Vaughn speaks highly of the Italy one, at least, for finding reasonable (non-hostel) accommodation, backed up with a Michelin Green for culture. Don't know where you got that from. She's a pompous self opinionated net nanny who doesn't seem to know much about Italy off the main touist trails with the possible exception of the Marches where she now lives. If you are looking for a guide on Italy or it's component parts, you could do worse than looking at Touring Club Italiano's Green Guides. They do them for the whole of Italy, Regions and Provinces. Several are in English. They also do some other useful publications including, in my humble opinion, the best road maps of Italy and, arguably, for Europe - the Atlante Stradale d'Italia and the Atlante Stradale d'Europe series. http://www.touringclub.it or http://www.touringclub.com in English. |
#6
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"Zichu" wrote in message ... "Des Small" wrote in message ... writes: r.t.e Italy guru Barbara Vaughn speaks highly of the Italy one, at least, for finding reasonable (non-hostel) accommodation, backed up with a Michelin Green for culture. Don't know where you got that from. She's a pompous self opinionated net nanny who doesn't seem to know much about Italy off the main touist trails with the possible exception of the Marches where she now lives. I, for one, greatly value Barbara's contributions. Who are you? Marianne |
#7
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"Mimi" wrote in message ... I, for one, greatly value Barbara's contributions. Who are you? Marianne What's that old saying, "Birds of a feather"? |
#8
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wrote:
[] Lets Go really sucks. The college students who write it aren't allowed to say anything negative, so every single place is "spectacular", "fascinating", "amazing", ad nauseum. If you want to stay in youth hostels full of American potheads, eat in cafeterias and fast food chains, and not actually experience any of Europe's history or culture, then Lets Go is for you. It's certainly not my experience. For a start, they are more than wiling to criticise- they do it all the time. They are excellent for finding low-budget accommodation and food of course, but are also an excellent source for low to mid price as well. We often go to the restaurants they recommend, and have never been disappointed. Well, in one case the restaurant had closed down, but that happens. -- David Horne- www.davidhorne.net usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk |
#9
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"It's certainly not my experience. For a start, they are more than
wiling to criticise- they do it all the time. They are excellent for finding low-budget accommodation and food of course, but are also an excellent source for low to mid price as well. We often go to the restaurants they recommend, and have never been disappointed. Well, in one case the restaurant had closed down, but that happens." Maybe they've changed. I used their guide for my first trip to Europe in 1997, and was very disappointed. |
#10
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I like the rick steves books for "best of" trips. they usally are
filled with descriptions and information; just ignore the idiotic comments rarly made. Outside of the must see items are worthless, the city books are better on this. Lonely Planet do a so-so job on the best items and are good for not top items, and lite on don't see unless you live in the area type items. Frommer and fodors I use for long term stays in an area since they cover everything. However they are lite on detailed information, and I don't need all thoses restaurant and hotel descriptions. eyewitness are good to look at when at home and pick an itenerary. they are to heavy and lite on information to carry around. Insight is another good one to read and iternary with but too heavy to carry. however they have the best descriptions, information and history type info I have seen. AAA guides (spiral ones). Have only used one of these and it was better then most. decent amount of history, still a little much on hotels and restaurants. |
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