Lonely Planet travel book advice

Hey,

I'm travelling out from the US to Europe this summer for about a
month from (late May to late June). I'm still finalzing on the
countries I'll will visit, but they will be exclusively Western
European. This will be my first trip to Europe.

This is the traditional post college shoe string budget sort of trip,
so I'm trying to do as much research as I can beforehand in order to
have a fair idea of what I'm getting into. I've used books by Lonely
Planet before and have quite liked them. They have two books that I
think my fit my needs.

1. Lonely Planet Westen Europe
2. Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring

I was just curious if anyone had used these books and could offer
advice as to which one I should pick over the other, or whether I
should take both, or whether I would be better of with a different
book/books.

Thanks for the help,

Shiv

"Shiv Chadha" wrote in message
...
Hey,

I'm travelling out from the US to Europe this summer for about a
month from (late May to late June). I'm still finalzing on the
countries I'll will visit, but they will be exclusively Western
European. This will be my first trip to Europe.

This is the traditional post college shoe string budget sort of trip,
so I'm trying to do as much research as I can beforehand in order to
have a fair idea of what I'm getting into. I've used books by Lonely
Planet before and have quite liked them. They have two books that I
think my fit my needs.

1. Lonely Planet Westen Europe
2. Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring


I would get the shoestring book, a 2005 edition is supposed to come out this
year, the one on the shelves is a couple of years old. I have the 2005 Lets
Go book and it rots, Im picking up shoestring as soon as it's out.

---
Yet another satisfied customer of Bartender Sam!

Shiv Chadha wrote:
Hey,

I'm travelling out from the US to Europe this summer for about a
month from (late May to late June). I'm still finalzing on the
countries I'll will visit, but they will be exclusively Western
European. This will be my first trip to Europe.

This is the traditional post college shoe string budget sort of trip,
so I'm trying to do as much research as I can beforehand in order to
have a fair idea of what I'm getting into. I've used books by Lonely
Planet before and have quite liked them. They have two books that I
think my fit my needs.

1. Lonely Planet Westen Europe
2. Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring

I was just curious if anyone had used these books and could offer
advice as to which one I should pick over the other, or whether I
should take both, or whether I would be better of with a different
book/books.

Thanks for the help,

Shiv

Shiv,

Europe on a Shoestring is the best of the budget travel guides that I
have seen. I haven't seen your #1.

Look at my website for more information about traveling in Europe. It
has loads of information for the first time traveler that you won't find
anywhere else. A dozen chapters of my book are available free on line,
including chapter 10 on guidebooks and maps at
http://www.enjoy-europe.com/hte/chap10/guide.htm

Bon voyage,
John Bermont
--
------------------------------------------------------
* * * Mastering Independent Budget Travel * * *
http://www.enjoy-europe.com/
------------------------------------------------------

Get the LP Western Europe, or better yet, get Rough Guides Europe.
Lonely Planet is fine for cheap accomodation and basic maps, but Rough
Guides is better on explaining the sights, and on details like train
connections, and since much fewer people have RG the places it
recommends don't tend to fill up like LP's recommended places do. My
main criticism of LP Western Europe is that it's kind of weak in its
coverage of major cities, but for a one-month trip covering a lot of
destinations it's probably fine for your purposes. One good thing
about LP is that it's very easy to use, especially if you're used to
their format.

LP Europe on a Shoestring sucks. It tries to cover almost all 50 or so
countries, and as a result winds up having completely superficial
coverage of each place.

Where exactly are you going?

LP Europe on a Shoestring sucks. It tries to cover almost all 50 or so
countries, and as a result winds up having completely superficial
coverage of each place.

Where exactly are you going?


I browsed through it at a Barnes and Noble and I got that impression
too. Unfortunately they didn't have a copy of LP Western Europe for me
to compare against. I did check out the Lets Go Western Europe and it
appeared to be pretty good, I've just never used anything by them.

I don't mind buying multiple books because I've got a $30 coupon
sitting at Amazon that I need to use up, but I just want to make sure
I am getting the best value for my money.

With regards to my choice of countries, I'm looking at

The Netherlands
Belgium
France
Spain
Italy
Germany

If I can squeeze them in, I'd like to see Vienna, Austria and
Copenhagen, Denmark. If I really really can manage it then Athens,
Greece as well, but that would probably be a little too ambitious.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:28:16 -0500, Shiv Chadha
wrote:

Hey,

I'm travelling out from the US to Europe this summer for about a
month from (late May to late June). I'm still finalzing on the
countries I'll will visit, but they will be exclusively Western
European. This will be my first trip to Europe.

This is the traditional post college shoe string budget sort of trip,
so I'm trying to do as much research as I can beforehand in order to
have a fair idea of what I'm getting into. I've used books by Lonely
Planet before and have quite liked them. They have two books that I
think my fit my needs.

1. Lonely Planet Westen Europe
2. Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring

I was just curious if anyone had used these books and could offer
advice as to which one I should pick over the other, or whether I
should take both, or whether I would be better of with a different
book/books.

Let me first say that I mostly use guidebooks to find lodging, and
that I prefer to spend my money on other things than lodging, so I am
always looking for budget lodging, even though my student days are
long past. Let me also add that I live in Italy and have travelled
quite a bit in Europe.

All of the all-Europe guides are a bit superficial because they have
to cover so much ground. When you've narrowed down your itinerary a
bit, you should consider buying country-specific or city-specific
guides to the places where you'll be spending the most time.

I have used Lonely Planet Guides for specific countries, but not the
All-Europe guide. I would say that their strongest point is that they
have far better coverage of out-of-the-way places and rural areas than
most other guides do. However, they don't offer a wide selection of
budget lodging, mainly because they try to cover a fairly wide price
range. I used the Lonely Planet guide to Ireland last summer and was
fairly pleased with the lodging choices. However, they had a few items
that were just plain errors, such as their mistaken information about
the location of the airport in Galway.

I have also used the Rough Guide, and I am not a big fan. Their Spain
guide was really very unreliable, especially for lodging. Their Italy
guide was a bit better, but I lost it on a trip once and decided not
to replace it. Their biggest fault is that they are not updated often
enough, and that they only group lodging by very broad price ranges.
Because they are likely to be out-of-date, I found that the budget
category often had more expensive choices than the moderate category.
I also suspect that some of their writers do much of their research on
the telephone and haven't really seen some of the places they
recommend. This was especially true in Spain. They recommended a
scenic drive along a river, which we wasted half a day to take. From
that particular road, the river was never in view, but a lot of used
car lots and suburban shopping centers were.

For budget lodging, my favorite has always been Let's Go. They give
very detailed information about lodging, including the cost of single,
double and triple rooms. They are updated annually, which means that
the prices are at most a year out of date. They only cover budget
lodging, so they have a much more extensive list for any one city than
Lonely Planet or Rough Guide. They also have useful information about
locations of laundromats, bus stations, post offices, etc, that some
other guides don't have. (Lonely Planet is also pretty good for this.)
They are not my favorite guide for sightseeing advice, but I use other
sources for that and reserve Let's Go for finding lodging. I think the
people who hate Let's Go are probably those who are looking for more
luxurious lodging than I am. Let's Go's coverage of major cities is
much better than that of rural areas, so if you are mostly going to be
staying in rural areas, Lonely Planet may be better.

Another guide I like very much is a French series called the Guide
Routard. This is also strictly a budget guide, and I don't know if
they have an all-Europe edition. I also don't know if they're
available in English. (We had the Italian edition, published by the
Italian Touring Club.) We used them in Spain to supplement the Rough
Guide, and we would have been better off if we had used them
exclusively. It was good both for lodging and for sightseeing,
although the lodging listings were not as extensive nor as detailed as
those in Let's Go.

For sightseeing, I use the Michelin Green Guides a lot, but I also try
to buy a specific guide for specific cities or museums when I arrive
there. I also hit the tourist office to see what they have, especially
about events that are happening when I am there. I always ask the
tourist office if they have a good street map of the city, and if not,
I buy one from a news vendor or bookstore. The Michelin guides are
excellent for museums, but they tend to ignore interesting things that
are not exactly high culture. For example, I took their Italy guide on
a trip to another region, where we visited a town (Sulmona) famous for
its manufacture of "confetti", which in Italy are sugar-covered
almonds. When I got back home, I read the Let's Go
description of this town and learned that one of the confetti
factories offers free tours. The Michelin Guide must have been too
high-brow to mention such an attraction.

For your initial research, you may find the DK Eyewitness Guides
useful. They have lots of really nice pictures, which can give you an
idea of where you really want to go. However, their specific
information is quite limited and the high quality paper they use makes
the guide very heavy to carry around. I have their Italy guide here at
home, and I use it a lot to show to visiting friends and relatives
from the US so they can decide what they want to see. I only took it
along with me once, and found it inadequate for sightseeing.

So, to sum it up: Use DK Eyewitness to do your initial research. Take
Let's Go on the road with you to find lodging. Take the Michelin Green
Guide along if you plan to visit a lot of museums and cathedrals. If
not, Let's Go may be sufficient for sightseeing as well, or Lonely
Planet if you're going off the beaten track. Find local information
at the tourist office of each town, or in a local bookstore.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

B Vaughan wrote:

[]
Another guide I like very much is a French series called the Guide
Routard. This is also strictly a budget guide, and I don't know if
they have an all-Europe edition. I also don't know if they're
available in English. (We had the Italian edition, published by the
Italian Touring Club.) We used them in Spain to supplement the Rough
Guide, and we would have been better off if we had used them
exclusively. It was good both for lodging and for sightseeing,
although the lodging listings were not as extensive nor as detailed as
those in Let's Go.

Routard is definitely available in English- we used the edition for
Southern Spain when we visited Andalucia. Like you, I usually prefer to
use Let's Go, but we picked up the Routard cheap- it was a couple of
years out of date, but the prices hadn't changed much in the places we
stayed.

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

B Vaughan wrote:

[]
Another guide I like very much is a French series called the Guide
Routard. This is also strictly a budget guide, and I don't know if
they have an all-Europe edition. I also don't know if they're
available in English. (We had the Italian edition, published by the
Italian Touring Club.) We used them in Spain to supplement the Rough
Guide, and we would have been better off if we had used them
exclusively. It was good both for lodging and for sightseeing,
although the lodging listings were not as extensive nor as detailed as
those in Let's Go.

Routard is definitely available in English- we used the edition for
Southern Spain when we visited Andalucia. Like you, I usually prefer to
use Let's Go, but we picked up the Routard cheap- it was a couple of
years out of date, but the prices hadn't changed much in the places we
stayed.

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

Sounds like a lot for one month. Are you planning on just seeing 1-2
cities in each country and just spending 2-3 days in each place?

Lets Go is very weak on sights, and on history and culture. They do
find a lot of dirt-cheap places to stay, but their restaurant
recommendations include things like cafeterias rather than anywhere
interesting or distinctive. And they aren't nearly as thorough as
Lonely Planet in terms of covering places off the tourist trail.

Given the places you're seeing, definitely get the LP Western Europe.
They also have "Mediterranean Europe" and "Central Europe", but your
trip happens to overlap both of those. Do check out the Rough Guides
though - you might prefer it. If you're just visiting major cities,
any of those guidebooks are basically fine...it's when you get off the
beaten track that there's a huge difference. One thing I like about
Rough Guides is that it's willing to tell you when something isn't
interesting or worthwhile. Too many other guidebooks describe every
single place or sight as "spectacular" or "fascinating" and you have no
idea what to see and what to skip.

If you plan on spending a week or so in one specific city, e.g. Paris
or Berlin, and you want to see the neighborhoods and nightlife and
unusual places instead of or in addition to the standard tourist sites,
definitely get the Time Out guidebook for that city. They write great
city guidebooks aimed at locals rather than visitors.

B writes:

[...]
Let me first say that I mostly use guidebooks to find lodging, and
that I prefer to spend my money on other things than lodging, so I am
always looking for budget lodging, even though my student days are
long past.

Oh, me too, for very sure! A 20 EUR is as good as a 60 EUR bed, if
I'm asleep.

[...]

For budget lodging, my favorite has always been Let's Go. They give
very detailed information about lodging, including the cost of single,
double and triple rooms. They are updated annually, which means that
the prices are at most a year out of date. They only cover budget
lodging, so they have a much more extensive list for any one city than
Lonely Planet or Rough Guide. They also have useful information about
locations of laundromats, bus stations, post offices, etc, that some
other guides don't have. (Lonely Planet is also pretty good for this.)
They are not my favorite guide for sightseeing advice, but I use other
sources for that and reserve Let's Go for finding lodging. I think the
people who hate Let's Go are probably those who are looking for more
luxurious lodging than I am. Let's Go's coverage of major cities is
much better than that of rural areas, so if you are mostly going to be
staying in rural areas, Lonely Planet may be better.

I've only previously used Rough Guides and Lonely Planetses, but I can
see I'm going to have to give these Let's Goes an, um, go.

[...]

Another guide I like very much is a French series called the Guide
Routard. This is also strictly a budget guide, and I don't know if
they have an all-Europe edition.

If Amazon is to be believed, they have existed in English (but not a
one-volume Europe one) and have gone out of print. The English market
must be a tough one to crack, isn't it?

But I am down with the Frenchy-French, and there's a brand new one for
Barcelona, where I am shortly going, and I am so very strictly budget,
so that sounds ideal.

So, to sum it up: Use DK Eyewitness to do your initial research. Take
Let's Go on the road with you to find lodging. Take the Michelin Green
Guide along if you plan to visit a lot of museums and cathedrals. If
not, Let's Go may be sufficient for sightseeing as well, or Lonely
Planet if you're going off the beaten track. Find local information
at the tourist office of each town, or in a local bookstore.

This is an answer and three-quarters, incidentally: shouldn't it be in
a FAQ?

Des