::Title: Reviews of Travel Guidebooks ::Editor: Brian Lucas ::Filename: general/guidebooks ::Date: 1993 May ::Type: FAQ :: Reviews of Travel Guidebooks ============================ ACCESS ------ Barcelona Access -- concise, handy, color-coded descriptions. I got hooked to Access Guides after using one for Chicago. Reliable restaurant rating. The one we took for our walking tours. (Martin Soques) I have used the Access books for SF and NYC. I think that they are very well done, but I have never tried using one for an area that I don't live in. Since they are only organized by district of the city and tend to contain a lot of listings, I find that they are good for a place that you already know pretty well (and just want to explore a little more). Do you find that they are also good for a place that is new to you? (John Eisenman) I've used the Access books for Rome and for Venice/Florence/Milan, and found them quite useful. What I like about them most is that they seem to concentrate on neighborhoods and not the central tourist centers, so you can really leave the beaten path and get a better taste of what real life in those cities is like. (Wayne Citrin) I've also found some very good, non-touristed restaurants in these books. It's true that the Access guides do not promote budget travel, at least in their European books, but if you have the funds to blow on some good meals, these books are good places to look. (Wayne Citrin) Finally, they describe some very unusual shopping. Their Venice book was where I found the address of the unique shop where I bought my carved replica of a Venetian gondola oarlock, and had a great conversation with the proprietor about the design and history of gondolas. (Wayne Citrin) I used the Florence/Venice/Milan Access guidebook a few months ago. This is a single book covering all three cities. In each city, it is divided into separate chapters for each neighborhood. (Ron Newman) Its good points: Excellent maps, covering the cities block-by-block, studded with numbers that refer to detailed listings of restaurants, stores, parks, churches, and landmarks, and tourist sites. This is the book you want to have when you're just walking around and want to know "what is that building over there?" It's also great for locating the nearest restaurant, ice cream shop, laundromat, etc. (Ron Newman) Its bad points: It's short on detail WITHIN a particular site, such as a palace or art museum. While inside the Uffizi or the Doge's Palace, I wished I had brought along a second guidebook, such as Michelin or Blue Guide, that better described what I was looking at. Also, it unaccountably, and unforgiveably, omitted Venice's most important art museum: the Accademia. (Ron Newman) A few errors caused me much confusion: the (Florence) Pitti Palace map was a mirror image of the correct layout, so I went for a while from room to room wondering why the artwork on the wall didn't match the book's description. And it showed the wrong location for Venice's Stazione Maritima, which got me thoroughly lost in the southwest section of the Dorsoduro district. (Ron Newman) I'd definitely buy an Access guide for the next city I visit, but I wouldn't use it as my only guidebook. (Ron Newman) AMERICAN EXPRESS ---------------- The old series of slim hardbacks gave a remarkable amount of good information in a very compact format. The ones on Greece, Athens, and London were especially good for small guidebooks. They have recently started publishing expanded paperback versions of this series. I haven't used them extensively, but the ones I've seen look promising. (Jon Corelis) While several people have mentioned the Real Guide travel books (my personal favorites), I'd like to put in a plug for the small-format American Express books. [...] Two places that have been my BEST accommodations EVER were listed in these books. (Janice Morley) ANDERS REISEN ------------- There's a German youth travel series called "Anders Reisen". The only one I've used is a special volume called "Planbuch Berlin". It's a neighborhood-by-neighborhood, block-by-block treatment of a large part of the city, with shops, restaurants, nightlife, and sights everywhere. (Wayne Citrin) BAEDEKER'S ---------- Not one of the better ones, though they are fairly knowledgable about sights and sometimes have directed me to things I wouldn't have considered otherwise. (Jon Corelis, 12 Apr 93) [Not one of the better ones] but the ones I've seen *have* come with good maps. (These are full-color, large-sheet maps that you could separate from the book.) (Mark Brader) BERKELEY -------- I just bought _On The Loose in The Pacific Northwest and Alaska_, a Berkeley Guide ("the budget traveler's handbook"). I'm not sure how many guides Berkeley (a division of Fodor's) has published so far, because they're fairly new. But I've found it to be better than Let's Go guides -- more detailed, laid out in a helpful manner, etc. Even though I generally don't like Fodor's guides, the Berkeley offshoot seems pretty decent. (Cheryl Dragel) There are two other ones out that I know of: Eastern Europe and South America. I have used the Eastern European one and found it very informative although I only used a small portion of it (only went into Prague). The upside is since they're new there's less old outdate information in them. The downside is no book on Eastern Europe can stay valid very long at present. However I found the book to be well written and opinionated, very much "Let's Go.." crowd oriented, and easy to find at most bookstores (Which is a plus compared to the Lonely Planet guides which are damn tough to locate at the local Walden's). I hope they write a guide to Western Europe but apparently their first offerings are for more unusual locales. I don't really see much similarity with Fodors. Even the binding and layout of the book is different. (Robert Huebner) I believe it's just Mexico (and perhaps Central America), not all of South America. They also have a guide to California and the Pacific Northwest. (Wayne Citrin) BERLITZ ------- One series not mentioned here is the pocket-size Berlitz guides. The information is minimal, of course, but they're a big win in terms of portability. In recent trips to Europe, when walking around a city, I have often had a Berlitz guide to the city in one back pocket of my pants, and in the other, a Berlitz dictionary (or someone else's similar-sized one) to translate the local language into English. (Berlitz publishes phrasebooks as well as language dictionaries, but while I have carried these sometimes, I've never found them any use.) This doesn't mean that I didn't have a larger guidebook as well -- but if I did, it generally stayed in my hotel room. (Mark Brader) BLUE GUIDES ----------- These are the 'real thing,' in regard to history, archeology, geography, etc. Are in fact scholarly works in these regards. Little or no information on hotels or restaurants, but brief useful sections on tipping, getting around, and other practicalities. A very useful feature is that they include detailed guides to almost every museum, castle, or archeological site in the country covered. If you're at all serious about the history and culture of the country you're going to, these are indispensible. [Note: these are the Blue Guide series published by Norton in the US and by Benn in Britain. Not to be confused with the French Guides bleus series, some of which have been translated into English.] (Jon Corelis) CADOGAN ------- I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Cadogan guidebooks. My wife and I just came back from a 2-wk drive-tour/honeymoon in the South of France (plus a few days in Barcelona). We found the Cadogan Guide to the South of France to be the most concise and informative among the books we researched prior to our trip. The Cadogan guidebook delved into the history and culture of the different regions and cities (although not as deeply as the Norton Blue Guides) in addition to suggesting lodging and restaurants for different budgets. Other info we found very useful: notable wines/wineries within each region and market day schedule for each town. (Martin Soques) FODOR'S ------- I've found these useless. (Jon Corelis, 12 Apr 93) I, on the other hand, have found them useful in some European countries. I particularly like the way they show attraction locations on maps: a prominent circled-number symbol, where the number is to be looked up on a nearby text page. (Mark Brader) Anothing good thing about Fodor's is that they prominently date each edition, and they can be expected to keep track of at least major events relating to the country. For example, their 1992 Spain book had some decent information about the World's Fair (Expo 92) and the Olympics. It wasn't 100% accurate, but they did have to prepare it in 1991... (Mark Brader) I bought a Fodors LA for use around LA (I live in the Pasadena, which used to be a seperate town but was swallowed up whole after the war) and have found it to be a fine guide for what-to-do-on-a-free-day-in-the-city. I agree that they are less useful than some of the other guides for faraway places. But consider getting one for your home city. It may surprize you. (Michal Leah Peri) FROMMER ------- Vary in quality widely, but the better ones are very good to excellent on hotels and restaurants. Often come in two editions for each country, one covering all price levels, and the other concentrating on economy travel. For food, restaurants, hotels, and general travel tips, I've found the ones on Greece excellent, Britain good, and Ireland poor. All of them are fairly superficial on background information. (Jon Corelis) INSIGHT ------- Good for background information, but can be considered travel guides only in a limited sense. Lots of nice pictures though. (Jon Corelis, 12 Apr 93) I like these guides a lot, although as you mentioned they are short on data, long on pictures. The ones i've used give you a good idea of what there is to experience in a given area, but not, say, the opening hours of the museums they talk about. Also good day-dreaming material. (Cynthia Kandolf, 13 Apr 93) Agreed. If you get these, the time to read them is before you go. (Mark Brader) LET'S GO -------- I found most of their prices accurate within $1 in every country I've travelled in. That's not too bad for a book researched the previous year. The bottom-line is, after two months in Europe with Let's Go Europe always by my side, I still swear by it. It's a great book. (Gerrit Conradie) Oriented for the superbudget, backpacker brigade. Many people swear by them. A minority opinion, which I also hold, is that they tend to be arbitrary, poorly researched, and evince a shallow attitude towards the cultures they describe. I've noticed some signs of improvement in recent edition. (Jon Corelis) The book is researched by students. And I'm sure all of them are not culturally inclined. (Gerrit Conradie) It's good to know it's not only me that dislikes them.... while they're good for digging up cheap places to stay, i think they're shallow, too. Too often their comments on a city run something like "Not much to see here, move on". That's a pity; some of the best experiences i've had on vacation were in places that "didn't have much to see" but had a lot to do and discover if you were willing. (Cynthia Kandolf, 13 Apr 93) Me too... Let's Go is really useless when you go on holliday... I never use a guidebook to find cheap places to stay... I always use tales from fellow travellers to find the "good" spots (doesn't always work 100% though). (Dirk Vandenheuvel) They said of Milan, "Don't go out of the station...", I did and I should not have. On the other hand, they said of Brindisi, Italy "quite possibly the most disgusting little town on the face of this earth". I found it a delightful little place. But all travelling experiences are subjective and should be treated as such. For all Let's Go Europe's faults, it's a good "all-in-one" guide for exploring Europe. (Gerrit Conradie) Let's Go France -- good for finding cheap eats, back-up tour book to Cadogan, essential addresses (eg. laundromats). (Martin Soques) LONELY PLANET ------------- These mostly have covered countries I haven't travelled in. Their new European guides, though, seem generally useful, though since each book (one for Western and one for Southern Europe) covers lots of territory, they don't go into a lot of depth. (Jon Corelis) I have used Lonely Planet in Thailand, Nepal, India, Hong Kong and Canton China. They are oriented toward really cheap travel and I do best in the hotels that they say are a treat (and turn out to be more like an old motel 6) I would hate to see most of the really cheap accomodations. They are usually written by people who lived in these places and the information always seemed to be accurate unless the prices were off because of devaluations or things have closed but there is very little of that. In Canton their map of the city with interesting things in both english and Cantoneese allowed us to get by in a place where we ran into almost no english. I would not recommend these books to someone who likes to travel like a king but to someone who wants to go as far as they can on a buck and see even some out of the way things they are great! (Karen Guthrie) They have a traveling with children book written by the owners of the company who have two kids and have taken them everywhere with them since the kids were born. If there is a trick to traveling with kids it is in there. I found that to be the best book of all. (Karen Guthrie) The best guidebooks I have found are a the "Lonely Planet" series, which are published in Australia, but cover every thinkable destination. The sort of information that they carry (to my mind anyway) is the sort of stuff that you really want and need to know. I have a friend who is currently backpacking around South America, and who writes to say that "South America on a Shoestring" by the LP people is as essential as toilet paper!! (Mo Paul) Yeah... Lonely Planet is good value for money... written by some experienced travellers (mostly Australians I think). Lonely planets a great for Asian destinations... I've never used them for Europe or the US. Maybe someone has and could comment on them??? (Dirk Vandenheuvel) MICHELIN -------- I haven't used the red Michelin guides, which are guides to hotels and restaurants. The green Michelin Tourist guides are compact and lack depth, but they give very judicious comments on how worthwhile the various sights are. The associated Michelin maps of various countries ought also to be mentioned, since they include so much and so useful information that they almost can can be counted as guidebooks in themselves. (Jon Corelis) Has maps of a lot of towns showing the locations of tourist office, marketplace, post office, hotels/restaurants, and car parks. Gave us reliable price ranges despite old copy. Complemented our Michelin 200 series maps. (Martin Soques) The Michelin Green Guide series is much more complete in French than in English. (Wayne Citrin) MOBIL ----- For the US and parts of Canada, there are also the Mobil and Exxon guides. Of these I've used the Mobil series. They go for breadth rather than depth, covering many small cities of little tourist interest, and they assume that you already know more or less where you will want to go -- for example, the places covered in each state are in alphabetical order. They also assume that you will be driving. (Mark Brader) For each city/town/park they give a brief description and a terse list of tourist attractions, with hours; formerly they gave prices, but now only price brackets. The bulk of the pages are given to listings of recommended places to eat and to stay, with information about each. If you you can handle their general organization and are interested in avoiding restaurant and motel/hotel chains, these guides can be valuable. Otherwise, not. (Mark Brader) MOON ---- And let's not forget the excellent Moon books (US publisher). I personally like the Moon books a bit better than the LP books because I like the lay-out more (sounds silly but if you travel a lot... you get used to a certain feel of your travel books). I always find thing more quickly in a Moon publication. Again I have not a lot of experience with their European books (only Asian) but they should be OK. (Dirk Vandenheuvel) ROUGH GUIDE / REAL GUIDE ------------------------ Also for budget travellers. In my opinion, better researched and certainly more socially conscious than Let's Go. Good on background material, but also lots of detail. (Jon Corelis) Of all the travel books I bought for my first trip to Italy, the Real Guide and the American Express books for Venice/Veneto Region and Florence/Tuscany have been the ones I've brought with me on several subsequent trips. I like the Real Guide for its breadth of background information (it makes a fun read when you're either daydreaming about travel, or when you're trying to figure out if a destination is worthwhile when you're actually on your trip). I also like the Real Guide for its candor and sense of humor. I might've never known about the Il Sodoma frescoes in the White Benedictine abbey in Tuscany, had it not been for the Real Guide. (Janice Morley) Some suggestions are a little too "rough and ready" for my taste, however; for example, they mentioned that accommodations were limited in one rural area, but there shouldn't be any trouble in camping out in abandoned farm buildings (supposedly plentiful in the subject region). While I don't stay at super-classy places--I seem to split 50-50 on whether the hotel room shares a bathroom, or whether I have my own--I personally don't think that traveling like Anthony Quinn and Guilietta Masina in "La Strada" is my style, either. Your budget and style may differ. (Janice Morley) ROUTARD ------- The French "Guide Routard" series. The only one of these I've had a good look at was the Turkey one: better than Let's Go, maybe not quite as good as the Rough [Real] Guide; it aimed at the same niche. (Jack Campin) 2-22 DAY -------- I'm glad to see that somebody else likes the 2-22 Day books. I used one in Australia and was happy with it, and I bought one for Thailand. (Andy Stevens) I don't think those are written by Rick Steves though. Their format, however, is most likely very similar and it is this in combination with Rick's style and knack of finding cool off-the-beaten places that makes these books such a find. (Steve Dakin) WANDERBUECHER ------------- In Switzerland, the Wanderbuecher from Kummerley+Frey are indispensible (unerlaesslich) for planning hikes. (Wayne Citrin) GENERAL COMMENTS ================ From: steve@oceania.com Date: 14 Apr 93 19:20:41 GMT To me, there are few things to consider when evaulating guide books. First, you need to know what you are looking for and which, if any, books address your needs. Using an "Insight Guide" to learn the history of France just ain't gonna work. In planning for my trip, I've gone out and sampled the shelf, so to speak. I have a Real Guide for Paris, a Fodor's for Holland, A Frommer's for Copenhagen, Rick Steve's "2-22 Days..." books for France and Scandinavia, two books on hiking in the Alps (one a Sierra Club book called "Adventuring in the Alps" and another titled something like "Walking the Alps - the Swiss Way"), "Adventuring on Eurail", and Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door. Naturally, I'm not going to lug all these around with me. I have found that the books work better for certain things. For example, some are better as pre-trip planners (Europe Through the Back Door - OK, so it's not really a guide book, but it does talk a lot about places you may want to go, including 40 'back doors'), while others will be more helpful when I'm there "2-22 Days...", Real Guide. Frommer's seems to work well for both, although some may find the info a little terse and too "must-see"-ish. Fodor's doesn't really cut it for me, although it does have some nice background info. I consider this one better as a pre-planner even though it talks about specific walks to do and sights to see that you might want it along to follow. At any rate, a good classification scheme might look something like this (1-5 stars with 5 the best - these are, of course, very subjective and entirely my Chinchilla's opinion): Book Pre-trip value During-trip value Fodor's Holland ** * Frommer's Copenhagen *** *** 2-22 Days... *** **** Europe Through the BD ***** ** Real Guide: Paris *** **** Adventuring on Eurail *** *** Adventuring in the Alps **** *** Walking the Alps *** *** I've looked at the Blue Guides and Insight Guides and would compare them as: Blue Guide **** ** Insight Guide *** * and one last note: rec.travel ***** - Another thing to consider is the indended audience of a book. As people have mentioned, Let's Go and Lonely Planet are both targeted to budget-minded travelers (as are many guide books I have found). Others try to list all the things you might possibly want to see (Frommer's) at the expense of not really telling you a lot about each place, while others are more opinionated (Rick Steve's books, for example), and sort of tell you what is best (if Rick wasn't such an experienced traveler, I'd think he was too opinionated). So, when looking for a guide book, keep in mind what you are looking for and listen to what other people have found helpful (and useless) about the ones they've read. =Steve -- Steve Dakin | My opinions are owned, in their Oceania Health Care Systems | entirety, by my chinchilla. Palo Alto, CA (415) 322-0127 | Don't waste your time trying steve@oceania.com (NeXT mail) | to catch him.