No comments about Pocket Menu Reader Spain (Langenscheidt's Pocket Menu Reader).

No comments about Karen Brown's Spain, 2009: Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries (Karen Brown's Spain Charming Inns & Itineraries).

No comments about Viajes por Europa, África y América 1845-1847 (Viajes).

5 comments about Rome Venice Florence, 4th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan).

1. This book is more of a novel of these three cities. Don't expect to pick up this book for the first time while you are on the trip and pick out places to see. The sites are buried in paragraph after paragraph of text, which is not very useful when you are there and trying to figure out what not too miss. Read it before you go on your trip and make notes of the places to visit. We were looking for the book to include a bullet list of some type with the "must see" places in each city. With only this book as a reference, we decided to wing it instead of reading.



2. Previous reviewer seems to have missed half their own point. If you are looking for Frommers or Fodors, BUY Frommers or Fodors! The world doesn't need any more of that ilk. That market is well established and those books are good at what they do.

   We're the type of travellers who basically use the Net for more time sensitive things -- the changing food and lodging scenes in any given locale. Anymore, that type of info in a book holds a distinct disadvantage versus online sources. Given that we are already armed with that info beforehand, we don't need to pay for a guide book to resummarize it.

   Once you strip that off, what's left? Info on the sights, changing attitudes, culture. 90% of what is known about the Forum, St. Pete's, etc. doesn't change. That background is suitable for book treatment. The key is distilling this info in such a way that it doesn't come off like an encyclopedia entry (the trap which the Blue Guides fall into - yawn). This the Cadogan Guides manage to do quite well. The writers do have a particular point of view on things, but it is thoughtful one and makes good reading.

   Again, every travel book doesn't apply to every travel situation. If that were the case, maybe we could all get by on Fodors. This book has marked out a different spot on the map and it is doing a very good job in that spot.




3. This book has solid information and is well-written but that doesn't keep it from being BORING! The only pictures provided are in a few pages at the front of the book. The maps are not good enough to travel with. It makes a decent pre-trip read (or to at least browse through when planning your trip). However, don't plan on traveling with this book. The National Geographic or Eyewitness Travel Guides are far better. The best of the best are the Rick Steves travel books which do not have pictures either but are updated every single year with new hotel and restaurant information plus great maps.



4. Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (12/06)
   
   If you are one of those travelers who like to explore fewer places during your vacation, but get to know them in depth, you will certainly love the guidebook "Rome Venice Florence" by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls. The authors did a marvelous job presenting those three fine cities, so different from each other in every aspect.
   
   Just make sure that you heed the warning from the introductory section of the book:
   "The prima donna dripping splendour, the agate-eyed goddess of the sea and the proud, clear eyed genius... if this is your first visit, we can only envy you. Rome, Venice, and Florence are in a class all their own, as high-water marks in the saga of human potential, as supernovas among the star places of Western civilization. They can be utterly demanding and make you reel and keel over from a glut of art and beauty - there is even a name for it - the `Stendhal syndrome'. You have been warned."
   
   While I totally agree with the aforementioned statement, I also believe that armed with this guidebook you will feel considerably less lost and clueless. To set the stage, the authors wrote the chapters in the part named "Italy in Perspective,: which introduces the many faceted face of Italy through its history, art and architecture, literature, music and cinema. My favorite part is the "Snapshots of Italy," talking about such important and diverse topics as the Bella Figura, Brick Italy, Marble Italy, Commedia dell'Arte, Pasta and the Pinocchio Complex. Make sure you do not skip those pages - they will make understanding Italy and Italians vastly easier.
   
   Another truly useful chapter is the one on food and drink, which even includes an Italian menu reader. This will make exploration of the fine Italian cuisine more enjoyable for certain.
   
   The `Travel' section covers all of the getting there and around topics, including the entry formalities. This section should be particularly useful for an independent traveler, as should also be the following "Practical A - Z" section, filled with a wealth of information and useful travel tips. The authors even thought of including addresses of the exchange offices which are open on the weekends.
   
   The real delights await you in the following three sections, each of which deals in great detail with Rome, Venice, or Florence. The wealth of the information is amazing and sometimes dazzling, the array of choices staggering and the details remarkable. There are 14 maps included, ranging from a comprehensive map of Italy on the inside front cover to city maps for all three cities along with several detailed maps of places of interest. Useful information in each of the chapters includes such diverse topics as the public transport, shopping, festivals, places to stay and places to eat and much, much more. Comparing the authors' selections in Venice, a city that I know very well, I was pleasantly surprised to find both several of my long-time favorites and quite a few new places to explore during my next visit.
   
   If this book makes you want to learn more about Italy, there is an excellent "Further Reading" list to be found at the very end of it. Read a few before going to Italy and your visit will be even more fun.
   
   I would highly recommend "Rome Venice Florence" to anybody with serious interest in the Italian way of life, their culture, art and history. It is well written and reads easily. My only regret is that there were no photographs to showcase the beauty of the three magnificent cities described in it.



5. Super information; well organized and easy to use; nice to have a book with these three popular destinations rather than having to buy a book for each

No comments about Insight Pocket Map Barcelona (Insight Pocket Map).

No comments about The Rough Guides' Madrid Directions 2 (Rough Guide Directions).

5 comments about Lonely Planet Portugal (2nd ed).

1. Egypt and Portugal are the only two countries besides America I will ever want to travel in. While not the best guide I have ever read this one is still quite useful. If you ever go there see the Palacio Nacional da Pena in Sintra and the Palaco do Visconde de Estoi near Faro



2. i've used LP Portugal on many short trips to portugal (i live in madrid, so going to portugal occurs once in a while)... after purchasing several guidebooks, i have ended up taking LP every time and leave the other guidebooks on the shelf at home... despite this, some caveats are necessary!

   the pros: the maps and city plans are substantially better than in the competitors' guidebooks.. lonely planet is one of the few economic travel guidebooks (economic travel, i mean, the book is not economical at all!) that gives you information on at least a few hotels that are not youth hostels, dives or other forms of bottom-barrel accommodation; in other words, they at least give you a few mid-range and expensive options if you wish to go that way... all the essentials are there, with great suggestions on places to sleep, eat and visit

   the cons: as with ALL of the backpacker/youth travel guidebooks (LP, footprint, rough guide, let's go), the information on sights/monuments/museums, etc., is SEVERELY lacking... there is just the most basic of information on the history of the sights that you have gone so far to see... which makes it necessary to buy another book, pay an expensive guide or some such thing... (for instance, you will rarely read detailed descriptions of the artwork to be found in a church and are often left wandering about saying 'this is so beautiful, i wonder what it is???...i wish the guidebook would tell me more!') i know this would make the guidebooks huge, but even 50% more information on what you are gawking at would be wonderful so as to have a little bit more of a grip on the backgrouns after flying so far to see it!

   which is why, despite its quality, i always feel the need to take another guidebook along, just in case...using my usual technique of tearing out just the pages i would need from each book




3. I have used the Lonely Planet guides in Asia, the Middle East, and in Europe. Lately, they seem to have lost their way. Originally, the LP guides were for people who had travelled at least a little bit before and needed some pointers to an area. The guides usually had some sort of walking tours in the cities they indicated. Their guides have become filled with useless colour photos of generic scenes, The quirky, fresh information has disappeared -- In the summer of 2004, I used the LP guides for both Portugal and Spain. I was traveling for about three months. I had been in both places before and had used a LP guide. The most recent guides are stale and minimally updated. They are also occassionally misleading; especially concerning food. Sadly, the LP guide to Portugal is not worth the weight that goes along with carrying it.



4. I enjoyed the book Lonely Planet Portugal. I will be taking it along on my upcoming trip and I am sure it will be a great help to have with me. Lot's of great information!



5. I don't expect much from Lonely Planet. Usually, they seem to be written by some sandal wearing reprobate who thinks finding vegetarian food is important. They often skip over interesting historical fact, landmarks, culture and items of artistic merit -to say nothing of local custom and folkways, in order to have enough space to tell you about where the local discos are, and where you can buy more lonely planet books (think about why this is dumb for a minute). Personally, I only buy them because they have good maps in them, and halfway decent (if bizarre) hotel and restaurant recommendations. I also buy them because nobody else really makes serious travel books (I have high hopes for the "Avant Guide" franchise). I'd probably be better off collecting antique Baedekers.
   
   This guide to Portugal was, on the other hand, quite good; well above their average offering. It's out of date in some significant ways. For example, one of the central train stations in Lisbon, Rossio, has been out of service for years; it's somewhat excusable that this is out of date information in the book, but the same thing is on their website, so I have to imagine the next edition will have the same problems. Also, when I went, there were all manner of bizarre ceremonies involving students in robes being tormented by other people; nary a mention in the book. None the less, there were many sights I had never heard of which were mentioned in the book. Many were described as "like out of star wars" by the voluble Miz Hole (or Beach), which pretty much meant: you should really see this. It wasn't a bad description, as Lucas obviously modeled some of his alien looking stuff after Manueline gothic style -just a bit matey for my tastes. There were also a number of excellent "small detail" recommendations for restaurants; a really cool fried chicken restaurant in Porto, run by a midget and a guy who looks like an undertaker -a remarkable hotel in Tomar run by the world's happiest man, Esteve. These sorts of little details made me forgive all the flaws I mentioned above. The details also made me love Portugal. Portugal isn't as dense in history and monuments as Italy, nor is the food as good as in France, but they have a very deep and wonderful culture there. This is quite a good book for getting a flavor for it, and seeing the sights which need seeing.

1 comments about Let's Go Barcelona 3rd Edition (Let's Go Barcelona).

1. We used this book as our main guide for a recent trip to Barcelona and were very happy with it. The descriptions of sites are very comprehensive, and the details (opening hours, costs, etc.) are accurate and complete. We also appreciated the sidebars about things you might run across, such as cava or the sardana.

   The most useful feature is that every site, resturant, hotel, etc. listed in the book is also pinpointed on one of the maps in the back, making things extremely easy to find.

   Also helpful is a listing of restaurants by type. I'm a vegetarian and we used the list of vegetarian restaurants constantly. Unfortunately, some of the restaurants we looked for no longer exist.

   The other book we had was Time Out Barcelona. We found the site descriptions to be inferior, but it has a very good restaurant section and also a street index which was quite helpful.

   We mostly used the Sights and Food sections, so I can't comment on the other sections in the book.

No comments about Hammond International Spain Portugal (Hammond International (Folded Maps)).

No comments about Between History and Romance: Travel Writing on Spain in the Early Nineteenth-Century United States.