No comments about Lorca's Granada: A Practical Guide.

1 comments about The Wine Roads of Spain (Wine Roads).

1. I like wine-hunting. Visiting wineries, talk to farmers, taste (very little, I have to drive) and buy. For good wine-hunting you need a good guide. A guide that tells you where to find the good and not too expensive wines. In France there are excellent guides (in French). Wine hunting in Spain is more difficult than in France so a good guide is even more important. For Spain 'The Wine Roads of Spain' proved to be excellent. It offers a limited number of high quality bodegas with adresses and telephone numbers. Also a lot of text about the region so you can prepare your hunt. I hunted in Ribera del Duero (watch this region!) and Navarra. Spended my last pesetas on a Pesquera Tinto Grand Reserva 1992. Came home with 200 bottles of great wine. Recommended !

No comments about Spain & Portugal Travel Map by Hema.

No comments about Azores: a countryside guide (Sunflower Guides Azores).

2 comments about Snowball Oranges: A Winter's Tale on a Spanish Isle.

1. I bought this book at LA Airport just before flying to the UK, and I have to say that reading it made short of the long journey.  I read it in one go, and my outbursts of snickering and laughing must have had my fellow travellers wondering if I was a few oranges short of the pound.
    
   This book is unique in the travel genre in that the writer has a wonderful ability to tell his story as though it were a novel instead of just a travelogue.  His sharply-observed portrayal of rural Majorcan characters and his vivid descriptions of the island's scenery and cuisine are so realistic that you can almost feel the sunshine, taste the food and smell the orange blossom.
    
   I enjoyed the book so much that I bought the sequel, 'Manana, Manana', as soon as I arrived in the UK, and it lived up to my expectations and more.  Next day I booked my first vacation to Majorca, and I can't wait to visit the places so graphically depicted in these books.  You can bet I'll be first in line to buy the third in the series whenever it's published.  Estupendo, Don Pedro!



2. I bought this book two days ago and have to say that I have strugglled to put it down since. For anyone with an interest in travel and the charismatic characters one meets this is an essential read. It is written in almost a novel format and whilst this does much to enrich the individual chapters I did feel that this style did mean that some of the warmth of the principal characters was lost.In this sense it fell short of other books in the genre, notably Chris Stewart's Driving over lemons. However, Kerr's detailed descriptions of his neigbours were a pleasue to read. At times it is laugh out loud funny and just looking at the next paragraph would prompt another outburst. A good read. Now where is my passport?

No comments about Spain: The Best Travel Writing from the New York Times.

No comments about Passport Spain: Your Pocket Guide to Spanish Business, Customs & Etiquette (Passport to the World) (Passport to the World).

1 comments about Naïve & Abroad: Spain: Limping 600 Miles through History.

1. I was expecting much more from this book. The author intertwines historical information that anyone could fine on the net, with his own petty day to day living on the Camino de Santiago. There is no effort on reflect on the experience that he is going through. Mediocre book

3 comments about Michael Brein's Guide to Madrid by the Metro (Michael Brein's Guides to Sightseeing By Public Transportation) (Michael Brein's Guides to Sightseeing By ... to Sightseeing By Public Transportation).

1. Madrid by the Metro was so easy to use and detailed with points of interest that made it easy to plan for and decide what to do for the next day. Without it I am sure we would have seen only what most of the tourists see.



2. I ordered both Barcelona & Madrid before my May trip to Spain- saw them in the Magellan travel catalogue a couple weeks before I left town, and thought these might be helpful. As it was my first time in Spain and I speak only a little Spanish, they proved really helpful, much better than carrying around a guidebook.



3. There are good maps of the subway system in all Metro stations, this map is so big unfolded that it's very inconvenient. You might use it at home to get familiar with what's what, but it's not useful when you're actually on the subway system. better to buy a Good Guide book like Dorling Kindersley Travel Guides: Madrid, it has a metro map in it, and lists subway stops for major tourist sites. Subway maps are available online. Download a nice 8x11 map that will fit in your pocket. Free. Or ask for one at the first Metro station you get on.

3 comments about Michael Brein's Guide to Barcelona by the Metro (Michael Brein's Guides to Sightseeing by Public Transportation) (Michael Brein's Guides to Sightseeing ... to Sightseeing By Public Transportation).

1. For my recent trip to Europe I purchased this map and another for Prague after seeing the high praise for them. Was I disappointed! I was in Prague for four days and Barcelona three. These so called maps only confused me. I would not have purchased them if I had been able to preview them beforehand. Unless you already know the layout of the streets like the back of your hand, these maps will only serve to confuse. Many tourist kiosks sell much better maps with metro info and street layouts for less than a dollar. Again, unless you already know the city very well you would have to have another city map just to help you figure out Brein's map. After my miserable experience with these maps I can only say that the high praise I've seen for these maps is more than a little suspect. Calm down now, Polly, just changing your cage!



2. I ordered both Barcelona & Madrid before my May trip to Spain- saw them in the Magellan travel catalogue a couple weeks before I left town, and thought these might be helpful. As it was my first time in Spain and I speak only a little Spanish, they proved really helpful, much better than carrying around a guidebook.



3. There are good maps of the subway system in all Metro stations, this map is so big unfolded that it's very inconvenient. You might use it at home to get familiar with what's what, but it's not useful when you're actually on the subway system. better to buy a Good Guide book like Dorling Kindersley Travel Guides: Barcelona and Catalonia, it has a metro map in it, and lists subway stops for major tourist sites. Subway maps are available online from the Official Barcelona metro authority. Download a nice 8x11 map that will fit in your pocket. Free.