5 comments about Barcelona (City Guide).

1. My boyfriend and I had three days to spend in Barcelona and I'm so glad we had this book. It was super up-to-date (i.e., warning us ahead of time that the cable cars at Montjuic were under construction and non-operational) and the views on the suggested walking tours -- especially the Modernisme walking tour -- were gorgeous.
   
   Most importantly, the eating guide within was very helpful.



2. This is a nice, detailed map of the main part of Barcelona's city. It has all of the major sites labeled right on the map, and it includes all streets, even the very small ones. It also has a subway map, which is a necessity. It doesn't include much of the outskirts, but that is fine for a map of this size. The plastic covering on the map has come in handy, but it isn't completely sealed, so it did leak in a little water when I used it in the rain. Glad I bought it - I would buy it again!



3. I've always found LP guidebooks helpful - they fit our budget, have an interesting range of suggestions for sights to see, and are usually dead-on with descriptions. This was the first one that let us down on our travels. It is very frustrating for two people new to a city to make their way, starving at 3 pm, to a "highly recommended" restaurant and find it no longer in business. And this happened to us thrice! Two restaurants had closed down, and one had changed name and ownership. We had also taken DK's Real City Barcelona guide, and this was much more useful. Its choices were affordable (look for the check mark next to the listing that indicates a good deal), diverse and filled with locals - always a positive sign.
   I did still use Lonely Planet for planning itineraries for our days in Barcelona, but feel the book has lost some of the go-to quality that I once associated with LP guides. Time for a new edition, and one that thoroughly investigates what goes between the covers!



4. This book definitely needs to be updated. I was able to use it for general information, but when it came to actually getting around and practical advice for restaurants, hotels, etc., I found the Top Ten guide much more helpful. In retrospect, I would not have purchased this book.



5. This book is filled with helpful information about hotels, transportation and sights. I have found that I like Rick Steve's books even better. Both are helpful for travel planning.

4 comments about The Rough Guide to Barcelona Map (Rough Guide City Maps).

1. I used this map daily during a two week stay in Barcelona.
   It was indespensible.
   
   The Rough Guide map has a number of nice features. It shows
   the location of many locations of interest. Not only
   the standard tourists sites, but resturants and hotels.
   The map is also accurate and detailed.
   
   The sterling feature of this map is that it is printed on
   tough material (some kind of plastic). So it could survive
   two weeks of being folded and unfolded without ripping.
   The durability of the Rough Guide maps is a huge selling
   point and I recommend them for any destination, not just
   Barcelona.
   
   The only thing that the map is missing is a map of the
   Metro which is the primary way to get around Barcelona.
   However, free maps are available at the offices that
   sell tickets at the major metro stations.



2. The Rough Guide plastic waterproof map series provides a durable and easy-to-read product. The Barcelona map depicts different geographic areas at various scales, supplemented by not only an excellent street index but also recommendations for shopping, eating, drinking, venues and hotels. All in all, an outstanding pocket guide to facinating Barcelona.



3. My wife and I spent 6 days in Barcelona and this map was great. While many teensy streets are not shown (including the one where we rented an apartment), to do so would probably expand the size of the map to the size of a barn.
   
   As it is, we navigated our way around perfectly with the map in hand. It shows the Old City in expanded view, details the subway system, includes outlying areas like Parc Guell, clearly labels and demarcates all the attractions and was indispensable.
   
   Best of all, it has a rain-shedding coating that allowed me to fold and refold and bend and generally torture the map endlessly and it's still in excellent condition and can probably be used for another 3 trips.
   
   Get it! You won't regret this purchase.



4. This map is excellent because it can get wet and be folded in every way, it will not brake, because of it's material. It misses a metro map, though, but you can get one for free in many places in Barcelona, so it's not a problem.

3 comments about Spain For Dummies (Dummies Travel).

1. This was a great travel book. I chose all of my hotels and restaurants from Spain for Dummies. My family of five went to Spain for 10 days. We went to Seville, San Sabastian, Bilboa (day trip) and Barcelona after reading about each region in this book. Each city gave us a very different flavor of what Spain has to offer. The family friendly icons made it easy to find the items that were most appropiate for us. We followed the recommendations on which small, family run hotels and inns to stay in. They were perfect because they were kid friendly, yet right in the heart of the cities. The restaurants that the Spain for Dummies recommended were excellent (I can't say the same for the hotel conceirge's recommendations). The entertainment sections were also fantastic to guide us to the best bull fight arenas, to great flamenco dancer performances, and to horse shows. Our vacation was a complete success. Now I look for Dummies books for all my travel plans (unfortunately there are not many for Asia yet).



2. Don't be put off by the name or techie provenance of the Dummies' guides... this is a great book for tips and overviews. Lots of practical and accessible advice. A good companion to the richly illustrated DK guides.



3. This was a terrific book to have for planning and research. Information is easy to find and though the book was too big for me to pack in my suitcase, it was perfect for pre-trip reading. Worth the money, but also pick up some smaller guidebooks to take with you.

1 comments about The Most Beautiful Villages of Spain.

1. This book has breathtaking photographs of lovely exotic Spain. A true delight and pleasurable experience. A wonderful addition to your coffee table for everyone to enjoy. I have received many compliments on this inspiring magnificent book. It would make a great gift.

No comments about Fast Talk Spanish - Essential Language for Short Trips (Lonely Planet).

1 comments about Karen Brown's Spain, Revised Edition: Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries 2008 (Karen Brown's Spain Charming Inns & Itineraries).

1. Having been to Spain on several ocassions, I thought I would purchase Karen's book in hopes of finding some "hidden tresures" or insightful places to stay. This book lacks maturity, needs updating and intodays market, certainly needs more of an effort to make it worth while buying.
   Pleasant cover design leads you to believe its content will satisfy - unfortunatley it does not. It reads as if it was originally written in the 1980's and ocassionally someone gives it a quick review and minimal updates. Poor sketches of places sadly disappoint - sorry I wasted my money but more importantly, sorry I wasted my time reading it.

5 comments about Walking in Spain (Walking).

1. I am walking the Camino de Santiago now and can only comment on the Lonely Planet in this context. Day after day I become more convinced that Lonely Planet's researchers have never been on the Camino. They make much of the albergues or refugios but all this information is printed on the back of pilgrims' credencial (price one euro not 25 cents as LP claim). All of the other places where one might stay are hardly mentioned if at all. Punte Reina is described as a one street village, absolutely wrong! The trail leaving the same town is totally mis-described and all the trail mythology plagiarised from other sources takes up space that might be given over to hard facts. Distances are frequently misleading because of sloppy language. A typical example, is something like ¨"start from the crossroads, you'll pass x, y and z and continue for 5 kms to reach a crossroads¨." So where does the 5 kms start, at the crossroads or is it x,y and z? Whichever you choose you'll be wrong, there's no consistency. It happens time after time. An iron bridge near Estella is described as wooden. All small errors you may say but it just piles up day after day. Do not waste money on this useless book. What you need to know is what awaits you at the end of each day when you struugle into the next place after 20 or 30 kms only to read more vague errors from this.



2. I walked the Camino in 2001, using the 36 pages of the 2nd edition guide, in conjuction with the Confraternity of St. James Camino Frances. I found a large amount of excellent info in the 36 pages, and have been recommending it on our Camino web page ever since. The refugios change so rapidly that you shouldn't rely just on one guide. When I saw the recent negative review from a 2003 pilgrim, I went out and bought the 3rd edition, to see if there were drastic changes. The changes were few, and were all improvements - a list of refugios at the beginning, bolder print on the maps, so they are easier to read, slight rewording of some of the text. The authors of the Camino segment are still Nancy Frey and Jose Placer. Nancy has a PhD from University of California, Berkeley, and has written a well respected book on the Camino: Pilgrim Stories. The two of them own the On Foot In Spain adventure company and personally lead walks on the Camino and other treks in Spain. The history in the Lonely Planet segment is authentic, though necessarily condensed. I stand by my original recommendation. In addition to these 37 pages, get the Confraternity Camino Frances guide, and get either Davies and Cole's guide or John Brierley's guide.

   You will find some errors or changes needed in all of these guides, due to conditions changing on the trail, overlooked typos, etc. When you do, help future pilgrims by sending an email to the publication's website so that they can revise the next edition.




3. I think some of the reviewers' comments below are probably correct but none of them are serious drawbacks. True, the maps in this guide are not EXTREMELY detailed, but if you want a really detailed topographical map, you can always get one. The actual trail descriptions in this book are painstakingly detailed -- it even gets tedious. So if you can't find every tree along your route marked on the maps here, just use your imagination a little and wing it.

   "Walking in Spain" describes thirty or so of the best trails in Spain, highlighting trails in Mallorca, the Alpujarras Mountains of Andalusia, the area around Valencia, Castile's Sierra de Gredos and Sierra de Guadarrama, the Spanish Pyrenees, Galicia, and the Cordillera Cantábrica. Hikes vary from longer hauls like the 23-day Pyrenean traverse and the month-long Camino de Santiago to shorter 5- and 6-day hikes and walks you can do in less than a day.

   I've used the guide to get some great ideas for an upcoming hiking trip to the Alpujarras Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and have found it extremely useful. It lists numerous places to stay, ranging from 30- and 40-euro "pensiones" to dirt-cheap hikers' "albergues". You're not going to find a list of every single cheap place to crash your head here (if you did, you would have a book twice as big as this one), but you won't find yourself stranded. There's also a bunch of affordable eating places listed in this book.

   A plus for hikers who want to tackle all or part of the famous St. James pilgrimage route is that the guide's recommended day-to-day itinerary drops you off at the end of each day in towns where you can get food and water. A chart also shows the distance between each official "albergue" and the next.

   This book comes up a little short on cultural information, but you can always take a look at Lonely Planet's general guide to Spain. Recommended. Five stars.




4. This Guide lives up to "Lonely Planets" reputation as a publisher of well researched Travel guides. It's the only guide you really need to "Walk Spain Flat"!
   
   All the basic info is provided, Maps, discriptions,and language in easy to read format {although now that I'm in my 60's the print/font seems smaller??}. For walking Spain the guide is a "must have" piece of equipment.



5. I used this book to plan a loop-hike in Sierra de Grazalema in Andalucia. Luckily, the inn keeper informed us that the book had published the hike in reverse of the intended route, due to some sort of copyright issue.
   
   If we would have followed the book's instructions, we would have had a more difficult hike, and might have gotten lost. The inn keeper said that many hikers have complained of getting lost after following this book, since all the arrows are pointing in the opposite direction, and the cairns aren't necessarily even visible from the route, if you follow the book. Once on the hike, we could see that he was correct. I found Lonely Planet's inclusion of this "backwards route" to be extremely unethical.
   
   But the book is the reason I even ended up on this beautiful hike, and it has a lot of good information. I don't know if there is a better guide available. But I DO recommend verifying/checking your route with someone local and NOT relying solely on the book for planning your route.

No comments about Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

5 comments about It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels.

1. I have traveled to Spain and will return for a second go round shortly. When I saw this book in the new paperbacks section, I couldn't resist myself. I loved this book. It's smart, funny, and Polly Evans seamlessly ties in history lessons so you don't even know you're getting them.
   Having a good Brittish friend, I understand her humor a little better than some other readers, but I laughed out loud at least once every ten pages and I am sure most others will as well.
   Having been to Spain, also makes her descriptions and stories more interesting and real to me, but it would make a great read even if you just have an interest in Spain.
   I love the little history lessons that she has sprinkled through out the book. Spain has an extremely fascinating history that she just skims the surface of. None the less, it greatens your appriciation of the places that she has traveled(and now I finally know why Spainiard love ham so much).



2. "It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels" by Polly Evans centered around the author's cycling adventure in different parts of Spain. Having left her editorial position in Hong Kong, Polly, yearned for a holiday and decided to journey across Spain by bicycle. In her journey, she met fascinating people, sample interesting cuisines and mostly trying to endure biking through the mountains.
   
   This was a below average travelogue for me. I was struggling to finish the book as I found the author's description of her journey uninspiring. The author spent more than half of the book writing about the histories of famous people or buildings, which was not unusual in travelogues, but I felt that the author presented those facts just for the sake of it. For instance, she would arrive in a particular village, and she would go on about the history of the place and then she would move on to her next destination. There were not enough of personal observations of the various places she visited or even appreciation of another culture. I also felt that most of the time, she was not happy with her lodging or the people she met and I began to wonder what was the purpose of her trip. Lastly, the author hardly shared any personal information about herself and this was also why the book was not particularly engaging.



3. At first, I really enjoyed this book and I read it for two hours straight when I should have been sleeping but I think my enjoyment was mainly due to my love of the Spanish country, people and culture.
   
   But after a while, I grew annoyed with the lengthy, boring bits of history that seemed to occur more throughout the book than the author's actual happenings. And when Polly actually did write about her trip and not about the history, I felt that she was constantly slamming someone or something--whether it be the food, the people, the hotels or the town itself. Finally, when I was halfway through the book, I couldn't take it anymore and could bear to read another paragraph and I put the book down.
   
   I do like Polly's writing style and there were humorous bits, but I am more after a memoir than a history book and I was really looking forward to a book where I could delight in hearing about Spain while away from the wonderful country itself, but instead I found a pessimistic, constantly-chastizing waste of my thirteen dollars.



4. I liked this book and don't understand why others were not engaged with this story. It's funny, well-written and full of historical trivia. Maybe TOO much history, as according to other reviewers she gets too engrossed in that part of her travel. I find travelogues with no historical references quite boring.
   
   It's apparent that Polly did her research and made us want to read more. She had lived in Spain for a year in central-western Spain studying the language and culture, so she knew her subject matter. Good travel books talk about the history of the villages so that the readers have reasons to want to read the book. I think she succeeds. She doesn't overdo herself but lets the readers know she's not the best cyclist nor the best travel planner. She can enjoy a trip on her own by taking time to cycle around Spain. She covered the major towns and travelled throughout the country. She could have done the boring and predictable thing and taken a car instead. But then those rainy nights on village roads wouldn't have been so inspirational.
   
   I will read her other books soon. I like her self-deprecating style.



5. Polly Evans' attempt at travel writing in this book is flippant, shallow and trivial. The book reads like a crappy newspaper article with terribly over-simplified historical facts, and general disdain for the Spaniards she encounters. Better luck next time Polly!

No comments about The Rough Guide to Tuscany Region Map (Rough Guide Country/Region Map).