No comments about The Rough Guide to Tuscany Region Map (Rough Guide City Maps).

2 comments about The Rough Guide to Northern Spain Country Map (Rough Guide City Maps).

1. Good map. Nice and detailed. Unfortunately the area I am most interested in is just south of the southern cut off. Don't buy this map if you are planning to visit Castille y Leon or Catalonia.



2. I had the Michelin maps of Spain/Portugal and the big Michelin map of Galicia and the next area..........but the Rough Guide map was my #1 choice by far for our 10 days in Galicia and the one I used as family navigator. The map has a plastic coating, so it won't break as with paper maps when you try to fold it over into the section that you need.
   
   The symbol for scenic overlooks or miradors was great........I managed to get our family to a bunch of obscure but beautiful sites, some of them on those narrow "white roads."
   
   I found the printing and colors much easier to follow than the Michelin maps.
   
   One caution about all the maps other than the one that we got from the Galician tourist bureau........the road numbers on the maps do not always match the road numbers on the roads!

2 comments about A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Fisterra: Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre Including the Muxia Extension.

1. Same format as the Camino Frances guide - laid out in three stages. One stage per day, one map per stage total of 95 pages. In addition to covering the route, it has a section of practical information on when to go, covers Galician history and culture. A beautiful full color guide.



2. I used this book and the similar Camino Portugues book for my pilgrimage in April 2006. They are both superb. I followed Brierley's suggestions pretty much to the letter. The book contains excruciating details as well as a longer and spiritual view.
   
   I think of the book as a personal gift to each of us pilgrims. Brierley obviously loves his work and the Camino. He kept me on track, put me to bed early and awake early when it was important, encouraged me to appreciate the wonderful people and sights along the camino. He offers history lessons, lists of practicalities, maps and directions. This book is all you need!

No comments about Moon Spain (Moon Handbooks).

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.

5 comments about Frommer's Spain 2007 (Frommer's Complete).

1. Note: This is for anyone contemplating purchasing the new 2006 travel guide of Spain by Frommers. Don't waste your money. Although I have purchased over 30 Frommers books in the past and enjoyed each one, the Spain book was awful. In Madrid, the book lists 20 or so "Top Attractions" (which is customary for Frommers). However, try to read about these attractions (e.g. what they are, hours of operation, etc.) and you can only find about half of them in the book. How do you know if it is worth treking across town for something that has no description?
   
   In addition, some attractions in Barcelona are not correct on the map (literally they are across town from where Frommers puts them). I ended up stopping in bookstores and reading Eye Witness in order to see what I was missing.
   
   Save your money. I am also sending a complaint directly to Frommers as well. For the rest of the reviews (prior to mine) on this page, note that they are for other Frommers Spain versions (not the 2006 book).



2. Thorough, Comprehensive and well-put together.
   
   From all the travel books out there on Spain this one is not a compilation of mere facts, photos, phone numbers and page-fillers.
   
   What sets Frommer's apart is the information provided and the style in which is presented. You will find lodging options for various budgets, a list of most important sites to see and even suggested ways to spend time in a city if you have only 1 day or as much as 5 days, great places to eat and great places to splurge if you can stretch your dollar. Be aware that this is not a book for the ones on a shoestring budget. Frommer provides a good introduction to Spain without being overloading you with mass amounts of information or pictures, a truly well-balanced book.
   
   When I backpacked 4 months through Europe I had a copy of the Lonely Planet for Europe (a thick and heavy book) because it covered more cities and esoteric towns, a ripped chapters of all the international youth hostals Europe of the countries I visited, and as primary guide for nominal cities and capitals I used Frommers (ripped the book and kept only chapters of countries planning to visit - so I can keep the weight down).



3. I just got back from Spain a few days ago, having used the 2006 Frommer's Spain to plan our trip. None of the entries have been updated to reflect 2006 pricing for entry fees to museums, etc. The book has a small section in the front called "What's new in Spain" or something along those lines, but the rest of the book does not appear to have been updated for 2006. We ended up spending more than we had expected at almost every single place we visited on Frommer's advice due to the fact that the pricing was outdated. In hindsight, I would have saved some money and bought a used 2005 version. And FYI, most attractions have student discounts which knock up to half of the admission price off, so don't leave your student ID at home if you have one!



4. I've been to Spain several times, and until now I've been using the Lonely Planet 2003 Spain guide. On my upcoming trip there in May I thought I might update and perhaps complement my old guide by getting a 2007 edition
   from another publisher. So, I picked up the Frommer's 2007 and started reading it in depth when I got home. Well, it's just not that good. The layout is very annoying and they barely list any hotels that aren't expensive. Also, they leave alot of tidbits out that the lonely planet has. (Like the chapter on Toledo for example, says nothing about the mass migration of the population to high rises around the city. Lonely Planet mentions things of this nature. Many of the Lonely Planet chapters usually make mention of a negative aspect of a certain area, which every good book should have.)
   
   Not to mention the maps in the frommer's are basically nonexistent. Nothing more than a faraway street map with only the main roads filled in. The map of sevilla for example, only lists a couple major arteries and the names of plazas. For a city as confusing as sevilla, this isn't a big help. Good thing I already know my way around. To conclude, I'd say that Frommer's is just missing that one essential aspect: Soul. The book has no soul. No opinions, no diversity, no explanations of seedy happenings or places to stay away of because of certain things. Just no soul or passion and terrrrrrrrrible maps.



5. The date on the latest edition says 2007, but this book is completely out of date.
   
   I took a quick look at the Madrid chapter and immediately found the following:
   
   (a) The subway map is old (p. 98); line 8 from the airport started running to Nuevos Ministerios a long time ago but this is not shown.
   
   (b) On pg. 94 it is claimed that there are airport buses to Plaza de Colon. They used to go there, but since Feb. 2005 (two Frommer editions ago!) they terminate at Avenida de America.
   
   (c) On pg. 41 there is the wacky claim "There is a very favorable exchange rate in Spain when you pay in US dollars". The exchange rate for euros isn't any different in Spain than anywhere else, and it isn't "favorable" at all. When do you think this sentence was written?
   
   (d) There's an article about internet access away from home. That's useful and modern, right? Well, it recommends hotspots operated by T-Mobile "at more than 1000 Starbucks coffee shops nationwide". The 'nation' they're talking about is the USA!
   
   As I said, I got this during a quick browse; this is not a complete list of the weirdness in this shoddy little book.

3 comments about Knopf MapGuide: Venice (Knopf Mapguides).

1. I am a big fan of the Knopf MapGuides and usually get one for each place I visit, but this was one of the more disappointing in the series. Venice is difficult to navigate and it would be nearly impossible to create a completely accurate map of the city. That said, many streets on these maps are not labeled. There are also a large number of streets, bridges, and landmarks in Venice that do not appear on the maps. I spent a lot of time trying to match the maps against what I saw in person, and found the smaller maps in my guidebook were much more accurate.
   
   There are also several areas of Venice that simply are not covered on the maps, including all of the islands. We found some delightful streets in the western part of Santa Croce that do not appear on any of the maps, and no coverage of the area near the train station or the Piazzale Roma, which are important points of entry into the city. Overall, the maps were just average for what they do cover, and the coverage of Venice needs to be improved.



2. Unlike many maps, the street IDs in this guide are big enough for a user to actually read. That said, I still got lost walking from the Accademia bridge to San Marco. (Following crowds and stopping in to ask store clerks helped me out here.) I found myself flipping back and forth on the two San Marco maps freqently, when it would have been more convenient to have all the info on a single map.



3. Best travel guide bar none. Fits your pocket or small purse.. Visually great looking.There are actual pictures .... All high recommended hotels different prices..Great maps.. hard to get lost even in Venice. Great recommends for food I am a shopper.. Absolutely great & unusual shops ..None of the bad tourist gear only the styling gear.. .I had three guides to Venice this is the one we used every day...Do not go anywhere without this guide if there is one available for the destination Im will be traveling to....

1 comments about Frommer's Seville, Granada & the Best of Andalusia (Frommer's Complete).

1. This book follows the familiar format of Frommer's publications. Graphics make for easy, "glanceable" readability. The authors get right to the point about what is worthwhile, and what is over-rated. However, I could not give a higher rating to this book. My impression is that this is a new edition of guide material that was first developed some years ago. It needs to be freshened up more. For example, for Seville, the authors note that all train service is "now centralized into the Estación Santa Justa." As I discovered from my own research, this modern train station was completed in 1991. Yet, not one of the maps provided of Seville give any indication of the location of this 16-year-old major train station. The maps show two other train stations (Estacion de Cadiz and Estacion de Cordoba), and this makes me wonder whether the publisher was simply using a very outdated map of Seville. Information on hotels gives scant details about the availability of internet connections. In some cases, the listing indicates "dataport." Does that mean dial-up access? In the year 2007, most travelers who need internet access require some form of high-speed internet access. Overall, I would not say that this guide is quite up to the usual Frommer standards.

2 comments about Lodging in Spain's Monasteries.

1. The information in this reference book is very good. The text and photos are informative. The one missing link is a map or series of maps that would help the reader orient him/herself.
   
   I recommend it for adventurous travellers.



2. This is an exceptionally well presented resource on Spain's monastic lodging opportunities. I have been studying and trying to stay in monasteries in Spain for at least 10 years. This is the first resource that I believe will really help me find these preferred accommodations in Spain. I haven't used the book yet but I shall this summer. I am very optimistic.
   
   In addition the travel information about the area around the monastery is unusually good. It often gives more particular and much more interesting information than other regular guidebooks. I know several of the areas discussed well and I find that the information given is much of what I want to know. It has a different perspective that will enrich any journey.

No comments about Barcelona, Shops & More.