No comments about The Do It Yourself Expatriate Guide to Living and Working in Europe.

No comments about BERLITZ VALENCIA (Berlitz Pocket Guides).

No comments about Valencia.

No comments about Spain. Jan Morris.

No comments about Cool Hotels: Spain (Cool Hotels).

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

2 comments about Barcelona Top 10 (Eyewitness Top Ten Travel Guides).

1. Having just returned from a trip to Barcelona, and having brought several pocket guides to the city, we found this little book fairly useful.
   
   First of all, the covers and pages are glossy so they don't stain easily, which was unique to this guide. Secondly, there are LOTS of small color photographs, which is nice, though they are necessarily small. The front and back covers fold out to maps of the city and the metro system, and a selected street index. The book is organized into "top ten" lists: attractions, Modernista buildings, squares, churches, museums, cafes, restairants and tapas bars, night-time spots, gay & lesbian hangouts, shopping areas, markets, city views, parks & beaches, walks and bike rides, activities, attractions for children, folk festivals, and performance venues. In the next section, top ten lists are given for each geographic section of the city, and the lists mix resteraunts, attractions, etc. The final section, called "Streetsmart", gives top ten helpful hints for: getting to barcelona, getting around the city, ways to explore, tours, information sources, security, health, banking, eating, shopping, budget travel and hotels. Each list is accompanied by a map or graphic and each item gets a few descriptive sentences and includes hours, prices and metro stop information. The book concludes with an incomplete index and some useful phrases.
   
   We found this guide pretty useful and compact, and would definitely use others in the series when travelling.



2. Recommended: This is good if you have less than a week to spend in Barcelona and need to figure out how to maximize your time. The first few sections group activities and sites by type, so it's easy to pick out what you'll like. Plus they're all labelled on numbered maps to make it easy to chart your route through the day. Small color pictures help give you an idea of what you'll see. The sturdy map at the front is pretty useful and not awkward to use. The book is skinny enough that it's easy to carry it during the day. My main criticisms: (1) Park Guell isn't in the main top 10 list section, but is listed in the top 10 parks. I think this underemphasis is a mistake, since some readers might miss out on it. (2) There's not much info on excursions outside the city if you have the time for that sort of thing. (3) There's limited info on restaurants and hotels, but that may not be an issue for some travellers.
   
   If you have a longer stay in Barcelona you might supplement this with a bigger book like Fodor's See It Barelona.

No comments about A Stranger in Spain.

No comments about Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Alumbrados.

No comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Zurich ("Wallpaper*" City Guides) (Wallpaper City Guides (Phaidon Press)).