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Summary:
Every Dorling Kindersley Guide has been a great and interesting book... and delightful to have and use, even if you are not traveling to that location, but are only interested in learning more!The Guides are well organized in a logical and easy to follow manner. They are beautifully illustrated, well developed with accurate information (it is unusual for hotel and restaurant information to be that accurate), have enough history to help the reader understand the people and cultural background, and have a lot of useful travel information and useable maps in the appendixes.
But, the really great attraction to this book is several fold; it is:
............Very complete
............Easy to read
............Beautifully and artistically completed
............Good shopping, safety and other tips
............Gorgeous photographs too numerous to list.
Summary Negative:
The country books are too general to really satisfy all your needs in any given location. So, if your entire trip is spent in Malega, for example, you will also want to get the specific guide for that city (but, the Barcelona Section is fairly good)
Guide Specifics:
The guides are organized as follows:
How to use this guide
Introduction to Spain
............Putting Spain on the Map
............Portrait of Spain
............Spain Through the Year
............History of Spain
Northern Spain
............Introducing Northern Spain
............Galicia
............Asturias and Cantabria
............Basque CountryNorthern Spain
Barcelona
............Introducing Barcelona
............Old Town
............Eixample
............Montjuic
............Farther Afield
............Barcelona Street Finder Index
............Shopping and Entertainment in Barcelona
Spain by Region
............Eastern Spain
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Madrid
........................Introducing Madrid
........................Bourbon Madrid
........................Farther Afield
........................Madrid Street Finder
........................Shopping and Entertainment in Madrid
........................Madrid Province
............Central Spain
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Southern Spain
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Spain's Islands
........................Specific Cities / Towns
Travelers Needs
............Hotels
............Restaurants
Survival Information
............Practical Info.
........................Police, safety, buses, trains, etc.
............Travel Info.
........................Maps, tours, currency, etc.
............General Index
............Phrase Book
Discussion:
The book begins with "A Portrait of Spain", including a complete map, a review of Spain, it's history, and Spain's History (very interesting), and Spain thought the Year - including events, etc.,
Region with an "At a glance" overview, then has subsections of Cities / Towns, then specific locations, churches, historical monuments, bridges, galleries, etc.
The Barcelona section is excellent. However, is not necessarily worth the whole book (and its weight) if you are only traveling to Barcelona. Personally, I find Barcelona is one of the finest European cities. I would go there for any reason, anytime. And, many of our corporate clinets and their European attendees feel the same way. While in Barcelona, don't miss Sitges - it's a quaint and quiet little town Southwest of Barcelona ... just a 20 minute ride from the airport. (Actually, this ride from the airport is shorter than if you go to Barcelona in traffic!)
Architectural reviews include various views, and cutaways; given greater understanding and better perspective. They are all attractive, if not works of art - honestly.
The travelers' Info. offers good and valid info. on prices, currencies, customs, important words, etc. I used the reviews on resorts, hotel's restaurants and nightclubs, etc. and found they were useful and accurate, and helpful with my touring and site decisions
The books are so well thought out that it has multiple maps, with various lookup tables, and the book's flaps are designed to be used as bookmarks for map pages.
Negative:
The country-wide guides are by definition more general than the specific city guides. So, if you are only going to Barcelona, get the specific "Barcelona" guide (another great guide). If you decide to get the "Spain" guide for your 3, or 4 city tour of Spain, understand that this guide may be a little to general for all your local travel needs. But, of the "country" guides, this one is thorough.
Conclusion:
As the President, CEO of an International Meeting Planning Corporation we have many resources and techniques to learn about places we have meetings / groups at as well as the cities and sights. But, as a traveler, this book really is top notch and I would recommend it to anyone going on a personal trip, or wanting to learn about a city, or location.
Happy Travels!
A family member gave me the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Spain as a bon voyage gift, and it has proved an essential guide on what to see, do, and eat in Spain. As someone who will be spending a bit of time in northern Spain (four months), the Eyewitness Guide has proved invaluable on excursions to nearby cities (including Madrid). Since Spain is full of thousands of monuments, churches and cathedrals, bullrings (for those who, like me, oppose the inherent cruelty of bullfights and animal abuse in Spain, one can always appreciate the architecture of famous bullrings), museums, palaces, monasteries and other places of interest, the Eyewitness Guide gives you the best of the best, with brief synopses, maps and must-sees in museums, street maps, photos, historical backgrounds and more.I especially appreciated the features for each region, such as wildlife, wines, and regional food specialties. I plan to visit many different cities and regions while I am in Spain, and now I have ideas on what I want to spend my time on. There is also a handy survival guide including phoning in Spain, police, shopping suggestions, size charts for clothing and shoes and monetary conversions between Euros and pesetas.
I found this book most useful in conjunction with the "Let's Go: Spain, Portugal and Morocco" guide that was given to me by a friend before I left. My only grudge with the Eyewitness guide is its lack of lodging information--there are few hotels (and no hostels) listed, even though there are upwards of twenty in my town (Burgos). The "Let's Go" guide is more useful for (cheap) lodging information, and the hostel I stayed at in Madrid (Hostal Aguilar, Calle San Jeronimo 32, second floor) was an unbeatable bargain, as well as spotlessly clean with a private bath and centrally located. If I had used the Eyewitness guide I would have easily spent much more. Also, there are no maps for smaller cities, something which the "Let's Go" guide provides. But finding maps in Spanish towns is generally not difficult as there are tourism offices in nearly every town that provide maps free of charge.
Overall, the Eyewitness guide is well worth the price, and the colourful photos, excellent research and interesting side notes make exploring Spain a pleasure. Extremely useful for the traveller or for those who are working and living in Spain.
