5 comments about Rick Steves' Europe DVD: Ireland.

1. You have to hand it to Rick Steeves: he carved out a niche in the travel business by focusing on average travelers, and trying to make their journeys better than average with useful information. I agree with his overall philosophy that spending more money doesn't necessarily enhance one's experience. However, he often lapses into a disconcerting lecture -- never quite a rant -- about how Americans should be quiet, humble, considerate, etc. when they venture abroad. I for one could do without his preachy style. If I am considering a trip to Ireland, and have come as far as Steeves' guide for information, it stands to reason that I'm no yahoo who expects a "Top o' the mornin'" from Irish people, or a McDonalds in every town. There are some of us who are educated and curious travelers, just as there are boobs from Over There. But then, Steeves isn't writing a book to lecture European dolts, is he?
   
   Aside from the overdone bits about how rude Americans are, Steeves curiously leaves out some wonderful sights in Ireland from his guidebook. I loved Bantry House, on the Beara Peninsula, but there's no mention of it. Likewise, he neglects the must-see island of Ilnacullen in Glengarriff, with its Italianate villa and gardens. He also missed niceties like the Avoca handweavers (great tea and scones on the go, upscale wearables, etc).
   
   Some of his estimates for how many days to give each town were off. Kinsale rated two days. Though it's a small town, the harbor, fortress, wine shops and surrounding activities alone were worth a bit more time. I don't know anything about his B&B recommendations, other than the fact that his choices were 10-15 euros more expensive than my picks in the same regions, with not much lost in hospitality or cuisine. I realize you can't cover it all, but with the Internet being such a great source of info, it's hard to rely on just one book for accommodations. Experience is wisdom.



2. Rick Steves really takes you on the best trips around Europe. His descriptions are spot on and his maps are easy to follow. I would never use any other tour book when traveling.



3. Once again Rick has made what could have been a dry guide book interesting, fun, and full of information that travelers really want to know. It takes talent to write a book such as his, fun to read for the sake of reading.
   
   I highly recommend Rick's series of Travel Guides. Buy them and enjoy even if you aren't trotting the globe.



4. I just traveled to Ireland without leaving my chair - that's how I felt after reading this book front to back. I bought this book to learn more about Ireland, from a traveler's perspective. Rick Steves provides a good mix of history and detailed information suitable for travel planning and entertaining enough for the armchair traveler. I enjoy Rick Steves' programs and I plan to purchase more of his books.



5. We bought Fodor's Ireland, and brought along the Rick Steve's guidebook as well. We found everything we wanted in Fodor's. In ten days we were helped exactly one time by the Rick Steve's. We thought we'd try it, as it came recommended by a friend, and bundled together on the Amazon page we thought it would make a good companion with our new Fodor's...no. I'll not use this guidebook again. We had everything we needed in the Fodor's. We both thought this was a waste of money, when we were looking for an invaluable resource for our car trip.

No comments about America's Greatest Monuments: Washington D.C..

1 comments about Alexandra's Travelogues: Oaxaca.

1. Really loved this video. She is a local so she really takes to viewer off the beaten track. I would have liked more interactions with artisans, and more coverage of Oaxaca's food, but in and out the best travel video I've seen.

No comments about Nature Parks SERENGETI & NGORONGORO Tanzania.

2 comments about Scotland: A Musical Journey.

1. This DVD is like a jewelry box with a drawer containing jumbles of brightly colored beads, gewgaws, and semi-precious stones. Except it is like a box with two drawers: one with travelogue-ish pictures, the other with unrelated music. There are too-color-saturated moving pictures of scenes from the Scottish countryside, islands, mountains, cities. There are bits and pieces of fairly familiar classical music accompanying them. There is no voice-over narration, no narrative thread, no indication when one, say, leaves the Isle of Skye and begins flying over Staffa, no clue about one's whereabouts except in a very vague sense lent by the sketchy titles to each 'chapter', e.g. 'Flight over Scotland and its Islands to Edinburgh', 'Eilean Donan Castle, Isle of Mull, Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness.' Nothing is specifically identified. Presumably one is simply to respond to beauty or grandeur or quaintness of each scene.
   
   The end result is that this 'Musical Journey' is a hodgepodge and although superficially pleasant to look at or listen to, it makes little sense. I can imagine that someone who has traveled in Scotland can identify many of the sights and remember their own experiences of, say, Blair Castle or Calton Hill. But otherwise it is no more a keepsake than a t-shirt or tartan tie gotten at a Princes Street boutique.
   
   The musical excerpts (but not who is playing them) are identified in the accompanying booklet, and are remarkable for their unrelatedness to the scenes they accompany. Why does the G.R.S. variation (No. 11) from Elgar's 'Enigma Variations' accompany pictures of a Scottish weaving mill except for a connection between its quick tempo and that of sheep running in a field or a loom's shuttle? Why does Handel's 'For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth' from 'Messiah' accompany scenes of Loch Rannoch? Why does an excerpt from Lucia di Lammermoor's Mad Scene underscore scenes of Eilean Donan and Loch Ness, and why does the excerpt end abruptly on an unresolved chord?
   
   This DVD seems to have been patched together visually and musically from other DVDs (or, more likely, VHS tapes) and this explains its budget price. I can imagine it playing quietly in a corner in an upscale doctor's waiting room or in the showroom of a travel agency. I have trouble imagining anyone voluntarily watching it more than once in their own home.
   
   But the pictures, confusing as they are, are nice.
   
   Scott Morrison



2. i bought this despite the other negative review. i'm so glad i did. we went to scotland last year, and viewing this was like getting to revisit our whole trip. i got to see things from all sorts of angles we didn't get to see before. we never got to tour fingal's cave so it was great to get to see it just as though we were there. the skies and clouds and mountain and loch vistas were all breathtakingly beautiful. there was the pristine white lismore lighthouse; the multi-colored buildings lining the water at tobermory; a sailboat in oban harbor; the lovely white and gilt interior of inverary castle...we will watch this over and over.

No comments about Lonely Planet Six Degrees Series 3: Bangkok.

No comments about In Search of Tuscany With John Guerrasio.

No comments about Living Landscapes HD Rocky Mountains [HD DVD].

4 comments about Globe Trekker: Rome.

1. This is a sort of an Hip-Hop styled guide to Rome. The host Estelle Bingham is a nice young girl, she is flirting with the guys, showing off her nice body and dressing up in nun clothes. This is nice and cute. The problem is you don't see much Rome. The scenes are changing so fast, the comments are so brief and the camera is typically focused on the girl. It all looks like an MTV video clip, hyper energized but not very informative.



2. In my view is a quite typical travel guide for the eurotrash tourist, pulls all the stops for parties, multicutural experiences, BIASED view of the city and of the Italians (mafia...), politically correct blabber, and little or no geology, science, history of the city. EUROTRASH tourist guide for poor Europeans that think they are rich enough to pick others problems. Maybe the need to belong too???



3. In this DVD, the some major highlights of Rome are visited including the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, St. Peter's, an art museum, a church, and the Pantheon and the Forum. I was surprised at the beauty of the interior of the Santa Maria church in Trastavere.
   
   The sites are broken down by "days" of a sample trip itinerary, e.g. Day 1: The Forum, Day 2: Piazza Campiodoglio, etc. Unfortunately, on one of the days, the host of the show goes to show us Tuscany, a few hours away from Rome by train. In a travel guide about Rome, I would have preferred they showed some other Roman site rather than something outside the city.
   
   Another irritating part of the DVD was the host, a cheeky young woman with a British accent which was annoying at times and I had difficulty understanding a few words she said. While I wouldn't go so far as to call her Eurotrash, she was pushing the limits of taste when she dressed up in a nun's habit, walked outside and asked a passerby "How do I look?". She also starts one morning by taste-testing a bunch of coffee and spikes one cup with some booze. Real nice.
   
   This DVD has some nice clips of what Roman tourist sites look like, but if you're over 35, you might not like the host that much.



4. In this episode from the Travel Channel's TV series, "Globe Trekker", our charming host Estelle Bingham guides us to all the top tourist attractions in Rome: the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Trastevere, the Piazza Campidoglio, etc. That's all well and good, but unlike Travel Channel's other longrunning series "Great Hotels" and "Passport with Samantha Brown", this show provides us with no information whatsoever on where to stay while we're in Rome. No recommendations on the best hotels, the best restaurants. Scarce travel information on getting around "town". We're not even told when Rome's peak and low tourist seasons are.
   
   That being said, this is a decent introduction to the historic sites of Rome, but if you're actually planning a trip to Rome someday, you'll need a lot more than this to go by.

2 comments about The Queen Mary, Her 70 Year Reign.

1. This DVD is a must for those of us who love The RMS Queen Mary or those who are interested in ocean liner history. This is by-far the best documentary I've seen on the stunning "Mary". I highly recommend!



2. Although there was some archival footage to satisfy the nostalgia buff, there was also a large amount of footage given over to "talking heads" which is a disappointment for anyone seeking a historical recap of the Queen Mary's rich and storied history.
   Overall, this is a fair account of the fabled liner without the visual impact that could have been presented.