JulieVikmanis

I just discovered a new "guidebook" series. They are published by Knopf and called Knopf Mapquides. They are only $8.95 per book and about 4 x 6" big. Aside from one about Provence and the Cote d'Azur the other 25 available in the series are all devoted to a single town each--Amsterdam, Budapest, Munich, Vienna, etc. Each has between 6 and 8 fold out maps (opening to 4 times the 4x6" page size) of typical areas of the city showing in big readable print the primary tourist sights in the area with most street names also clearly visible. For the selected sights, the page also contains a small picture of each and a description complete with address, phone number and opening times. The maps also contain clearly marked non-featured sights. In using the Paris book I was amazed to find that the scale of the map is actually smaller than the 1/10,000 used by Michelin in their Paris 55 map because the maps in the book seem so much clearer and easier to use to map out a sightseeing path. If you're planning to build an itinerary through any of the cites covered by this series I recommend you check them out. I've been delighted with how easy I've found plotting a route for a friend who's going to Paris for the first time. Beginning and end pages have fold outs to provide practical info about hotels, transportation, etc. and each of the area pages provide some suggestions for restaurants, cafes and shopping, etc. within the area. Super easy to carry with a lot of info packed inside. I think these may have replaced those silver city guides Knopf used to publish for various cities that had the impossible-to-read silver colored maps.

melissa19

thanks, julie!

i'm always looking for a reason to buy a new guidebook . . .

elaine

I'm already a fan of the Paris Mapguide, which is from a different series, and find it very useful. But for 8.95 I may check this one out too--I too am a guidebook junkie.

elaine

Amazon doesn't have it which is surprising

elberko

Amazon does have it. It's on my wishlist:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/
obidos/tg/detail/-/0375709533/ref=wl_it_
dp/102-3917132-5356109?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I29S7EZ
4F5YA3M&v=glance&colid=BPSZWIQGTKBP

elberko

For some reason it's hard to get to it on a regular search. This link might work better than the above:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...ce&s=books

elaine

thanks, I'd searched on an incorrect title

the exact name is
Paris (CityMap) Guide

JulieVikmanis

I can't do very well with the amazon site. To be sure you're checking on the same series of guides that I'm talking about go to www.randomhouse.com/knopf/travel/guides.html that brings up a page entitled the Borzoi Reader. Scan down to the bottom right and click on any of the entries under the heading "city map guides--new." These little guides are easy to spot because the titles are always printed in white on bright orange. Definitely worth looking for.

nonnafelice

When I tried the link that Julie posted, it came back as expired. However, I did find the series by searching on Knopf Mapguide on the Random House web site.

When I looked on Amazon, it appears that most of the Knopf guides they have there are from an older series. Just wanted to alert anyone who might be looking for these, that the date on the Paris and Rome Mapguides (for example) on the Random House site is March 2004, but the Amazon site shows only titles called Paris (or Rome) Citymap Guide. These are dated 2001. So it appears that Amazon is not yet listing the newest version of these books.

nonnafelice

P.S. Barnes and Noble does have the 2004 versions of the Mapguide books.