Marsh

We have toured France before and this next trip plan to mainly stay in Paris and Loire Valley. We will also plan to see Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands and visit Belgium. Any suggestions for the best guidebooks for these places? Thanks!

spaarne

Michelin Green has these places covered better than any. The Michelin Chateaux of the Loire is definitive. On another thread I posted a link to my photo log for Keukenhof, http://tinyurl.com/y8hltjl.

news2notice

Thank you for the beautiful scenes of the Keukenhof. Are we allowed to share the link with friends who probably will never see beautiful Holland? We will again be going there in June,
again too late for the tulips. Have you seen the Kröller-Müller museum in the huge natural area near Arnhem, where Rick Steves shows the white bikes? It is 17€ to get in, but has more Van Gogh's than Amsterdam.

hetismij

Kröller Muller is a well known museum - it is well worth a visit.

The national park is worth a bike ride around too. Oh and it is €16 to get in including the park and the Kröller Muller museum.

You can hire a GPS as the visitors centre for a GPS guided bike ride or walk. The white bikes are free, and can't be locked - which may mean the bike you arrived on is missing when you leave the museum for instance. You can hire a blue bike, which can be locked, for €3.50 a day, or a tandem for €10.

More details about the museum and park here: http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/14

spaarne

<i>Are we allowed to share the link with friends who probably will never see beautiful Holland?</i>

You can share the link with the whole world. Unfortunately you won't be seeing tulip fields or Keukenhof in June.

Sorry, I haven't seen the Kröller Muller museum. I defer to hetismij, this forum's in-country expert.

outwest

We visited the Kroller Muller Museum on our Amsterdam trip about ten years ago. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip and worth the effort.

LSky

I loved the Kroller Mueller. Actually, The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has the largest collection but the KM has the 2nd largest. While the VG may have the largest collection the K-M is a better museum for showcasing the art. The architect made use of the natural light while the VG Museum, where the Van Gogh's are, is old and poorly lit.
Mrs. Mueller put together an excellent collection including Seurat, Picasso, Mondrian; the list goes on. Then there's the sculpture garden. The Kroller Mueller is well worth a day for any art lover.

If you go, get started early so you can enjoy the park as well as the museum. Spend the day and enjoy the whole park. We had lunch at the museum and it was very good basic but good. You could also bring a lunch to eat in the park or garden.

I'm glad to see the magnificent museum mentioned.

twiggers

Loved the Kroller-Mueller as well!!

As for guidebooks...I found Rick Steves' books to be more than adequate and my preferred choice.

spaarne

Rick Steves is irresponsibly negligent on many things. I wouldn't trust him on anything except to get his name spelled right, and splash it on everything in sight.

LSky

That reminds me, I didn't answer the question.

I go to the library and use all the guidebooks I can find, use the search button here on fodors and make use of google.

librarychica85

I completely agree with spaarne. I picked up his guidebook to Bruges and Brussels last year for our trip to Belgium in the fall and was quite disappointed with his dismissal of Brussels-a couple of hours is more than enough time to take in such a gem of a city, it can be seen as a stop-over? My husband and I both adored Brussels. I was quite satisfied with Fodors' Beligum guidebook although they do need to publish a new edition soon.

traveltalesfromtheredheadedtraveler.blogspot.com/
(My travel writing blog!)

twiggers

I guess I'm more like Rick then....I didn't care for Brussels at all and found myself bored after a few hours.

I've been more than happy with his books and his TV show. I don't really use guidebooks for things like food & lodging. I use it for walking tours, tourist sight info, etc.

That said, I do use multiple books for actual research before leaving and then use my Nook to download my book of choice to bring with me.

ggreen

Definitely the Michelin Green for the Chateaux of the Loire. For offbeat Paris, we really liked Avant Guide Paris - however, my copy is now outdated and I'm not sure if there's a more recent version.

Also, don't take this as brown-nosing(!), but I've found the Fodor's Gold Guides to be pretty good. For any of them, you can see the hotels and restaurants content for free online under Destinations (above).

denmal

I really like the Access books - Like Access Paris...

Aduchamp1

For restaurants and the hipper Paris-Time Out Paris

For sights-Michelin Green

Good for nothing-Ricky

glenmd

I am currently planning a trip to Paris using Michelin's and Fodor's. Both are pretty useful, the Michelin guide does have one annoying flaw though. The index is very challenging to use.
For example, let's say you want to find the entry for Musee Rodin. You look under "R" for Rodin. Nope, not there. How about "M" for Musee. No, not there either. So, you go back to the table of contents and notice that there is a section of Les Invalides, which from looking at a map you know is basically across the street from Musee Rodin. But, alas no, it's not there either. Initially when I did this, I came to the conclusion that people at Michelin didn't think it warranted inclusion in their guide and moved on. Eventually I stumbled across it in the section on Faubourg St.Germain.
As someone who have only spent 10 hours in my life in Paris, how could I possibly be expected to know this is where I should look?

The above is not an isolated example. Lots of museums are listed in the index as sub-entries under an area of the city.

Still, thanks to fact it is much lighter and more compact than the Fodor's guide, it is the one I will take with me.