Please recommend good Czech travel planning books
 

Hi, we will be visiting Czech this fall. We use the Internet and all kinds of books from the library for planning but we would like to BUY one up-to-date guide book to use. We like to travel cheap, we enjoy books like Rick Steve's that are opinionated but give good descriptions. Any recommendations on which one is worth buying and why?

I'm sure I didn't view them all, but I found Frommer's to be the best for CR, although I mainly concentrated on Prague. However, unlike some other guidebooks, Frommer's Prague book has a good selection of daytrips and descriptions of other parts of the country. (actually, it may have been something like Prague and the Best of the Czech Republic or something like that). When I had it in Prague on a bus day trip, several other people asked to borrow it because they found it so useful, and I think it is a little more personal and down-to-earth in its descriptions than some. I don't care for the Eyewitness Prague book, it seemed very limited to me. I also have the Blue Guide to CR and Slovakia as a supplement but found it a little dense and not quite as useful or interesting for the avg. tourist. Frommer's has a good selection of recommendations in hotels, restaurants and shopping in low to moderate price ranges (I think Eyewitness is very bad on those items, if you don't need it for any of those things, it might be okay for sightseeing but doesn't have much, if anything, outside Prague as I recall). You'd have to check to see if Frommer's has a broader CR book or if that one fits your itinerary.

I really love my "Insight Guide to Prague" published by the Discovery Channel. The pictures are absolutely beautiful, and the chapters are divided very well, and the information is very good. I especially like the historical information. I bought both the Frommer's Guide and the Insight Guide for Prague, and barely used the Frommer's Guide.

the best book you can read before you travel to get a feeling for atmosphere and history ist:<BR>PRAGUE, MY LOVE<BR>written by hilary a. kames and jiri.p.musil<BR>it's an unusual guide book to the hidden corners of prague.....<BR><BR><BR>try to order that somewhere !!!!<BR><BR>lot of fun there !!

sorry - the name of author is:<BR><BR>hilary a. JAMES

Avant Guide to Prague is good, just a bit hard to read since it's printed in black and white and red with periodic reverses.

If you want a guide for Prague itself, try to track down the Cadogan Guide - the new edition just came out in May. I've also used Time Out Prague, which is interesting reading and contains a lot of quirky information you won't easily find elsewhere, and contains some decent information about trips outside of Prague. Time Out is normally very good, though weighted a bit heavily toward nightlife/bars/pop culture, but unfortunately the Prague book hasn't been updated since 2000, and Prague has changed a great deal. The next edition is due out in August. You can also look at http://www.timeout.com/prague/index.htmlfor some good Prague information if you don't decide to buy the book.<BR><BR>If you're planning to travel extensively in the CR outside of Prague, you need more than a city guide, but I have yet to find a good, current one in English. The new Rough Guide to CR & Slovakia is due out in October, but that's probably too late for you (the current one's 2000). The Blue Guide, which is usually reliable if not exciting, is ancient. If you do choose a general Czech guidebook, I hope you'll post back with an update after you've used it.