What's the best, after Fodors?
Feb 18th, 2003, 07:00 PM
#2
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I travel with Fodor's books but also enjoy Rick Steves' guidebooks and have very good luck. I tend to search the net endlessly and get a ton of info. Much of the fun of travel is getting the info. For maps, driving or outside large cities, I use the Michelin guides. For cities, the Streetwise Maps are terrific. For a month in Paris I also liked Access Paris and Steinbicker's France Day Trips. Don't know what Access covers re France. And, a friend used Frommer's in Italy and liked their suggestions for places to stay.
Feb 18th, 2003, 07:01 PM
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Maybe the internet. But there are at least three answers:<BR><BR>1. It depends on what you are looking for - - a Karen Brown guide is good in ways that an Eyewitness guide doesn't touch, and vice versa.<BR><BR>2. An hour browsing at Barnes and Noble or a big public library is priceless<BR><BR>3. Maybe you don't need a second guide as general as "France" at all. I really enjoyed our Rough Guide for Normandy/Brittany.<BR><BR>Obviously, Frommers and Rick Steves guides sell a lot of copies.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>
Feb 18th, 2003, 07:05 PM
#4
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The DK Eyewitness Guides are very well laid out, with pictures galore and lots of practical info. The Cadogan guides are good; much more in depth. Gault Millau for hotels and restaurants is very cleverly written. The Michelin Green Guides are old standbys too.
Feb 18th, 2003, 07:28 PM
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In my complete fanaticism about reading up on our trip to France in June, I have overbought on Amazon.com. But I love it. My latest is "Time Out" Paris. I heard about that company on this board. I am really enjoying it. I am not sure if it would be a good first and/or only guide book. I have read Rick Steves, Fodors, Eyewitness and maybe another. So maybe I had enough background to enjoy this one more. I especially like the little color blocks of the best, must see, top ten...
Feb 18th, 2003, 10:07 PM
#6
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As has been mentioned here ad nauseam, it's all a matter of taste.<BR><BR>To be boring, it's all been said- do a search.<BR><BR>Incidentally, the quality varies from place to place. I go to very few places without the Rough Guide, but the Brittany one (sorry to disagree) was a waste of typeface.
Feb 18th, 2003, 10:35 PM
#7
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Love this site, but prefer Lonely Planet guides but it depends what type of travel you are interested in.<BR>As someone else mentioned the DK Eyewitness books are just beautiful, and useful as they have so many photos you can actually see what it is you'll be going to see - if that makes sense. And they are also lovely to look back through and remember your journey afterwards.
Feb 19th, 2003, 03:45 AM
#8
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Thanks everyone...sorry if it was boring! I, too, love to buy travel guides, as well as research on the internet. I've been to Paris many many times and i still love reading about where to go, etc! Still don't know much about Toulouse though, but this site does not have alot of Toulouse lovers on it! We're going to visit our foreign exchange student who lives there... maybe I'll post something worthwhile when I return! Anyway, thanks for all the advice. I've never tried the Eyewitness books so it's off to Borders I go!
Feb 19th, 2003, 04:55 AM
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Hi<BR>this is just like asking what movies people like--of course it varies.<BR><BR>As Rex suggested, go browsing in a bookstore or library. Look up the same one or two topics in each of several books and see which style and content of information appeals to you.<BR><BR>I don't usually like Rick Steves's hotel and restaurant suggestions, they are a little too bare bones for me, but if you like a "Reader's Digest" approach to landmarks and museums (brief descriptions of the highlights) his books can be very helpful. At the other extreme, the Michelin Green guides, or another series, the Blue Guides, offer a LOT of detail on art, architecture and history, the latter even more so.<BR><BR>For hotels and restaurants I always consult Gustafson's "Great Sleeps in..." and "Great Eats in..." books, very reliable, just enough detail, both budget and middle-range places.I don't usually bring them on the trip, I write down or copy the info I want to bring with me.<BR><BR>I love the Eyewitness books for pre-trip planning and post-trip sighing, but I don't always like the way they are organized, and I find them too heavy to bring on the trip itself.<BR><BR>Frommers usually has more suggestions than Fodors when it comes to budget-minded hotels and restaurants, but Fodors's books are my standbys--I always bring one with me, plus the Michlein green or something else.<BR><BR>My own pet peeve on most travel books is about their indexes. Many, including Michelin, combine listings in the local language as well as in English, so you have to try looking up more than once. For example, in books about Italy, sometimes the listings for churches are under the church's name in English (St. whatever) and sometimes you have to look under "San" whatever and sometimes "church" and sometimes "chiesa". Drives me crazy.<BR><BR>
Feb 19th, 2003, 06:18 AM
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I don't really use Fodors guides. I buy a variety of guidebooks, and also get bits of info by skimming some of the guides that I do not buy and by taking old editions of other guidebooks out of the library. I usually get guides to the particular region that I'm visiting, rather than to an entire country. Generally, I make double-sided photocopies of the pages applicable to the places I will probably visit and pack these pages only, instead of the entire books, although I might carry one fairly light and compact book like a Michelin green guide. I like Michelin and find it the easiest of all to carry and to use quickly. I also often like Cadogan. Blue Guides are very good, maybe the best, but I use them only for particular sites, e.g., archeological sites. They are very heavy and do not have practical info. I enjoyed one of the DK Eyewitness guides and have also used Rough Guides and I think I have one Lonely Planet guide. If I had to limit myself, I think I'd buy a green Michelin and maybe a Cadogan. I don't like Rick Steves guides at all--much too superficial and personal.
Feb 20th, 2003, 04:03 AM
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No problem. I'm really enjoying this site but am relatively new so I'm really not sure what's been posted earlier than a few months ago. Well I did on the Belgium site last year and also got some wonderful info. Think I might become a regular here tho!<BR>By the way, I found a book yesterday to add to my growing collection of Travel Books! It's Alastar Sawdays Special Places to Stay (Paris Hotels). Even tho I'll only be in Paris 1 nite I bought it for my own reading pleasure!It's got glossy pictures and everything! It's a copywrited 2001 so a little older and it lists some of the prices in francs (tha majority in euros) but I have not figured out how to convert the now extinct franc into euros or USD. I quess if I take the exchange rate they used for the book, change it to Euros and then convert that to USD, it should get me close enough. Gotta go now and find my calculator!
Feb 20th, 2003, 09:01 AM
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Here is an easy-to-use currency converter:<BR>http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Feb 20th, 2003, 09:36 AM
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One series I haven't seen mentioned yet is the Insight guides. They have *much* more information than the flashy but insubstantial Eyewitness guides, and even more photos and better maps. They're for background reading before the trip, and really give you a good sense of the country and the culture you'll be experiencing. They have them, depending on the destination, by country, region, and city. They also publish thin little quickie guides to cities, but I'm talking about the trade paperbacks on glossy paper.<BR><BR>Since they are now co-published by the Discovery Channel, you can find some in Discovery Channel stores (in addition to bookstores).
Feb 21st, 2003, 01:31 PM
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In my view the best guide to France was The Hachette Guide to France. It's no longer available but if you ever see one in a used bookstore get it. The prices may be out of date but the maps, day trips and suggestions are still valid. Very good for off the tourist trail stuff.<BR><BR>I have lots of others but a great favorite is Eyewitness's France. It's too heavy to carry but it has a lot of regional information about cuisine, fauna, flora, architecture and more.<BR><BR>If you are interested in current travel articles about France visit the Sunday Readings postings on my Magic of Provence site at:<BR><BR>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/provence<BR><BR>John
