Which book would you buy?
 

I have read the maribels guide to Spain, and the super Paris thread. I want to buy a good refernce book for Paris and one for Barcelona/Spain.
Is there any one book which you absolutley felt was great. Or should I buy multiple for Paris and multiple for Barcelona/Spain.
Which one book would yo buy for each place.
Thanks

It kind of depends on your needs. We have the Michelin Green Guides for all of the places we visit. I find them the best for history, background, culture, in-depth discussion of the sights, etc. However, most of them are no help on restaurants and hotels, etc. We usually make hotel and restaurant choices from other sources and use the Green Guides for touring. I also like the Eyewitness Guides - they have great pictures.

I usually go to my local library, take home all the books on my particular destination, and then decide which one(s) I want to buy. I must admit though that now most of my information is in my own notebook I compile from internet sites. I too am partial to the DK series, but try to buy them used or via "auction" sites.

It kind of depends how long you'll be there. I wouldn't buy multiple books for a couple day stay, it's not worth the investment. It does depend what you mean by reference book, is that different than a guidebook?

For Spain, I thought Fodors was best from the ones I looked at, and I usually don't prefer them, I tend to prefer Frommers. I did not use them for Barcelona, though, so don't know specifically about coverage for that city. Frommers wasn't bad, though.

For Paris, it really depends how you want to use it. Michelin is fine for a reference guide to sights, but not overall (no shopping etc). Frommers is pretty good for Paris, and for cities themselves, I think Timeout is usually pretty good.

HI
there isn't one "one size fits all" guide book; if there were, there wouldn't be so many on the market.
Do as suggested and browse several from the library or at a bookstore. Look up a particular topic, such as the Louvre for Paris, or any topic that is of interest. Read about it in any of several guidebooks and see which approach is most interesting or helpful to you.

For Paris, I think Frommers and Fodors are very good general guides. Michelin Green if you like a lot of info on art, architecture, and history.

I have a long file on Paris; if you'd like to see it, email me at
[email protected]

I second TimeOut for a Paris guide if I could only have one. But you will probably want to get more than one guidebook. Rick Steves' coverage of Paris is too limited--it skips over whole sections of Paris, its restaurant recs are well, not the finest, and ditto for his maps. Eyewitness Guides feel incomplete in a different way, and as another Fodorite noted, they are too heavy to drag around all day and not as compact as TimeOut.
Hachette guides can be quite good, although I haven't looked at their Paris guide lately.