TuscanTweety....I too feel your pain about some of the harsh replies you've gotten on here as I've felt the same the few times I've posted questions. Try going to Frommers.com....everyone there is very helpful and doesn't chastise you even if you ask a stupid question.

I would like to make a comment on the breakfast issue, like some of you know I travel for a living and I always stay at hotels that have a concierge lounge.

In the mornings I will get my breakfast there and the attendants often ask me if i would like a to go box so i can take my breakfast or snack with me. I see nothing wrong with that. Is that bad?

If you want to get food from the breakfast buffet to take with you, the proper thing to do, of course, is ask the breakfast staff if that will be okay to do so. At some hostels in Scandinavia I recall they had a policy that you could pay an extra lunch fee if you wanted to do that.

In old versions of Rick Steves books, he recommended eating off of leftover cafeteria trays to save money. That recommendation is now gone, I believe, thankfully!

I do have quibbles with various things, but there's no doubt he's encouraged many people to travel with much less fear and trepidation, and likely at a cheaper rate than they would otherwise. (I don't think his listed hotels are always the best deals, by far, but many seem to be very popular.)

mom2mali- People may be nice on Frommers but there are way fewer active posters. A question that would get dozens of replies here quickly, could set over there for days with few or no replies.

TuscanTweety- I think part of why Rick Steves draws attention is that he is a visible individual and singular strong personality. If someone wanted to talk about Fodor's or Frommer's or Lonely Planet or Let's Go, there isn't one person or point of view to be found.

mom2mali, if we're talking about friendly and helpful, it might be nice to reveiew your own posts. It would be nice to revisit your own posts as people sometimes ask you specific questions which you don't go back and answer -- they probably consider you rude for not answering them. And for that matter when you ask for advice and a lot is given, do you go back and thank them for it or report back if it worked or not?

Let's not get too worked up over responses to TuscanTweety. It's been made pretty clear that she should have known and suspected the type of responses since as she says she already reviewed a number of similar posts. If so, why did she post the same question again, knowing it would provoke similar responses?

I use the DK books instead of Rick Steves mostly because I tend to travel in groups that have worked thru a travel agent and already have all the hotels and train travel prepurchased and paid for. So, I just need to know what to see. I'm not into the food scene at all...I don't eat at McDonalds (ok, sometimes I'll go in to get a diet coke with lots of ice), but usually stop in some small place whenever the hunger strikes me. So, I guess I'm saying pick your books by what you need to get from them. One thing I don't care for in Rick's books/show (and this seems to be the complete opposite of what everyone else is saying) is that I tend to go to 5 cities in 10 days and have about a day and a half to see the top sights (hence the DK books). I think Rick says stuff like (and I'm not quoting here) "Don't bother with the Eiffel Tower in Paris cause it's just a tourist thing". This is an overstatement and just an example, but I am a tourist, this is usually my first time in any of these cities, I want to see the things I've heard about and read about for years. Now, next summer I'm taking my 4th trip to Europe and my mom is taking her first ever trip. She's excited about stuff like Big Ben... and I want to say "it's just a clock, you look at it for two seconds and then you move on". But think about it... if you ask a lot of people who have never been to London what they want to see... I bet you would get "Big Ben" out of most of them. So, to the original poster...go to the bookstore and look at all of the guide books and find out what works for you.

I have to answer this remark...
mom3mail..of your 17 posts on Fodors, every one of them was answered politely and helpfully, except for one by one person who was rude.
You did not answer back on most of them, thanking people for answering or to the one person who asked you a question regarding your trip.
So it works both ways here, it is nice when people ask a question to come back and thank the posters who spent time answering, or to post a report to let them know you took their advice and reports also help everyone plan their trips..
TuscanTweety posted an old question that always gets this sort of response, and I find most of the responses polite ..

And she clearly said she knew the kind of responses this question had drawn in the past. That's why I have a problem understanding her surprise at this thread, which has been tame and reasonably polite imo.

Suze, I agree...I keep waiting for the flamethrowers to show up and lambaste RS. LOL

Oh well, maybe the heat has all the normally reliable New Yorkers in a state of shock and unable to utter anything, much less a polysyllabic diatribe against Rick.

;)