Customer Reviews

Australia (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The DK Eyewitness Travel book for Australia is a decent travel guide, which includes a lot of pictures to help the traveler see what the attraction is while doing their planning. This 2006 revised edition runs over 600 pages, and includes an introductory section as well as 8 sections on the various areas of Australia, including one for Sydney by itself. It also has a section for Travelers' needs, which include accommodations, restaurants, and shopping information, and a section titled "Survival Guide" which contains a lot of useful information for travelers.

While the pictures are quite striking, they do seem to come at a price of more information about each of the attractions as well as the general areas. For my trip, I found the section on Tasmania to be rather sparse. The section on Melbourne was significantly better, but even there it would have been nice to have more information. I also question the practice of grouping all the hotels and restaurants together in a single section for the entire country. It seems as if the traveler would be better served if information of that sort was included in each of the sections rather than all together. They do organize the items by region within those sections, but in a hurry one might not notice if they stray outside of their area.

This is a useful reference, but I think it works best as a supplemental reference along with other material. If one needs a single reference, you should look elsewhere.

As a result of spending a summer in Australia, I own numerous travel guides about the country, and this one is one of the best. If you, like me, need color pictures in your travel guides, then you won't want to miss out on this guide. The photography is extensive and wonderful. The book is divided into multiple sections, each covering a specific region of Australia. There is a brief overview of each region, and then the book lists multiple attractions in that region, with a brief description of each one. At least half of the attractions listed have photographs, and buildings such as museums and government buildings usually have photographs of the interior and the artwork inside. Each attraction also lists the telephone number, opening and closing hours, and the rail/bus/subway stop that you will need to use. At the beginning of the book, there is a brief history of Australia, and information on traveling around the country, money, food, etc. is at the end.

The book does list some hotels and restaurants, but does not really cater to the budget traveler (buy Let's Go for this). The book also does not have extensive maps, so don't count on finding those in here either. I always buy multiple guides when I travel, so this was not a problem for me, but I can see how it would be for some people. Even though the price is a bit more than some other guides, I would not miss out on buying this book, or any other Eyewitness Guides. I consider them an absolute necessity for travel, and one of the best series out there.

I was letdown after all the good reviews this book received.The layout is good, it is easy to read and there is a lot of useful information in the book. The letdown for me was that all the restaurants and bars listed are expensive so this isn't very helpful for the budget conscious. BUT this book is way better that the Rough Guides or Lonely Planet. However I will be ordering Frommers to take with me when I go to Australia...

I have been reading many books about Australia in General and Sydney in particular. This one is undoubtedly the best, with detailed photographs and sketches that make it easy to visualise the places. I do recommend that you buy a second guide to supplement this one - just to get another point of view. (or pick up the tourism depatrment guides at the airports)

This is a good looking book but disappointed us, somehow there wasn't a lot of useful information in it compared to other guide books! We sold it when we got back.

Two fine new travel guides use the popular 'Eyewitness' approach DK fostered in its children's books to provide adult travelers with clear, eye-catching and fun guides. AUSTRALIA packs in the color photos, maps and illustrations and not only covers the usual places to go and stay, but adds tips on local foods, cutaways and floor plans of all major sights, town listings of sights and beaches, timelines of festivals and special events, and more.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I bought a number of travel guides for our trip to Australia, and the one that I liked the best was the Eyewitness Guide. Iy was well written, and had good descriptions, and lots of pictures.

Eyewithess Travel Guides give the most complete overview of any travel book or other travel product - good organization; great pictures, maps and other graphics; interesting & concise text and descriptions about history, national foods and beverages, etc.; good suggestions for lodging and eating. They are excellet resource and reference books, but they are concise enough to give a relatively complete overview but short enough to quickly convey information, especially if you do not have a lot of free time.

I believe that carefully reading about a desination is important for planning any trip. The Eyewithess Travel Guides are the best way to obtain that overview and prioritize where you want to go. Australia is a large country and this book covers alot of territory. The Australia guide is enormous help to us with our planning.

I live in Australia and wanted a nice guide, and have always been drawn to the DK travel books with their lush photos, beautifully illustrated maps, building cut aways etc. In addition, this book was the 2006 version, latest update and later than many of its competitors.

As another reviewer has noted, all these photos and illustrations come at a price, which is lack of detail. In addition, I am not sure how rigorous the update process is. For example, the 2006 version does not cover the most significant new building in Brisbane, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), which cries out for inclusion in such a guide. This building was completed in 2006 and under construction for some years before.

Probably best as a supplementary guide or photo history of your travel.

This book has a great deal of good information for travel in Australia. Unfortunately, as is the case in most travel books. if the area you are interested in is one "less traveled" you may be disappointed in the scanty information supplied. In this case my chosen destination is the Northern Territories, particularly Darwin.

Once again my observation holds true. The descriptions are brief and limited. Not surprising. Not even my Aussie friends have traveled into the area. Wish buying a book would supply the info I seek. It really does require deeper research which on it's own can be fun.