Avant Guide Prague (Avant-Guide Books) [Paperback]

Dan Levine (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Refuse to be a tourist!" commands the back cover of Avant-Guide Prague. This guide challenges the reader-traveler to buck convention in more ways than one. Created for an audience weaned on MTV and used to lots of in-your-face information, the book is laid out like a music video in print--its pages filled with artsy photographs set askew amid a mix of type styles and sizes.

But once you tackle this optical onslaught, the content is useful and quite thorough for a pocket-sized guide. The authors spread the jargon and humor on lavishly, as this lowdown on the lingo illustrates: "Czech is one of the most difficult languages we have come across, just a hair milder than Mandarin Chinese.... Even people who have studied the language for years still find it tough to collar the jive."

The "Bohemian Rhapsodizing" and "Historical Crash Course" chapters include interviews with a political agitator who admits to planting drugs in the police chief's office, and with a thirtysomething parliamentarian about the fall of socialism, as well as excerpts from Václav Havel's first New Year's address to the nation. Other chapters explain how to navigate the city; provide overviews of the top sights; describe walking tours; and cover fitness and sports, shopping, eating, sleeping, and alternatives to sleeping. The maps are readable and, yes, free of visual clutter. --Kathryn True

From Library Journal

Aimed at the cosmopolitan independent traveler, this emphasizes nightlife, eating, and shopping, making recommendations in a variety of price ranges. Content comes close to getting lost among intriguing, often surreal photographs and modern, highly stylized page design.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Empire Press (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891603000
• ISBN-13: 978-1891603006
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,076,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the cool side of prague, March 6, 2001

By 

carrie mitchell (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Avant Guide Prague (Avant-Guide Books) (Paperback)

This book is fabulous. As a 'single' traveler, I especially enjoyed the section on restaurants to feel comfortable in alone! I used this book to find interesting sights, great restaurants (not the tourist traps), and the best nightlife in the city. I was also impressed with the explanation of the hotels.

I arrived in prague without a hotel reservation, and I looked at several of the hotels on the list, looking for a room. I found Avant Guide to be right on the money regarding price, atmosphere, and room quality.

I would recommend this book to anyone who prefers not to follow the stream of tourists from one trap to another. Bravo!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The next generation of travel books, March 17, 1999

By 

Michael A. Weintraub ([e-mail]) (Rockville, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Avant Guide Prague (Avant-Guide Books) (Paperback)

I spent ten days in Prague in May 1998 doing research for a novel I was writing and found this book to be the perfect companion to a more general travel guide to the city (specifically, Lonely Planet's -- also recommended highly). I needed to see and learn a lot about both the more popular tourist parts of town, as well as the not-in-Frommer's-guide parts. Avant Guide served me well.

I'm awaiting the London edition anxiously.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Walking tours are great..., December 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Avant Guide Prague (Avant-Guide Books) (Paperback)

Get this book if only for the walking tours. The tours are humorous and fun, the directions and anecdotal info are great. Totally unlike walking tours in other guide books, which I generally find full of facts lifted from dusty encyclopedias. Besides the tours, I found the restaurant recommends right on target. And then there are the graphics, which, although a little too hip at times, are a welcome change from other colorless guidebooks. My only criticism is not with the book, but the website which purports to update the book. I checked out the website before I visited Prague and it didn't say that the ex-pat cafe on the outskirts of town had shut down. I ended up making my way there hoping to meet other Americans only to find that it was closed -- and looked like it had been closed for a while.