Customer Reviews

Berlin (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

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

 

 

I hate the thought of writing a bad review for a DK Travel Guide - they are by far the best travel guides available. But I feel I have to warn everyone about this one. There's always at least one bad apple in the barrel, and I've found the 'bad apple'.

First up, the good things. The background, history and descriptions of all the buildings are typical DK - first class, and better than every other guide out there. You can get the background story to the city and its art and architecture before you arrive.

I took the 2008 edition away with me to Berlin in April 2008. You'd expect up-to-date information, wouldn't you? I agree that some things do change; opening times change, museum regulations change etc. BUT - so many things change in a single city, in such a short time since this updated version was written?

I ended up missing so many things due to this book's wrong opening times to so many museums. Here are just a few things that happened -

- It states that all museums are closed on Mondays, and I arrived on a Monday at 9:30am. So I took my time spending the day wandering around the city. At 4pm I had a look at the Pergamon Museum, and saw its open on Mondays. I found that there are many museums open on Mondays. I could have spent a large chunk of my first day in one of the museums.

- I missed the Picture Gallery at Sanssouci because this guide stated the wrong closing time, even though I had paid for entrance to it.

- I lost a lot of time, in the first 2 days there, getting lost on Berlin's train system because the plan at the back of the book is wrong in so many places. Lines aren't shown, wrong line numbers are shown, several lines now go further than shown in the guide. Use the maps on the ticket machines.

- I wasted 2 hours traveling to a combined bookshop/art gallery that is a massive department store at the stated address. After this, I stopped relying on the practical information giving about anything.

- I nearly missed the magnificent Gemaldegallerie (Picture Gallery) in former West Berlin because the guide stated that photography isn't allowed inside. (One of my criteria for visiting a museum is to take photos.) I went there to visit the gallery's bookshop, and discovered that photography IS allowed, just without flash - and I should hope so! Luckily I went to the gallery's shop first things in the morning.

As another reviewer has already said, the 'Four Great Days In Berlin' suggested intinaries on page 10 and 11 would be impossible to do. The writer of this small section obviously has never done their own itinary. How can anyone take a 1 hour train journey to Wannsee, then walk for an hour in the forest to an art gallery, then walk further on to a lake, then take a boat trip on the lake to an island, then walk around the island, then get back to the train station to take the train to Potsdam, to 'enjoy the lovely Park Sanssouci ...' All this in the morning before lunch! (I spent an entire day at Park Sanssouci.) If anyone follows their itinaries, they wouldn't see anything at all - their trip to Berlin would be a huge blur in their mind.

Clearly DK have just reprinted the first edition of this guide, dating from 2000, and are passing it off as a newly revised edition for 2008. There is no way that entire buildings can be changed and train lines extended in the space of a few months since this newly revised guide was 'revised'. (Not even the efficent Germans could manage that feat). I have no idea what errors are in the restaurant and hotel areas of this guide as I didn't use them.

I have always used DK Guides whenever I travel, and will continue to do so. They are the market-leaders in travel guides. But my experiences with this one will make me very cautious in future. I'll be double checking the practical information given in all their guides in future.

* Just treat this guide as a book written in 2000 - don't trust any opening times or other practical information.

This book is completely unhelpful for anyone spending time in Berlin. I've lived in Berlin in the past but wanted a new travel book to help me see all of the newer sights. Even for someone who already knows her way around the city, this book was confusing and useless. The maps are all oversimplified to the point that they won't help you find anything, and the descriptions about where things are will get you completely lost or cause you to waste a ton of time. For example, the book's recommended ways to spend particular days are absolutely impossible to do. As someone who knows Berlin, I noticed that their sample schedules told people to go to places that are sometimes more than an hour and a half apart by public transportation and then travel back along the same route to get to another sight or activity. I felt like this was a waste of money, and I should have gotten the Lonely Planet or Let's Go guilde.

The book was very useful. We have used these guides in several cities and they are always informative and well arranged. My only disappointment with this one was the map section. It lacked a good overall map. Once we got on the correct page it was OK but it was cumbersome to get there.

First of all, be warned that this book is a "2006" edition, which probably hasn't been updated since 2000 (see review by Marco). I got the book being aware of the issue, and treated it as a source of ideas of what to do and see around Berlin (it being my first time in the city). In this capacity, I enjoyed the book immensely. It gives great background on Berlin, and supplies plenty of ideas for what places to go to, and what to notice when there.

You just cannot rely on the listed opening hours to build your itineraries, so if you have a place you *must* visit, double-check its hours on the web (example: nowadays Potsdam palaces are open from 10am-6pm April to October, and 10am-5pm Nov to March). However I never felt being "confused" or "misled" by directions and descriptions of where everything was. Except you HAVE to get an up-to-date map of the train system (or check the ones at ticket machines, as other people mentioned).

Finally, (even though I'm being redundant) do not attempt the suggested itineraries on p10-11! The "culture" looks especially frustrating because it has you wandering back and forth three times between Unter Der Linden and Checkpoint Charlie Area for no good reason... Just sit down with a map, and in 5 minutes you'll have a better plan.

The pictures are wonderful, but the maps are inadequate and the information is inconsistent. This guide would benefit from the attention of a careful editor.

MAPS: one of the most likely places you'll end up is the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) - there's even an special detail map for that area (map pages 15 & 16) - but crucial street names are missing. You can find the street signs but not where you are on the map! So, now you're lost, even with a map.

INCONSISTENT INFORMATION: Is KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) the second biggest department store (page 11) or the largest one in Europe (p. 155)? And, out of curiosity, if the second, which one is first? The Oren Restaurant is mentioned on page 102 with a reference to page 238, where it does not appear. It should have been removed in both places, since it has been out of business for a few years. The Kadima Restaurant now occupies that space. Oren was vegetarian and kosher; Kadima is neither. The Borchardt Restaurant (page 236) is misspelled as Borchadt. On page 78 the Akademie der Künste has a reference to page 67 that should be to page 133. There must be many more such slips.

So, if you're relying on this book to guide you around Berlin, be prepared for some frustration.

I wish they made these for every city in the world. It has great walking travel guides, restaurant suggestions, historic information, and more. I bought one for Vienna, Austria and we loved them both!

I love this book. Even though I lived in Berlin for 5 months, this book introduced me to new things to see when I went back to visit. A book to inform you before your trip, and for you to treasure afterward! The pictures are amazing.

During my summer in Berlin, I carried three guidebooks: a Lonely planet guide to Berlin, a German restaurant guide I found in the city, and this Eyewitness book. Needless to say, this one was the one to which I referred the most. It separates Berlin into different regions, then points out cultural and historical highlights of each, accompanied by color photos and drawings.

The maps in the back were useful for getting around, though I have to mention that not all the restaurants recommended are given references on the maps included, which was a little bit of a hassle sometimes. The useful phrases in the back were also useful, particularly in decoding menus --- there's a special menu decoder to make the restaurant experience easier.

And my favorite perk from the book - the subway map in the very back. I didn't even know it was there until after a week in Berlin, and since I carried this book everywhere, it became a convenient treasure...very easily accessible, and completely indispensable.

Worked very well for my one week trip. The 3 day tour at the beginning was a good starter guide to a family trip, though this guide is by no means ideal for a younger traveler (teens to 30s) as it leaves out any night life venues. The guide is perfect for museums, historic information, etc. The book does a reasonable job laying out the city and explaining how to get from one site to the next; also, it does a good job of dividing up each section of Berlin and explaining what there is to see at each. The book is small enough to travel with and the subway/train system guide in the back is a must of course.

It's an astonished travel guide. Well printed book, excellent routes for walking, pictures full of color for informing what excactly are you going to see. As all the travel giudes of DK editions, this one is best choice for visiting a place, too.
The pictures, the historical events, the places descriptions, they all are also souvenoirs to reminds you, your pleasant travel to a place.