Customer Reviews

Eyewitness Travel Guide to Vienna

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best travel guide about Viennna on the market. The Eye Witness Travel books are all excellent. About popular attractions in Vienna, you will find information about hours of when places are open, public transportation stops closest to the attraction, color illustrations, photos and maps of the attractions. There are restaurants and hotels references listed in the book, as well as how to use the public transportation system and the airport. There are also city and subway maps in the book. It will be the only guidebook you will need to take to Vienna.

I borrowed a copy of this guidebook to take on my first solo trip to Vienna. It quickly became my bible. It has several excellent maps; what makes them outstanding is that they show more than the usual places of interest, public transit stops and the like. The "Street-by-Street" maps actually show you how the buildings are positioned on a given block, how big they are, and even what they look like. Great for those who navigate by landmarks.

This book also gives a representative sampling of accomodations and restaurants. Other books are more comprehensive, but this one won't steer you wrong. The pension I stayed at was as described, except that it was actually slightly less expensive than I expected.

The dining section is outstanding! It not only includes a section describing the more common dishes and varieties of coffee, but gives photographs of the dishes

This is one guidebook whose Survival section deserves the name. It includes detailed instructions on everything from using the transit system to using payphones and automatic teller machines, with color photos to help you recognize them. It has photos of the various uniforms for police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel, the coins and banknotes, signs for the various modes of public transit... You could go to Vienna knowing no German but have little or no trouble getting around if you have this book.

I only have two very minor quibbles. The subway map was slightly inaccurate; however, I purchased a postcard of the subway system and tucked it into the back cover (with the subway map) and all was well. The language section is pretty minimal; if you aren't already familiar with German, you would still want a phrasebook.

I've used most of the guidebook series (Fodor's, Let's Go, et al.) over several trips; this is the single best guidebook I have ever used, bar none. Not only are the contents incredibly comprehensive and logically organized, but it's a fairly convenient size and the binding ensures it will be good for many trips to come.

The only flaw with this series and it's minor is that there is little information on hostels. However, all the other information in this series of travel guides is wonderful.

As everyone else said. It's all you need. I am planning a European trip this summer. I spent hours and hours in book stores looking for the perfect travel book. This is it. I got one for Prague, Budapest, and London as well. The fifth city I'm going to - Berlin- comes out in May and I'm so glad I'll have a set.

I simply went to the library and bought Let's Go Europe for hostel information. Now that I know where I am staying in each city- I will bring these guides with me.

They are perfect. They break the cities down area by area showing many great sites in each area...including things I haven't found elsewhere. For example, the "Figarohaus" in Vienna. Being a huge Mozart fan- I want to see all the Mozart sites I can. The "Figarohaus" is where Mozart lived for three years in Vienna and where he composed my absolute favorite opera, The Marriage of Figaro- hence the name.

It's little things like that that can make your trip great as opposed to average.

Get it and no other...except Let's Go Europe which provides the missing hostel info. When I get to Europe...Let's Go will not be with me- only these guides will.

I can't stress enough how valuable this book was on our family trip. The maps were detailed and easy to read. Vienna is filled with little alleys and cobblestone streets, it would've been easy to get lost, were it not for this book. Aside from the streetmaps, I referred to the subway map often.

The book also outlined a few self-guided walking tours, detailing history of landmarks and statues that you might otherwise miss if you were just walking by.

Most helpful were interior 3D maps of places like Schonbrunn, Hofsburg, and the Kunsthistoriches museum. At these venues, they often charge you for sketchy, uninformative maps in English. This book was really all we needed.

It's no wonder you see so many people with this guide, in all it's different language versions.

This is a surprisingly effective and well-organized guide, with some interesting maps and information. If you're planning on spending just a few days in Vienna, then this compact little book will be indispensible in locating the famous streets and tourist sights. The maps are more than adequate and the walking descriptions to each locale are precise and accurate. There is also corresponding material on how to use the public transportation in the city and which station to take for each particular site. There is a separate chapter on the churches of the city with a brief ranking system for the nosiest places, the friendliest, the cheapest food, etc.

If you're planning a lengthy sojourn in Vienna or if you already know the city well, then this book would not be as helpful. It is solely intended for the casual tourist and there is little, if any, information on the intriguing environs of the city. Many of the best sites are neglected because most tourists don't want to bother or simply don't have the time to stick around. Still, this is a thrifty guide you can stick in your pocket and consult when you need to find a restaurant, beer haunt or hotel. In short, if you're a first timer to Vienna, enjoy one of the greatest cities in Europe and be sure to tuck away Brook's guide,

I can only second everything the other reviewer said about this book. It is so easy to use and so thoroughly cross referenced that we simply could not put it away while we were in Vienna. We finally gave up and just carried it around for instant referral at all times. My wife had lived in Vienna for a year as a college student, but she was amazed at the wealth of interesting and important information that we gleaned from this book. Its format is extremely visual rather than verbal, which really works for me. We are going back to Vienna next year and we will have our copy of the Eyewitness book close at hand at all times.

This book is possibly one of the best guidebooks around as it takes a completly new way of presenting things. For the easily lost it provides good maps as well as detailed drawings of prominent buildings and descriptions of the internal and external architectural points and displays. The book is divided into sections, based on the districts used in Vienna. Apart from detailing the sights inside the Ringstrasse, it ventures to sights and museums in and around the city and gives detailed drawings for suggested walks. The details of the food and drinks around are also great, so now you can really tell what exactly to expect when ordering in a restaurant. The downsides I found to it are that the prices are provided in brackets, as in the Roughguide series. While this is a good way of hedging bets on price rises between updates, it's a bit hard for the person trying to travel cheaply. The section on accomodation also is limited to the more expensive ones, which means that if you're backpacking on a budget, you're best to buy a Lonely Planet guide as well (I'd suggest this anyway, they're updated more regularly and are pretty accurate for countries like Austria).

Eyewitness travel guides are invaluable when traveling to a city for the first time. Eyewitness VIENNA is no exception. I collect travel books and nothing compares to being able to visualize what your reading about. This book offers cultural and historical background along with all the all the pictures. It's virtually impossible to get lost in Vienna with this book. The maps throughout and the city map at the back are the best I've seen.

This is an excellent travel companion. Though several of the pictures/maps are cut off by the binding of the book. I recommend buying one before you travel to any country/city.

You will see copies of this book in the hands of many visitors in Vienna as I did.