Customer Reviews

Eyewitness Travel Planner: Spain

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I can honestly say that no other brand of travel guide will give you the feel of a country more than DK's Eyewitness series. Eyewitness Spain is a beautiful book that uses excellent pictures, maps, and illustrations more than words to bring across the FEEL of Spain.

When planning a trip to Spain, I would recommend this book along with the Rough Guide to Spain as an unbeatable duo. Whereas Rough Guide provides you with the nitty-gritty and exhaustive traveling advice, Eyewitness Spain will ensure that you will be anticipating your trip like none other.

The most aesthetically pleasing of all the Spanish Travel Guides, Eyewitness Spain is a beautiful book to read, whether it's employed on the plane there or on the coffee table at home.

This is the best travel guide I have ever used for any country. The photos are spectacular and comprehensive beyond any expectation. Clearly tabbed by region and covering towns and villages covered sparsely if at all by other guides, this guide also allows the reader to learn basics of history, architecture, art, food, wine, and adventure with cross-references to the tutorials as you tour the country.

An adventurous independent traveler should not be without this book! Armchair travelers will also find this the next best thing to being there. Viva Eyewitness!

This book is full of pretty pictures but is quite useless as a guide for independent travelers. It doesn't have any information on how to get from one place to another, the hours of operations of museums/buses/trains, or any price ranges. The maps are detailed in 2 block radius, but it's impossible to understand how to link the mini-maps to get a comprehensive picture.

Eyewitness Guides are beautiful, gorgeously illustrated books on glossy paper that are perfect for planning a trip but not so good for carrying along with you. But they don't need to be! I used the guide to Spain to plan my 5-city itinerary, including a stop in Ronda which I'd never heard of but ended up being one of the highlights of our travels. This guide gives you a general view of the sights to see, with many photos and maps. But especially in a country like Spain, the wise traveler makes his or her first stop the tourist office--there's one in every city and many towns. That's where you get your map, the info on walking tours, a schedule of museum openings and closings, etc.

I agree with the reviewer who says the hotel info is not good, and the author of this guide could probably eliminate it with no loss except excess weight. These days the internet is by far your best source. And as for restaurants, just wander!

I loved this guide, but no one source is going to have it all for the independent traveler--and in any guide, info on hotels and restaurants is usually out-of-date before it's printed. But use this guide to dream--it's great.

I spent countless hours in the bookstore preparing for my first trip to Europe (Italy). I bought books from several sources. I received an Eyewitness Travel Guide for Florence as a gift and I have been hooked since. Now they are the only book I buy for planning my itenerary. Recently I began planning a vacation to Spain. The book on Spain is formatted with the same pictorials, graphic, and short summaries that I have come to enjoy. The book covers all regions of Spain, each with a dedicated chapter. The introduction gives you a history of the country, weather,and background information on art, architecture, food, sports and seasonal activities. The chapters by region start with a map of key points of interests and are followed by descriptions of each site including hours, location, contact info, and accessibility. For major attractions 3-d views and points of interest are noted. The book contains photos of many attractions and floor plans or cutaway views of key architectural sights. The back of the book has a hotel and restaurant guide. In the past, I have found the maps to be good for location reference but not navigation. You will need to buy a map. The hotel information does not provide adequate descriptions or any photos, so you may want to purchase a companion book for accomodations reference.

These books are nice to look at, but offer very little in terms of actual touring and travel knowledge. The are fiendishly constructed, listing little blurbs about the towns and then in the back of the book they have an index of hotels and restaurants. This is not a very efficient way to go about looking for accommodations etc.

It seems that with these books they assume you will be renting a car. There is VERY LITTLE/NO INFO in terms of any information pertaining to bus or train travel. I think for a lot of people this would be very frustrating.

With that said, there are some nice drawings (map drawings questionable) and good photos.

I love the eyewitness travel guides, the beautiful pictures and history make them well worth the money. This one on Spain is beautiful and each page I read makes me more excited to start my trip. The only downside I would say is read it before you go, I think it is to heavy to take with me and it is not just a book you can thumb through to find something. Thank you very much.

This travel guide is superb. There are probably an average of four pictures on each page. Pictures showing the wildlife--butterflies, birds, mammals; foods--cheeses, wines, seafood, fruits, local specialties; architecture; beautifully drawn maps showing exactly where all the notable sights are located. There is a 20 page history of Spain at the beginning of the book. At the back of the book are the hotel, restaurant, and survival guides. In between are the wonderful descriptions of all the notable sights ordered by geographic region.

The one problem I see with the book is that after you look at it, it will be impossible to determine how to spend a limited amount of time among all the things to see. (Also the print is kind of small, 7 pt?. The index must be 5 pt.

Very Practical, though its bits of information..if you are planning in to visit a particular city, you should buy the book of that particular city. This book its like a run-through of Spain. But it has the most important guides and tips (Survival Guide). A really good value. It has really great pictures and drawings, great maps, a phrase book with translations and how to pronounce it. It has the maps of the metros in Barcelona and Madrid. It has a street finder, which is also very practical. Its a great book for "on your own trips", for it has the opening hours and its schedules.

I have used these guides for my travels in Ireland, London, Scotland, Rome, Florence, Venice, Switzerland, Germany and Amsterdam. These have to be some of the best guides ever.
One thing that I would like to see in these guides are the locations of hotels that are near train stations. Most budget travelers use the trains and need a hotel near stations.
I have plans to use this on my trip next year.

John Shearn