Customer Reviews

Finland: The Essential Guide to Customs & Etiquette (Culture Smart!)

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

 

 

The Culture Smart! series offers the traveler a manual for being less of a boor, and this volume is no exception. It is good humored and clear, with lots of useful information.

For the armchair traveler, it offers an opportunity to go deeper than the hotel and place descriptions in the usual guidebook; think of it as a guide to the (fascinating) psyche of Finland.

I'd like to have had a section on how to pronounce Finnish words and a few polite phrases, but yes, I can get a phrase book for that.

This little book is a must have before you go to Finland! The book covers everything you need to know, including places to go, things to see, and important historical facts! I love this book, it is an easy read and is so interesting, you don't want to put it down! I highly recommend this wonderful little book.

small but packed with fun and interesting information!

i take this to work to read on breaks because it's very portable. definitely could keep handy in a foreign country.

(Review based on the Kindle sample - i.e. the start of the book)

Right at the start of this book and even before Chapter One there are two major blunders.

1. Finland is supposedly warmed in the winter by the Gulf Stream coming from the Atlantic.

That's Norway. Norway has an Atlantic coast and thus is affected by the Gulf Stream. Since the Second World War all of Northern Finland is away from the sea.

2. "The phone code for Finland is 00 358 with (then) 0 for Helsinki".

No it's not. The 00 might be right from the US and 358 certainly is the International code for Finland but then to get Helsinki you need to dial 9.

(This (9) is not something new)

Such simple blunders don't give me any confidence in the quality of the information in the rest of the book (and the descriptions of Finland early on in the part of the book covered by the Kindle sample were all extremely basic and not worth having).