Frommer's Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, Eighth Edition [Paperback]

George McDonald (Author)

Book Description

Series: Frommer's Complete Guides | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

A highly informative guide to a great trip in the Low Countries
o Leads travelers to the best of the Netherlands (almost 1 million North American visitors in 2001), Belgium (capital of the European Union and headquarters of NATO), and Luxembourg (which has more Michelin-starred restaurants per square mile than any other country)
o Delivers the scoop on top cultural attractions in Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, Luxembourg City, and other urban centers
o Reveals the best local experiences, from the forests and resorts of Belgium's Ardennes and the wine trail of Luxembourg to the windmills, tulip fields, and carnival celebrations of Holland
o Thoroughly updated to reflect the latest changes in hotels, dining, and attractions

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer. And avoid tourist traps. At Frommer’s, we use 150 outspoken travel experts around the world to help you make the right choices. Frommer’s. Your guide to a world of travel experience.

Choose the Only Guide That Gives You:

• Outspoken opinions on what’s worth your time and what’s not.
• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip no matter what your budget.
• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.
• The best hotels and restaurants in every price range, with candid reviews.

About the Author

George McDonald has lived and worked in both Amsterdam and Brussels, as deputy editor of the KLM in-flight magazine and as editor-in-chief of the Sabena in-flight magazine. Now a freelance journalist and travel writer, he has written extensively on both the Netherlands and Belgium for magazines and guidebooks. He’s the author of Frommer’s Amsterdam and Frommer’s Belgium, Holland & Luxembourg, and a coauthor of Frommer’s Europe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Frommers; 8 edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764524348
• ISBN-13: 978-0764524349
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,514,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Travel > Europe > Luxembourg

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Inaccurate, January 7, 2006

By 

hollygolightly (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, Eighth Edition (Paperback)

First, the good news: there is a guide to the low countries, known pre-EU as the Benelux (for Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Now the bad news: it's not a very good guide. I should have known from the inaccurate title--Holland (a subset of provinces) is part of the Netherlands (the country), so the names are not synonymous--but I found out the hard way instead.

I chose to bring this one on our recent trip because it meant I wouldn't have to carry more than one book. I almost threw it away mid-trip after discovering that much of the text was out-of-date, misleading, or wrong. I don't mean things like restaurants or museum opening times, because those change frequently, but things that suggest that the author didn't actually verify anything cultural that he wrote about.

For example, the author refers to the Hotel Royale in Luxembourg as "a leading hotel of the world." Not quite--it's a member of the Leading Hotel of the World, Inc. chain. He also says that Luxembourg City is extremely safe (why, it's the safest city in the world!) and that it's open all night. Actually, the bars close at 1 AM and according to several locals, there is tons of petty crime and the "safest city in the world" title was self-anointed. We found numerous examples of innacuracies in the writeups about the Netherlands and Belgium too.

On the other hand, the maps were decent and it did cover many of the smaller towns that we wanted to see, which is primarily why we kept the book.

My advice is to find separate guides for the Netherlands and Belgium/Luxembourg, and get some good maps from the tourism offices.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was able to take my trip on the budget I had set., August 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Frommer's Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, Eighth Edition (Paperback)

Leave it to Frommer's to put all the great cities and towns of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg in one handy book. This guide offered good maps and suggestions for "best of" experiences. There are separate maps for attractions, hotels and restaurants in each city, all listed by price range. This easy to carry guide came with me everywhere I went and properly lead me to all the best places.