Customer Reviews

Frommer's Europe by Rail (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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

 

 

Not a safe bet, this European rail guide offers a strange mix of up-to-date and completely out-of-date information. It also tries to do too much, providing page after page of hotel, restaurant and museum listings by city but only a page of two of specific rail tips by country. The guide pushes Eurailpasses, as is to be expected from a publication endorsed by Rail Europe, the main stateside pass vendor.

Points to watch out for...

The guide is too optimistic about reservations and supplements. As the various continental railways move toward inevitable privatization, more and more premium services are being introduced. Most of the trips that tourists are likely to take will require reservations and supplements, in addition to Eurailpasses.

The guide doesn't give point-to-point tickets a fair shake, listing full prices and only the most basic discounts. For example, SNCF's "Prem's" specials (advance purchase online tickets to French and international destinations) aren't mentioned. For many tourists, these specials would make point-to-point tickets cheaper than Eurailpasses.

The guide lists only expensive, tourist-class hotels. I didn't see a single listing below 100 Euros in Paris, for example. There are many excellent, if humble, hotels throughout Europe. Use the Web to get current hotel information.

My favorite example of out-of-date information in the guide has to do with the regional express train ("RER") from Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle aiport to Paris. The guide lists both first and second-class ticket prices, even though the first-class designation disappeared years ago.

I found this guide very useful in plotting out where I wanted to go, how to get there, and what to visit. It was also nice to know about the student discounts at various attractions. I didn't use it for the hotel recomendations, and I used a few of the restaurant ideas, which were usually excellent choices. I traveled all over Europe (12 countries) using this book, the maps provided, and my Eurail. It was helpful in figuring out the ferry options to get from Western Europe to Scandinavia as well. I definately recomend this book to anyone traveling to Europe, as I found it very easy to use as well as useful.

In trying to decide which book to get for traveling around Europe for a few months by rail, I looked through this book, Let's Go Europe 2008, Rick Steves Best of Europe 2008, and Europe by Eurail 2008. The latter of these was broken down into sections devoted to major cities, and day trips by train from those cities, which seemed too much like a trip organizer for me. Rick Steves didn't really include the practical point-to-point info I was looking for. Let's Go Europe was comprehensive, but the city maps just weren't that clear.

At the beginning of each chapter (one per country), there's a map of the whole country, then in each city's subsection is a map of the city center with the train station clearly marked. There's a paragraph on each city's train station information, followed by information elsewhere and how best to get around the city. This is important to me, as I wanted a book that'd help me get my bearings upon arriving in a city. Let's Go is similarly formatted, and I think Fodor's is too, but this was the only one with this format geared specifically toward rail travel that I came across. This book also includes a nice laminated tear-out rail map, but I bought a separate map with more detailed city-to-city schedule info, and am also supplementing with timetables from eurail.com.

Before buying this, I had read the review mentioning that there's some out-of-date train ticket info in this book, but I feel like that's a risk you run with any book. It's true, though, that this book alone won't give one a clear understanding of specific ticket options and prices. Europe by Eurail gave a better explanation of these; you may want to glance over it in a store, or just visit www.ricksteves.com/rail or wikitravel.org/en/Eurail.

A very well written guide for anyone traveling in Europe. The "Fast Fact" sections are very helpful for getting a feel for the different countries and places of interest. The maps are great, especially, if your knowledge of European geography is weak.
This book is fun and easy to read.

This is the second time we are backpacking through Europe - and I was thrilled to see that an updated edition had been published prior to our departure. This book is a perfect resource to accomodate anyone planning a trip to Europe - from the novice traveler to the experienced. It provides great information for travelers on any budget or no budget and any taste. We took this with us every where we went. The format is perfect and the information shared is informative and accurate. A must for the European rail traveler!!

This book is full of usefull tips and inspiration for travelling around Europe by train, but unfortunatelyit is also full of misinformation and outdated information and it's close connections with Rail Europe also shines through when comparison prices used are way higher than what I usually pay and I travel extensively on several of the European rail networks.
One example of outdated information was the recommendation of a transportation company, complete with phone number, truoble is, the company seized to operate 7(!) years ago. I found lots of other examples just checking out two of the countries listed in the guide.
It is great for inspiration, but ALWAYS check the details before you go! Tip: All the correct information can basicly be found using Google or sending an e-mail.

I ordered this book for my daughter. She has thoroughly enjoyed it. She hopes to travel to Europe during her college days. The book was ordered, delivered and received with no issues. I did not have to contact the seller.

I paid half of what I normally would pay for this book in our school book store. Didn't even notice that is was slightly used. Received it quickly.