Customer Reviews

Frommer's Madrid Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been traveling to Madrid for years on and off and know the city well. But I have struggled to find a decent guide that covers all the ground. Some, like Lonely Planet have good maps but are superficial on museums, culture and dreadful when it comes to restaurants. Others stress culture or eating out but are thin on practicalities.

This is the only book I have found which covered the ground. And it's down to the author who writes clearly and wittily, has good taste in food and hotels and is clearly a genuine authority on Spain rather than a person shipped in to do a quick job.

This book is very useful if you are planning to stay 1-5 days in the city. I have the same book for 6 more cities and they are all great. Very useful metro train maps, city maps and area maps. It incldes day trips to places outside the city.

If you are looking for a book to guide you through a few days in Madrid, look no further--this is it. This book will take you to major sites, off the beaten path, to tourist attractions, local hangouts and everything in between. Don't waste your money or break your shoulder carrying around an expensive and heavy guidebook.

I will be spending a few days in Madrid later this year and want to make the best use of limited available time. This compact book (which easily can fit in a pocket) has suggested itineraries for one, two, or three day visits along with sufficient information for individual planning. Should be a major help during my brief visit.

My daughter is studying abroad and I purchased her this book. She has already used it and Loves it..It had a detailed map and all the placesspelled out for you that you would want to see...She said it was fantastic...

I wanted a guidebook that would be small and light but still useful for the four days my husband and I spent in Madrid on our honeymoon. We didn't need anything exhaustive, just a quick reference guide. I was persuaded to take this guide rather than Lonely Planet's because it came with two maps: the pull out quick reference and the bigger "detailed" map in the back pocket. For the most part, we were satisfied with the guide and its suggestions/information.

My major complaint, however, is with the maps. The pull-out reference map in the front is great but the larger map is useless. It has little to no more detail and information than the pull out map, and was incredibly inadequate when we found ourselves on a street corner asking, "Ok, so where are we again?" I suggest to the guidebook's creators that the pull out map be a DETAILED look at central Madrid, i.e. street names for every road. The roads and suburban areas are not necessary for the tourists buying your guide and I don't know why they were included. If I had planned on driving in and out of Madrid, I'd buy a map with better road details anyway.

If you buy this guide, be prepared to buy another map for general use in Madrid.

With such a guide in hand, execution of a self planned walking/riding tour are simple and fulfilling. local destinations are described in ample detail so that it is simple and fun to organize the limited time we have available, thereby maximizing our vacation pleasures.

Frommer's Madrid by Day makes you feel you've already been there and includes "everything you need to know"! We recommend it to everyone. Our thanks to Amazon for leading us to it.

I was disappointed in the content of the book, but I blame myself for buying a guidebook that had not been updated since 2009. The maps were terrible, though. I understand that Madrid poses a challenge in this department, but the book did not address how one might navigate to a specific destination recommended in the book without knowing the names of half of the streets needed to get there. It's not as if Madrid is on any sort of grid -- an attempt at a shortcut can take you quite the wrong way.