Customer Reviews

How to Europe: The Complete Travelers Handbook, Fourth Edition

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

 

 

Pro's: It's heavy and makes a good flower press. It makes one laugh quite a bit.

Con's: Let's see...We live in europe and bought this book when we first got here to try to get more information on living here and getting around. This book was written by a very opinionated and eccentric man and most of the tips that even could be plausible are aimed towards the older crowd. He reminds me of my weird uncle that everyone tries to avoid. A lot of the book is him talking about why he is superior to other travelers, travel writers, and a good part of the human race. His packing light ideas include leaving out most of the toiletries a normal person would use, like shampoo, deoderant, shave cream, etc. and replacing them with vodka and vinegar. They are rather ridiculous for anyone who is not a bachelor (for that matter a rather dirty bachelor. He reccomends eschewing the local laundromats and instead washing your clothes in the bidet, condoms for coin purses, and using vodka to kill crabs.) He tells a lot of stories about traveling before the wall fell in eastern europe. Much of his advice on what to wear is highly inaccurate at least for those under 50. Europeans do wear blue jeans. maybe not in paris, but everywhere else we've gone in northern europe, the majority are wearing jeans. Nicer shirts and darker shoes, but blue jeans. Contrary to his claims backpackers from every country on the map as well as families who may require snacks, diapers, etc. utilize backpacks of all sizes while out and about. He also apparently does not believe in digital cameras and detests cell phones. There are well over 25 chapters in this book but maybe 4 chapters worth of actual information. If you are of the older generations maybe more of this information would be useful but for us most of it was either out of date or out of touch with the reality of life here. If you read anything in this book please double check before coming over here believing all or even the majority of it. I haven't been impressed. It is a good bit of humor however. Especially for those who know better.

Read at your own risk

P.S. Please do not believe him that women over here do not shave. I don't know about all other countries but in the netherlands, they do. Trust me. Hairy legs and pits will make you stand out as being not from around here just as much as they will in most parts of the states.

...but it's now somewhat dated. The author hasn't kept it up to date so a lot of information is stuck in the 1980s. Don't let this be your first Europe tour book but if you can get a cheap copy do so for another perspective.

"How to Europe" answered many of the questions that occurred to me as I planned my first time ever trip to Europe. It also answered a lot of questions that would never have occurred to me if I hadn't read the book.

I would have rated the book with five stars except, as a reference book, it lacked a comprehensive index.

Even without the index, I would say that this book is a must for every new traveler to Europe.

When I buy a book on Europe (a continent) I don't expect to find sections on Ireland, England or Iceland which are on Islands in the North Atlantic.

Maybe the book should be titled:

How to Europe, with England, Ireland and Iceland but we missed Scotland and Wales.

Well at least he got the Scotland and Wales part right