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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great resource, just don't expect perfection..., January 26, 2003
This review is from: Let's Go 2003: Europe (Paperback)
Let's Go is THE guidebook for cheap traveling, especially for students. It's secret? It's written by students, mainly for students...It's strength is that it has a lot of truly budget accomodations listed -- hostels, etc. -- in practically every city in Europe. The main weakness? Because it is put together by students, who by definition are amateurs, the writing can sometimes be weak, the info can be out of date or wrong, and the reviews of lodging and sights are incredibly uneven. (For example, when I used Let's Go almost exclusively for a 3-month Europe trip, some of their $10-25/night budget accomodations listed were fantastic -- but others were dumps unworthy of a listing in any guidebook). The problem is that, unlike a Lonely Planet or a Rick Steves guidebook, which are written by professionals, Let's Go has had hundreds of writers over the years, with students writing about one country but not all the others...If you are unlucky enough to go to a country reviewed by Mountain Man Jack, for example, and he doesn't care about a lack of air conditioning, lumpy beds and smelly rooms, and fails to mention these items, you are out of luck. All in all, though, a great resource for people who need truly budget accomodations, with lots of good maps and other tips... I've personally outgrown this guidebook, having moved on to Rick Steves, who focuses not on the cheapest possible budget but on getting the most possible out of your trip...($50-$100 day vs. the $25-$50 that Let's Go specializes in).
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Backpackers Classic - overly popular, July 10, 2003
This review is from: Let's Go 2003: Europe (Paperback)
Let's Go is the college student classic. Without a doubt, if you are looking simply to party Europe, this is your most helpful tool. But if you are looking to experience Europe, understand that Let's Go is the most popular European travel guide. Virtually EVERYONE has it. This fact does have its advantages: you will never be far from the American crowd. But the disadvantages are the same: the bars, the clubs, the hostels and resturants are all on the Let's Go circuit. In all, my recomendation is to buy the Lonely Planet guidebook that I found much more informative and better written. You can better avoid the American Party crowd when you feel like it, and when you want to partake in the happenings - don't worry they are easy to find. The other advantage of everyone having Let's Go would be that it can be found almost everywhere (hostel bookshelves, your roommate's backpack) and you will not have any trouble borrowing it for a while. Lonley Planet offers a slightly different perspective, and allows you to more fully enjoy your trip abroad.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Let's Go buy an earlier addition with more places listed, May 20, 2003
This review is from: Let's Go 2003: Europe (Paperback)
This new edition by Let's Go isn't too different to its predecessors but it is slightly smaller in size. Every centimetre and gram of weight does count when you're lugging the thing around Europe. Let's go has also introduced some new small features down it's left hand columns on some pages. They are In Recent News which reports on regional issues that may affect you tells you about recent local council works or stuff like what is happening with gypsies. Irrelevant, yes and weight adding. The Local Story, From the road, The Big Splurge are a few of the others which are equally irrelevant to most backpackers and seem to have been created just to give the book a new look so you'll buy the current instead of an older version. While granted this is a lot better than Lonely Planet's version as it is written more for a non American audience it still doesn't include what it should and has been drastically thickened with a lot of stuff backpackers don't need to know and more importantly do not want to carry the weight of those pages around. It seems to be moving away from being a backpacker book and trying to capture different target markets at the same time. Backpackers don't care about hotels, restaurants and stuff like this. We'd rather a few more supermarket listings. If they want to go after the non backpacker market fine but they should create another book because we're not going to read that stuff and it takes up a lot of room and weight. The information on the actual towns, cities and national parks listed is ever increasing which is good but the number of places listed is fast declining although granted there are more than in Lonely Planet's version. For an overview of the entire continent of Europe this edition should concentrate on having as many places as possible not just the main ones. The whole differentiation of backpackers from tourists is that we see places package tours don't go. The Black Forrest for example is now reduced to a half a page blurb and only mentions Freiburg which isn't really the Black Forrest fairy tale experience type place. Previous editions had towns such as Schlushee and Titisee which are great places but no one will know to go there. I assume this is to get you to buy the other more detailed editions such as Eastern Europe, Germany etc. Backpackers aren't going to spend all that money or want to carry around 50 books. While this book is good to find the location of hostels that's about it. You're better off to buy an older version except obviously Euro Dollar prices won't be used either but remember the price information is usually drastically wrong anyway. Prices of course go up the day after the book is published. Hostel information won't be as up to date in older versions either. You're better off to go by word of mouth from other backpackers to find quality hostels. This edition is good for the information on the places listed but there are a lot of great places to visit no longer in here. Buy an earlier edition.
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