Customer Reviews

Let's Go 2007 Europe (Let's Go: Europe)

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

 

 

I've back packed across Europe a number of times. Multiple 3 month trips, and many shorter ones through 15 countries (some extensively). The Let's Go book is by far the most up to date one that I have seen. Much more up to date over all than it's competitors (Lonely Planet, etc).

That being said, there is a truly massive amount of information in this book, and of course some of it is going to change over time. The nice thing is Let's Go's structure (check out their web site) keeps this book more up to date than others.

On 1 3 month trip, I had both Let's Go, and Lonely Planet Europe. The Let's Go book only had 1 out of date phone number, while the competitor was riddled with them. I can't tell you how many times Lonely Planet users asked to borrow my books to get the correct phone numbers, etc. But it was often.

As an overall hosteling/backpacking guide through Europe, this book is fantastic. However if you would like more information on a -particular- region, or country, then I would recommend Rick Steve's or Lonely Planet's region/country specific books. Their use of local experts really makes a difference.

Being an over all guidebook, it's not going to have everything in it, so I agree with he other posters that the Eastern Europe sections are a little weak. I'd look at some of the other books above. However, the phone numbers, prices, train fares, train routs, events, etc are accurate enough to help you successfully manage your trip!

I'd highly recommend this book over any of the other European guides if you're planning on backpacking, and hosteling around Europe! If you're looking for a more pension/hotel style book, then try Rick Steves.

The 2005 version of this book was the best purchase I made before studying abroad. My friend and I called it "the Bible" and were able to successfully navigate around 11 European cities in 5 weeks by using it. It's big (so hard to carry in a backpack) but 100% worth it if you are traveling to a lot of places all at once. The writers know their stuff and focus on the right things.

The only complaint was that there were a few things that slipped by the editors - listed restaurants that had actually closed a few years before, prices changes for attractions, etc. However, it was easy to be flexible during mishaps because the book offers so many other great suggestions for places to go and see.

Great present for a student going abroad!

Some completely false info, like the requirements for an International Driver's license for rental cars. Museum info is good, eat info is fair, lodging out of date. Other than that, great handbook.

The best guide for budget travel. Has got useful info that I never thought about.

I just returned from Europe, and I used this book exclusively for my travels. This book is fine for traveling Europe. It doesn't concentrate exclusively on any piece exclusively nor does it include some of eastern Europe. I'm glad i had a few friends in eastern Europe, but by the time i got to east Europe i enough information to get around fairly easy. I used the euro-rail pass and I would say it's the best way to travel for a first time euro traveler. I met more people and made more friends than i have in a life time just by talking and traveling by train. The book works very well for someone using a train pass. However, this guide and the lonely planet guide both have many and i mean a whole lot of out dated information because they don't update their guide every year. There are plenty of changed prices, closed restaurants, and don't even think about using the train times. To finish i think both this guide and the lonely planet are equivalent, and don't worry about the out dated information they are both still adequate.

The good: You can get a feel for all areas of Europe. The book does aim for budget-friendly options.

The bad: The broad-based nature of the book makes it useless for stays of more than one day in any particular location.

The ugly: The maps are inaccurate.

We used this book exclusively on our 19-day trip around Europe and were extremely pleased with the information provided. We were especially helped by the descriptions of local foods and restaurants, as well as the details about sites and tourist attractions. The reason we rank this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because the prices listed for metro fares and other expenses were generally 1-2 euros less than the actual prices, and there was one incident where the metro stop listed for a particular restaurant was incorrect by about 3 stops (which was a long walk!) Otherwise this book is an excellent resource for extended travel in Europe. I would recommend the 2008 edition under the assumption that these errors have been fixed.

Recently tried to use this book for a European vacation to 5 countries and 7 cities. Became so frustrated with this book that ended up getting books from other travel publishers.

Many many times, found the restaurants mentioned in the book to be closed. Also found that the transportation information cited is woefully out of date. Certain transit systems where more than 2x what was quoted in the book. Very sloppy publishing - Lets go seemed to have updated the title only for several years.