Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Budapest (City Guide)

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

 

 

In preparing for a trip to Hungary, I examined thoroughly the choices for Budapest.

My favorite guidebook series has been Lonely Planet, and the Budapest Lonely Planet is fairly helpful. Although it doesn't give as thorough a treatment on accomodations, the book gives a lot of travel hints and secret. I found its facts for the visitors to be the most helpful, and the maps (placed at the very back of the book) to be the easiest to use. The frommer book, on the other hand, put the maps close to the section of the book referring to it. The organization of LP makes it easiest to use in the field; they tend to have the best background, history and cultural information. LP was particularly good about including rules, regulations and things like closing times. ON the other hand, there are not many photos, and they don't plan as many walking tours as the frommer book does. I didn't find the written descriptions that engaging, although the cultural background seemed well done.

The Frommer's Budapest book (3rd edition) gave the best information about finding and choosing accomodations, but the book has no pictures and aside from a nice subway cover on the inside cover, the maps are hard to find and not very easy to use. Frommer's gives excellent information about prices and shops and restaurants; it's almost a guide to buying things rather than a tour book. I didn't find it particularly thorough about travel information, customs, or those sorts of details. That is not entirely fair. They have a nice section in the front a kind of "best of" list for things in budapest. The nice thing about the book is that it recommends things to do if you have only one day, three days or a week. They also suggested some itineraries for walking tours.

The Fodor's Budapest pocket reference is drab and not full of much information. Don't get it.

The Eyewitness Travel Guide on Budapest by Tadeusz Olszanski is the most eye-catching and the least helpful. It contains lots of graphics and diagrams and maps, and not too much information. The multitude of pictures are helpful in describing architecture, geography and art. On the other hand, its information on accomodations is very limited. Don't get me wrong; it's a beautiful and interesting book; it just is not as helpful as the other three. And it is two years old. I'm not necessarily saying that this book is bad, merely that it may not help you very much on the excursion.

The Budapest: A Critical Guide by Andras Torok, 4th edition is a less complete and more personal account of things to do in Budapest. The other books were like encyclopedias, but this book was just a few personal recommendations about things to do and places to stay. Also, the writing for this book seems to be better than the other books. If you already are a little familiar with Budapest, but just want to learn about new and undiscovered places, this might be an excellent book. It certainly covers most of the bases, but it just doesn't try to list a huge number of accomodations or restaurants.

I ended up buying the Frommer's and a used copy of the Eyewitness travel guide.

I've used Lonely Planet travel guides several times in the past, and they are by far my favorite series of guide books. But that also means I have very high standards, and with this book, I was disappointed. The writing is only okay, certainly not as enjoyable to read as say, the Morocco or Southern Germany books. I usually get a little obsessed with reading about an upcoming trip - not being able to put the book down till I've finished, and then re-reading parts. But I've had a hard time getting myself to read this, even for the first time.

There are also a lot of mistakes. The book comes with a new key for one of the maps stuck into the front of it, because apparently the key that was printed was completely wrong. Several of the pictures in the introduction are in the wrong place (i.e. it says "see below" when it's actually above), or seem to be the wrong pictures entirely. There are many grammar and spelling errors, which is disruptive when reading.

Also, the author seems to have some trouble with left/right and east/west. He uses these incorrectly near the beginning (oddly enough in the section that's supposed to be orienting you). Then, later on, he writes that trains heading west leave from the east station and vice versa. I later discovered this to be true, and it would have been helpful if he had, for example, said that it was strange, so I didn't think it was yet another mistake.

One other complaint is the section at the beginning (the standard color section in LP) is unbelievably boring. It's about the Art Nouveau architecture in Budapest, and maybe it's just me and I didn't realize that I preferred reading about art or music or anything rather than architecture. But maybe it could have been done a little better.

All in all, I think it's an okay book, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone without checking out some of the other Budapest books first. Lonely Planet, it needs an update and most importantly, a competent editor!

I live in Budapest, we gave it as a gift to a friend visiting the city. We were appreciated about the correctness but not amazed. We needed to put a lots of notes into it to upgrade it with the details of the real Budapest.

Recently purchased the 4th Edition and found the pullout maps to be useless. The text is printed in an incredibly small font. I purchased this book without seeing it first based on experience with past Lonely Planet books. Never again. Outside of some interesting history, I found little useful about this city guide. I was better served with a map provided by the hotel and what information I could gather from the hotel concierge (from a hotel not listed in LP guide book). LP city guides seem focused on low budget travel alone. I am shifting to Frommer's.

I always use Lonely Planet guides when I travel. This particular guide for Budapest was disappointing. The information is there - good maps, but it's not written in the usual engaging style. It's quite dry and boring, and did not inspire me to visit places. Budapest has much more to offer than what's presented in this book.

I've visited 44 countries, mostly on a budget, and Lonely Planet is THE only book I would consider using. It's throrough, comprehensive and concise. It's especially geared for the budget/adventure traveler, though it would also prove useful to anyone on a tour or cruise. Lonely Planet is packed with maps, useful phrases, history lessons, tips on culture & conduct, addresses and descriptions of museums, hotels, restaurants - everything you need. Though Lonely Planet leans towards those of us who travel in hostels and budget hotels, it also gives a good description of hotels and restaurants for those who wish to travel in a more luxurious manner. There are other good travel books out there - Eyewitness Guides, etc - that have a lot of beautiful photos - but unless you're traveling with a steamer trunk, these are of little use because they lack the information you'll need while on the road. Look at the others for inspiration before you go, if you'd like, but pack your Lonely Planet. I'd never travel without it.

Lonely Planet normally does great guide books, but this one was lacking. We go to European cities to see the sights and sample the food and the culture. There are too many pages devoted to shopping, drinking, nightlife, and sports & activities. There's a map you can tear out of the back, but it's not nearly as useful as the fold-out ones you find in the "Best of" series. On a positive note, we did find the info about using the public transport system useful, but had to pick up local maps to find our way around. We would have bought the Best Of version, but it wasn't available on the UK site (we live in France), so took a gamble on this one. Get the Best Of book instead or pick Rick Steve's book.

A great guide to the city for a first-timer. The walking tours were very useful in my exploration, and the recommendations were usually on point. The only problem was the restaurant recommendations, where many were full of tourists, all using the LP guide. But that's a minor problem for a useful, comprehensive guide to the city. I spent four days there and had a blast.