Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Europe on a Shoestring, 2nd ed) [Paperback]

Scott McNeely (Author)

Book Description

Series: Europe on a Shoestring, 2nd ed | Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Includes a first-time travellers' chapter with advice on everything from packing to staying on a budget. The guide contains the lowdown on 40 countries, with a comprehensive language guide for every country.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Saving your pennies for your first trip to Europe? Pick up "Europe on a shoestring" – Lonely Planet’s answer to the traditional budget Europe guidebook. Aimed specifically at first-time and budget travelers, this guidebook is jam-packed with a whopping 162 maps, 1,916 places to eat, 820 nightlife suggestions, more than 2,000 recommended activities and things to do and see. Written by an experienced team of travel writers who share their insight and expertise on 40 countries, this book is the next ‘can't-go-to-Europe-without-it’ travel tool.

• 162 maps – nearly twice as many as the competition • covers all of Europe’s major cities– London, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin and dozens more – as well as off-the-beaten-path spots not found in other guidebooks • includes more European countries than any other guidebook; also includes Morocco and Turkey • packed with money-saving tips and good-value recommendations • special sections on how to create a realistic budget and how to travel safely

Product Details

• Paperback: 1296 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2nd edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864501502
• ISBN-13: 978-1864501506
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,664,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Let's Go is a better way to go, October 27, 2002

By 

Bryce Hashizume (Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Europe on a Shoestring, 2nd ed) (Paperback)

This is a truly embarassing book.

I believe my copy included the year 2001 in the title (I binned it some time ago), but most sections of the book were at least 4 years out of date. Let's Go tells us that it is completely revised and updated every year, so I expected the same from Lonely Planet - why else would they put the year on the cover? It didn't take long to discover that my assumption was ill-founded.

There are places in Spain where over 50% of the accomadations listed are no longer in operation. Imagine walking up to the address they give and finding a condemned building, finding an empty lot, or finding a shop that has been there for a few years. Now imagine this happening to you 5 times in a row before you find a place.

Imagine yourself arriving in Bratislava and hitting up the tourist office for directions to the YMCA hostel. Smile when the agent there laughs and says they tore that place down 3 years ago, but that she always has people asking for directions there (hmmm... I wonder why that could be?). Imagine looking up a copy of Let's Go and seeing that they no longer list the YMCA in Bratislava as a place for accomadation.

Imagine reading a glowing review about a cathedral, only to go to that cathedral and find out that the blurb on the back of the admittance ticket is an almost word-for-word copy of the text in Lonely Planet (or is it the other way around?).

Imagine how helpful it is to read a book where most of the authors (especially the one who covered Spain) are unable to say a bad thing about anywhere. Arrive in a town that reads better than it looks, and imagine you are somewhere else.

Those are some of the bigger problems with this book. For the most part, it is just really out of date and it shows. The prices in Let's go are more accurate, but even they will always be a little off because of inflation. Some of the prices in Lonely Planet were off by an astounding 250% (yes, 250%), however, which is due to the fact that it has been a number of years since that section was updated. Given that this book is not updated very regularly, and that Lonely planet must make a killing off of these books, there are also a lot of errors that have remained in successive printings and which I find unacceptable. For example, in the 4 or so pages they devote to Trujillo, Merida, and Cacares (3 towns in Spain), they quote 3 different prices for transportation between these towns. Or take a look at their "top 10/bottom 10" list in the introduction: they seem unsure just where St. Petersberg is, as they list it as being in both Scandanavia and in Eastern Europe. That is just sloppy, but I think it reflects how much care has been put into the book.

What really annoys me is that Lonely Planet seems to rely on its readers to be its fact-checkers, its contributors, and its editors. If you do send in a correction, you have a chance to win a free copy of their over-priced book, a good percentage of which was written by peaople like you. Yippee! Sometimes I think that some of the non-existent accomadation information I encountered was sent in disgruntled readers as a form of retribution (Lonely Planet admits on their website that they haven't stayed at all the places they 'recommend'). Sometimes I think of doing the same.

I personally get the impression that their reviewers have stayed at something less than 50% of the places. I also suspect that they haven't even visited many of the sights they recommend (at some hostels the staff will make jokes about this). As I mentioned earlier, some of the reviews seem to have been taken directly from promotional material. And if you have any knowledge of the sights reviewed, you will often find the reviews to be incorrect or misleading.

I was also interested to note that, on their website, Lonely Planet informs us that their reviewers (those that they actually do hire) are free to tell various hotels, hostels, pensions, restaurants, etc., that they are working for Lonely Planet and will be reviewing their establishments. Perhaps that explains why many of these places allegedly feature friendly staff, free internet, free maps, free coffee, clean rooms, winter heating, etc., but the bonuses never quite materialize when you stay there.

For what it's worth, I spent 9 months traveling around with this book, and that may have contributed to my disapointment. If you aren't going to spend so much time on your vacation you probably won't go the smaller places where a guidebook is more important, and its mistakes more evident.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid but undercooked., December 9, 2002

By 

Dominic C. Moore (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Europe on a Shoestring, 2nd ed) (Paperback)

Lonely Planet is a great guidebook series, but their true worth shines only in their individual country guides, not in this massive tome. Sure it's got all of Europe in here, but Europe is a BIG place. If you only mean to go to major cities, this will be a great book to have, and the maps are well worth it. Spend 5 minutes off the beaten track and you'll need to do something else. I know where every English language bookstore is in every city in Europe now. I would find them and do additional reseach.

The basic problem with this book is that editorial concerns triumphed over real meaty information. I ended up buying :P Hungary for my time in that wonderful country, because this book skimped on any real information outside Budapest.

Trust me, if you're going rural than getting the individual guides is well worth it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Let's Go is better, March 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Europe on a Shoestring, 2nd ed) (Paperback)

I found this guidebook really unhelpful as far as prioritizing what to see and do. Rather than helping a traveler sift through what's worthwhile, every place it lists sounds like a brochure advertisement. Part of the problem is the density of the book, attempting to cover forty countries in one volume, so its listings of hostels, for example, are fairly short and uninformative. As for its being on a 'shoestring,' I found a the prices A LOT better in Let's Go Western Europe, which also prioritized things, pointing less-informed reader (me) in the direction of what would be worth his time (i.e. which hostels are better than others).