Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Europe On A Shoestring

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

... but I find the Lonely Planet guides to be better than most. Obviously this book covers a very large area, so it goes for breadth rather than depth. If you want to explore a country outside the major cities, get a local guide. This book contains a good amount of details about major Western countries- specifically Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. If you are planning on travelling through the Balkans, Eastern Central Europe, the Baltics or Scandinavia, you should know that this guide only provides information about the major cities and tourist centers, and will not guide you away from the beaten path. Also, be aware that the book does not include Belarus or the Ukraine.

Lonely Planet provides excellent maps, directions to attractions, and instructions for using the local transport (very useful), along with a language guide. Their advice regarding where to go and what to see, along with what to stay away from, is usually quite good.

The main problem with this book is price inaccuracies. Naturally, prices change, so it is to be expected that the restaraunt, hotel and attraction prices cited in the guide may not be entirely accurate, but a person should be able to take it as truth when a guide says that ________ is the cheapest place to get food/accomodation/internet access... Lonely Planet misses a lot of budget traveler's gems and focuses mainly on expensive things in city centers. If you take the metro/bus/whatever a few stops away from the center in most of these towns, you can find hostels/restaraunts/internet cafes which are much cheaper than those listed in the book. It's worth the 10 extra minutes of travel time if you truly need to travel "on a shoestring."

This book is really great for young people seeing Europe on a tight budget, as the title suggests. It is also suitable for families as it gives hotel and camping options in addition to hostels. One of my favorite aspects of it are the quick tips, which are very useful, and the mini history lessons for each country. The book also includes how to say basic words (hello, goodbye, please, thank you) in each language as well as a little phrase book in the back. The book is incredibly helpful in planning trips because it also gives a suggested daily budget and whether or not a visa is needed to enter a country.

However, since it highlights so many countries, it is not ideal if you are staying mostly in one country. None of the sections go very in depth on the small towns in each country. For most travellers, that is not a problem. If you are staying in a country for a semester or a year though, you might want to also buy a book specific to where you are.

This is the most useful guide for budget travel in Europe. As it covers all of Europe in one book it is quite brief but every little bit written inside is useful. I would recommend this guide to anyone travelling to more than a couple countries in Europe. If you only plan to travel to one or two countries then buying a country specific guide is a better idea. But for longer trips this is the one.

For those who feel that a trip to Europe would simply be beyond their means, Europe On A Shoestring: Big Trips On Small Budgets is a 1324-page travel guide that lives up to its title. Packed cover-to-cover with itineraries, a practical directory, easy-to-use maps, an expanded index, recommended sights and activities, and so much more, Europe On A Shoestring focuses both on seeing the best Europe has to offer and on keeping costs down to an affordable level, from eating and sleeping cheap to affordable festivals and wonderful cultural activities. Covering nations from Morocco, Spain and Portugal to Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, Finland, Sweeden and Norway, Iceland, Ireland, the United Kingcom, Belarus, the Ukraine, and of course all the countries located in between, Europe On A Shoestring is a "must" for every money-conscious European tourist.

I purchased this book when I went to Europe and would like to make two quick observations about it.

1. The dining options which are outlined in this book are not cheap. Some of them are pretty good, but when I want something on a shoestring I won't be looking in this book. This is especially true in the Prague. This book only gave information about central Prague locations when cheaper places are all outside the tourism district.

2. Guard this book with your life. Other tourists want it and they will want to steal it. Believe me when I tell you this, as my book was stolen.

Apart from that, it's a good book, get it.

I've bought this and other books in the series. As others have mentioned, they give a good overview of major European cities. The information is helpful and it covers a lot of ground.

It can be a little cumbersome to carry around/use while abroad. In the past, I have had success getting the binding removed(you can do it at most copy centers i.e. kinkos) and making smaller booklets by stapling together sections that had a common focus. This way, you don't have to handle the giant manual to find an address and you can leave the parts you don't need at home.

One thing to keep in mind is this series doesn't get updated as often as others. This book specifically was released February 1st of 2005. Because the information has been out there for a while, the info will be out of date and some of the places to stay/eat could be pretty busy with others who bought the same book. Just something to keep in mind.

I have used LP all over the world, and have also used some of their comprehensive guides such as South America and SE Asia, but attempting to write a guide book about as many countries as Europe has is impossible. South America has 13 countries, SE Asia 11 and Europe comes in at over 50. There isn't a big enough book for all that info.

I bought this book thinking that I was only going to hit major cities this fall while living in Europe for four months. Even so, the book just does not cover what you want to know. It is frustrating to open the book and not learn what you are after.

I do give LP 3 stars for trying. There are maps which are great as always and the best thing that I found in this book were the blurbs about how to get into the city from the airports. If you are traveling in Europe, you can't buy every country guide, but honestly, this book is not that much help and I rarely carried it. Better to book your hostel online, check with them, and wing it when you get there. Skip the book this time and just go for it.

I bought this book very well aware that prices change and so do places but I was more after the run down of what the countries had to offer. With the information that it provides I can make out a rough estimate on costs for a very large trip I am about to take. I have a lot of these books and have always found them very to be handy. You could always look on the net for information about places but I work on a computer all day and the last thing I want to do when I'm at home is to be searching on the web. It's much handier to have the information at hand at my leisure.

I had no idea how big this book is. It was the heaviest item on my after-college backpacking trip to Europe, hands down. But what it lacks in portability, it makes up for in comprehensive, well-written information for the low-budget traveler.

My only complaint: the maps are sometimes hard to read, and local maps will often give you a better, caricatured look at the landscape.

Contains almost every info I'd like to know. Because it covers so many countries/cities, it missed a few details that I thought should be included. But overall, I'd say this is more than enough as a survival guide in Europe!