Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring [Turtleback]

Vivek Wagle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring | Publication Date: February 2003

This guide provides advice for budget travellers making the grand tour of Europe. Helpful tips on customising itineraries to match individual interests and a special section on Europe's colourful festivals.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Your head jerks up and your eyes snap open as the awkward thud of the landing gear hitting earth jars you from the unrestful half-doze in which you've spent the last few hours. Furiously blinking in a vain attempt to clear the stinging redness from your vision, you moan softly as your head resumes its throbbing and your throat begins to itch again. Dazedly, you stumble down the aisle with your fellow passengers, sniffing for that taste of free air, desperate for a drink, and aching in all your joints. And you couldn't be more thrilled.

Welcome to Europe. This is it - the big time, the grand show, the Trip of Your Lifetime. You have good cause to be excited. Whether you're new to this whole travelling gig or a hardened veteran of decades of globetrotting, your trip to Europe will be the one that you'll never forget. There's a reason that this destination is always in vogue, consistently attracting millions of visitors per year and burning itself in the memories and imaginations of every single one.

Europe exudes a powerful energy grounded in its legendary history and sharpened by its key position at the cutting edge of the modern world. Forming the basis for much of global culture today, European traditions and ways have been shaped by a seemingly endless procession of innovations, conflicts and reawakenings. When you step onto European soil, you are almost certainly touching ground that has been stained by the blood of countless battles. These clashes - partially the product of an almost unimaginable diversity of races and cultures tightly packed into a petite parcel of land - have created and destroyed vast empires, allowed for the spreading and cultivation (and occasionally, the destruction) of myriad cultures, and in the process shaped the history of the world.

But now, perhaps more so than ever in their shared history, Europeans are turning from the chaos of war and adopting a communal future. The worlds of Western and Eastern Europe are converging, as common currencies and laws, the dismantling of barriers, and the gradual disappearing of international violence from the continent strip away so many of the causes for strife. It's an exciting time to visit, as travelling has never been easier, yet individual nations and regions are still clinging firmly to independent identities, steadfastly maintaining their traditions, languages and beliefs while accepting that the future lies in commonality. Meanwhile, forward-looking nations are moving quickly to protect their lands from overdevelopment and misuse, providing the visitor with enchanting, majestic escapes from the style and substance of modern European life.

It all smacks of epic adventure - and, as any good storyteller knows, such adventures are best undertaken with trustworthy companions. And the book you're currently holding is one such companion. It is our intent to serve you not as a tour guide, but rather as a friend who's been there and has learned a couple of tricks. We're not going to prescribe what to do, but we'll certainly offer suggestions. When it comes to finding you a comfortable place to rest or making sure that you don't miss the last bus out of town, we're there for you. Of course, sometimes we won't be able to contain our excitement and will nudge you to say, "Hey, check this out - it's really unbelievable!" But most of the time we'll try to point you in the right direction and let you play the explorer yourself. You are going to have a marvellous time no matter what, but the way to make the most out of your trip is to let your interests and intuition be your guide.

If this is all new to you, don't worry. We'll take you aside right at the beginning and bring you up to speed before letting you play with the others. In no time, you'll be cultivating your own storylines and amassing experience and knowledge that you, in turn, can pass on to fellow travellers.

Hey look - isn't that your backpack coming 'round the luggage carousel? Time to snatch it up, grab that last drink of water, and sprint to the bus stop so you don't miss that last connection to the hostel.

Enjoy the ride.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 1296 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 3rd edition (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740593146
• ISBN-13: 978-1740593144
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #350,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Budget Travel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much, too little, too late..., January 4, 2005

By 

Daryl Anderson (Trumansburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Turtleback)

With 17 countries on a 102-day itinerary and a careful eye on our budget, my son and I needed a book like this for our recently completed trip. Although we stuck with it until the end, I gotta say, Lonely Planet's "Europe on a Shoestring" has lots of flaws and you should think carefully before buying it.

THE GOOD NEWS: This is a great alternative to buying a dozen country-specific books. You'll save on pack weight and on dollars (or Euros). Furthermore, since its from Lonely Planet, this book does a lot better job than most of the "mainstream tourist" books of recognizing that a $300-a-night hotel room and a $50 meal are NOT in your plans.

THE BAD NEWS: (a) The prices and lots of info are out of date and getting more so. (b) The maps will taunt you with enough information to get you going but not enough to keep from getting lost, and (c) Overall the book offers a weird combination of too-much and too-little information.

You should consider this book only if you are planning to visit at least 10 different countries in Europe - otherwise you are better off buying individual country guides while in Europe (or sneaking a peek at the freebies stashed at many Hostel reception desks.)

My rating is three stars because you have to realize that there is probably no book out there that does an adequate job of `covering' all of Europe - but there are still lots of travelers, like us, who hope to do just that!

* * * details follow

(A) Check the COPYRIGHT date of the book very carefully before you buy! The one currently for sale is copyright early 2003. This sounded pretty current to us but it apparently means LP wrapped up whatever research they did into updating prices and other information sometime in 2001 or '02; for a trip in 2004 this was WAY OUT OF DATE. For one in 2005 it will be worse. It just gets to be a drag `translating' the prices: every 15 Euro Hostel is really going to be "18 to 20". Every 7 Euro admission fee: "9 or 10". Even expecting this problem, it leaves you feeling like your "shoestring" is getting shredded even more than it already is!

And, of course, prices aren't the only thing that can change in 2 or 3 years! We ran into museums and sights that had been closed for months and even the very strange situation of the LP book saying a museum was going to be closed "until 2004" and then not offering any info about it... as we walked by its open doors! We also bumped up against some hostels and places to stay that were either listed but long-gone or unlisted but two-years-"new."

Consider waiting for a new edition.

(B) The MAPS are a very strange problem. LP has made a clear effort to give you map info for the major cities in most countries and that shows that they realize you will probably be spending most of your time "pounding the pavement." But you won't really need their maps for getting around and touring a city - most major cities have much better maps available for free or cheap and you can usually rustle them up at the train station or hostel.

The REAL REASON you will need the sort of map this book provides is for the tricky first hour in a new city. You've just gotten off yet another train in yet another city and face another new language that's burbling all around you and your first goal is to get to your hostel or hotel and drop your pack.

But the LP city maps are the worst possible compromise of providing not enough info to serve as touring maps but also not enough to get you from that first important point-A to point-B! They trim back on space and printing by only naming SOME of the streets. You'd be surprised how many different ways there are to walk out of a typical European train station! We were unhappily surprised how many times we did that and found ourselves on a street whose name did not grace the LP map.

OF COURSE ASKING strangers is a great part of the travel experience and most of the time it was fun to figure out the best sequence of gestures and pidgin English and pseudo-Eurish to ask someone where the heck we were! But you'll do plenty of that anyways and besides, if, like Blanche DuBois, you've "always relied upon the kindness of strangers", why bring a guidebook at all?

(C) Its hard to whack LP for trying TOO hard; but when you are ending a 20 mile hike knowing that the 4-pound guidebook in your pack has at least 2-pounds of info about countries you aren't ever going to visit, it tends to ring in your mind with every step! This book was TOO extensive for us and I can't imagine anyone with an itinerary that would include even 75% of the countries listed. Do you want to lug around all that info on Lithuania and Latvia and Slovakia and Slovenia ? Our answer was to take a good sharp knife to the pages and hack out about 600 pages of excess. If you're a bibliophile and that prospect makes you shudder, at least think carefully about their "Western Europe" or "Eastern..." books instead.

At the same time, we often felt that the book offered too little information. For most of the larger countries, the book feels incomplete once you venture out of THE MAJOR CITY. I realize that this is the "we can't include everything" problem again, but its no help to understand their editorial challenges when you are lost in Lubeck or trying to find out about a place that's listed in your hostels book but not LP.

(D) Minor but annoying complaints include (1) less focus on hostels than I expected, (2) limited info on money-saving "self-catering" (e.g. where to buy food to COOK) and (3) too much silly self-promotion (it became a joke with us to read the section for each country where they `recommend' other books about the country and somehow only ever recommend other LP guides!

(E) Minor but gratifying kudos for their (1) thoughtful and informative country histories, (2) limited but necessary language guides (you can go far indeed if you just memorize the words for "thank you" in most places)

I guess the fact is that traveling as we did, lots of countries, lots of cities and lots of short stays, isn't a reasonable way to see Europe. OF COURSE its better to spend two weeks in Berlin - and get a "Berlin Book" - or a month zigzagging through France - and buy a "France book." But unless you've got unlimited time (and unlimited money) you'll probably face the same dilemma that drove us to our wacky itinerary and this ultimately unsatisfactory book: how can you sit there and plan to just "skip Italy" or "pass up Vienna"? Like us, like this book, you will probably end up trying too hard to do everything.

Enjoy your trip.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great For Broke Students or Cheap Skates!, February 1, 2005

By 

T. Bland "first year law student" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Turtleback)

I used this book to get me through Europe as well as plan my backpacking adventure, and I thought it was great (especially for London). I barely had enough $ to afford the plane ticket to Europe, much less spend more on other things. The restaurant recommendations were especially useful in places like Athens. It was condensed enough (probably too condensed for some) so that I didn't have to waste time tracking things down. If you are short on time and money, this is the book for you. If you have money and more time, this book isn't for you then and you should upgrade to Frommer's and the like. I would echo what another reviewer said and make certain you have the most recent edition of this book because things can be out of date (especially prices) rather quickly.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of Europe, April 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring (Turtleback)

I spent three months in Europe (England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium) last summer, and used this book as my primary guide.

It is good for finding the basics (hostels, train and bus stations, etc) but not much else, and with so much area to cover this should hardly be surprising.

As about 2/3 of my time was spent in Italy, I do wish I'd purchased an Italy specific guide... luckily I had access to various other books that were more in depth.

The maps and contact information were accurate. I don't think I ever used this guide for restaurant recommendations, though. It's much easier and more fun to go menu-shopping or ask locals. Hostel operators tend to know what's up too.