Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Mediterranean Europe (Multi Country Travel Guide)

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If you are thinking of buying this book, here is my advice. Click on "Show more formats" in the "Formats" box. There you will find several recent used versions for less than $.50. Lonely Planet guides are always out-of-date, so why pay more?

I bought this book last summer for a Mediterranean road trip. It cost a small fortune and I was quickly disappointed for the following reasons:

1) It is spread too thin. It covers a lot of countries but not in depth. It wastes a lot of space on expensive hotels and places to eat/drink and devotes too little to actual sights.

2) There is no in-country emphasis on the Mediterranean. The chapters are pulled out of other LP guides with little editing or emphasis on the actual Mediterranean. So the French sections on Britanny and Normandy are as long as the sections on Provence and Cote d'Azur (note to LP: Britanny and Normandy are not on the Mediterranean). Sorry to say I did not make it to Eastern Turkey, Galicia or the Slovenian Alps on that trip. Again, the book tries to cover too much and wastes space.

3) Poor information on hostels. My heart sank and I had to buy a second guidebook when I realized that many cities in here do not list a single hostel. LP used to be a good guide for young backpackers. Those days are long gone. If you can afford 70 Euros for a hotel room - sometimes the cheapest option listed - then good for you. Thank goodness for [...].

4) Fragile spine. The spine on my copy is now cracked where the pictures are inserted. This will not be my first LP with pages falling out of it. I've had the book for less than 6 months.

On the plus side, the guide covers places like Cyprus, Malta, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, but again the useful information is thin. I also like the information on History, but it is often superficial.

Every time I buy a LP guide I tell myself 'never again,' but I've gotten so used to the style and formatting. If anyone else can recommend a travel guide for young backpacker types, please let me know. Either way, I'm saving money now with used guides.

Maybe I'll use the money I save to buy "Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?" - written by a former LP writer.

This book covers a lot of towns, but the information is minimal. I thought by getting a regional euro book, that there would be more information on each place. It was too big to fit in my bag, so I tore out the relevant pages for my trip (which weren't very many) and all of my trip was the Mediterranean. I have a hard time believing regular people send in reviews for Lonely Planet anymore.