Lonely Planet Spain (Spain, 3rd ed) [Paperback]

Damien Simonis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Spain, 3rd ed | Publication Date: March 2001

Whether you are keen to sip sangria on a palm-lined Balearic beach or snow-ski down the Sierra Nevada, this practical guide will show you why Spain is a numero uno destination. Includes information on the best places to stay, eat and drink for all budgets and tastes. 147 detailed maps are included.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1008 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 3rd edition (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864501928
• ISBN-13: 978-1864501926
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,605,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 135 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Up to Standards, May 13, 2001

By 

Supermonkey "Software, music, and comics geek" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Spain (Spain, 3rd ed) (Paperback)

My wife and I have come to swear by Lonely Planet books for off-the-beaten-track advice on trips to Taiwan, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Peru. When we decided to visit Spain, we immediately bought the latest edition (3rd) of Lonely Planet Spain. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that what we needed instead were the City Guides for Madrid and Barcelona. The book covered all of Spain fairly, but was very skimpy on info about both of these cities. We found the detail we needed by exchanging this book for both the City Guides and an extra $5. If you are travelling Spain for an extended period, and will get all over the country, then this tome is for you (and will probably be worth it). If instead you are trying to hit the highlights of Spain, or want to base your vacation out of either Madrid or Barcelona, then skip it and find a better book.

And incidentally, I think it's a pretty lame gambit from LP to start yanking all the detail from the national-level books and slipping it into the city guides. You always end up buying more books, since you can't get the info you want in any one place! Not fair to your customers, guys!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dividing Information... A new chapter in LP books!, March 2, 2003

By 

Rook Andalus (Venice, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Spain (Spain, 3rd ed) (Paperback)

I travel a lot, and have found Lonely Planet guides to be a big help... I still do... granted, some of the info is inaccurate (particularly with prices), but every guidebook provides a caveat at its beginning to warn readers of unstable prices... generally the inaccuracies never amount to more a pitance.

I found the LP Spain book to be more useful than the Let's Go! Spain guidebook as the LP book had more background information, more listings for places to stay and more maps with better detail... unfortunately, as one of the other reviewers mentioned, this book and many of their other guide books are starting to refer you to other LP mini guides... they used to throw everything you needed between those covers, but these days you almost have to carry a small library around with you to get what a early 90s LP book would give you. Still better than Let's Go!, but for how long?...

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some slight errors involved...., September 5, 2001

By 

Jeffrey Leeper "kem2070" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Spain (Spain, 3rd ed) (Paperback)

My wife and I just completed a tour of some of the major cities of Spain. Before we went, we purchased this Lonely Planet rather than the individual city guides. Since we were part of a tour and merely wanted some supplemental information, we purchased this one.

The information they give on each of the sites and monuments is helpful. Although it didn't go into intense detail, you did get enough background historical information to make some sense. This book also gave us some good ideas of sites to see which the tour we took did not tell us about.

Some of the information is a little inaccurate, don't take this information as 100 percent correct. For instance, admission to the Capilla Real is 350 ptas and not 300. The hours were a little off also. We did find the maps to be pretty accurate. The walking tour of Madrid was a little more difficult to follow, but it could be done.

A fellow traveler had the Let's Go book for Spain and Portugal. Consistently, we found her looking at our Lonely Planet for better information.

I would recommend this book for a trip to Spain. Remember that it is supplemental and should not be taking as 100 percent accurate.