Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Spain

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

 

 

I've used Lonely Planet guides on trips to Asia, Africa, and other European destinations. They've always been at least as good as the competition. This one, though, proved terrible. Descriptions were mainly paraphrased tourist office material, with little info to guide the reader in making choices. Accomoditions listings were confusing and utterly unreliable in both the condition of the places described, and the costs. Prices, thoughout the guidebook, varied radically from those specified, not in a reliable pattern of inflation, but erratically, as though some had once been corrected, some not, and the whole process was uneven. Worst, the guidebook offered no indications as to what major sites would be closed for restoration, or for entire off seasons. For those of us who deliberately try to stay out of the main trek, this was frustrating. Indications of transport possibilities were also less helpful that would be ideal-- the trains proved far more reliable than the guidebook suggested, as well as being no more expensive than the busses for the trips I took. Basically, this guidebook failed to provide the essential info for intelligent travel.

My friends had several choice travel books on Spain, but the Lonely Planet guide was the most descript. We constantly used its restaurant guide (instead of those commercial-plugged ones)and found GREAT places totally known by the locals only(and other Lonely Planet readers). This book is cool and it really tells like it is without talking down to the reader.

This book is an indispensable manual for an independent traveler. I was using it just about every minute when first time in Spain, unfamiliar with the local ways, language, food, prices and means of getting around. Lonely Planet's Spain covers much of those things and more. And its information is mostly very up-to-date, too.