Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Spain

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've purchased and relied on several Lonely Planet Guides. Unlike the other guides, the Lonely Planet Guide to Spain was not useful or helpful. Although I travelled to Spain in 2005, the 2005 edition's information concerning prices for lodgings, food, transportation and attractions was already out of date. One wonders when it was last updated. Moreover, the book is bulky and poorly organized, making it difficult to pinpoint information. Finally, information concerning secondary cities and towns is impressionistic at best. The Lonely Planet Guide to Spain was a disappointment, poor value and--most importantly--a poor guide to Spain.

This nicely practical guide (2009 Edition) makes a solid companion for budget and other travelers visiting the enchanting land called España (Spain). Lonely Planet (LP) specializes in readable, easy-to-use, information, and this is no exception. Readers get at-your-fingertips information on hotels, travel hostels, restuarants, bars, museums, parks, tourist sights, etc. I particularly like the solid information on airports, train and bus stations, plus how to get to and from them (and other locations) via public transportation. There is also useful information on the language, local customs, flavor, prices, manners, etc. You are never travel blind or alone when you have your LP guide, and this updated version does the job. I took this book along during my recent two-week tour (first time in Spain) and was generally quite pleased. Travelers should do themselves the same favor.

This solid guide isn't perfect. A couple maps are lacking, and when they can't list every lodging in town, they should say about how many exist. Also, I'd rate Madrid's Reina Sofia Art Museum (photos permitted) ahead of also-impressive Del Prado and Thyssen (no photos). Hey, no guide is perfect, but this LP guide is well worth the price - just ask the traveler that tried to buy mine on a train from Toledo to Madrid.

Note: Oddly, Amazon lists up front reviews of the long-defunct 1997 edition. This review is for the current 2009 edition.

I am amused by some of the comments made knocking this Lonely Planet Spain publication. Comments such as those indicating that their hotel was not listed show ignorance of the way I think this book is designed and intended. Spain is a large, historic and diverse country and visitors are there for equally diverse reasons. If one can only take one reference publication to cover the country, this is the book to take. I travel to small towns as well as larger metropolitan areas and I am amazed at the coverage provided in the text. Do I stay at their recommended hotels all the time? No, but I always check them out on-line before leaving home and some of them are the best I can find. Do I end up in places that do not appear in other guides? All the time and this book has never let me down.
I find the book to to be well written and researched as is the Lonely Planet Italy by the same author. (For a really lame publication I'll refer you to Lonely Planet Switzerland!)
If you are a Tourist visiting only large cities and magnet tourist spots, then other publications may have added value for you, but if you are a Traveler seeking out of the way venues in addition to the normal sights, then this is an excellent reference! . . . ignore the other whining commentators.

This volume is so thick and so heavy that when it arrived, I couldn't wait to dig and delve into it for my upcoming trip to Spain. Our accomodation and flight plans already made, I was most interested in details about the Northern provinces we'll be driving around. Lonely Planet Spain does not seem to contain any details that don't have to do with hotels/hostels, restaurants, or public transport, or other practical topics. We were more interested in soaking up the flavors, the ambience, and the culture of the country and its people, its customs and traditions, its arts and its music. Guess it's just as well, as this tome would probably throw our luggage over the airline's weight limits.
We'll be returning to and sticking with the good old Blue Book and Insight Guides.

I'm an American living in Madrid; bought this book for a driving tour of the north: Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Euskadi, and Navarre. I've not yet tried it on the south of the country. I've used Lonely Planet for 10 years and approximately 30 countries.

I found this book to be dissapointing for the following reasons:

1. A lot of info in the book is outdated, like they just left stuff in from 2007 without checking it. It's more than just closed restaraunts and discotechs (although they exist in spades) - there are huge swathes of highway missing from the maps. A lot of this was editorial sloppiness - for example the map of Spain in the front of the book has some of the new highways, but the province maps at the start of each chapter do not.

2. It leaves off Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands. The Canaries are clearly missing because LP wants to gouge you for a second book (they do a similar scam with the US state of Hawaii), but why are Ceuta and Melilla missing? The book is very preachy about getting off the traditional tourist track, and those two cities (which are Spanish enclaves on the North African coast) have unique cultures and really rely on tourism to survive. It is especially galling bc the book instructs you how to take the ferry to Morroco from Algecieras, without ever mentioning that you can easily go to Ceuta just 20 kilos away on the same boat. It smacked of political correctness of not wanting to offend the 5 Morrocans that might purchase this book.

3. My opinion is that the booked lacked a sense of itself. For example, it might only tell you how to get to a city by bus or train, as if the reader is likely to be a student that is too young/poor to rent a car. But, after "getting there", the accomodation options will center on quaint inns out of town at a price of 120 euros a night, which someone arriving by bus could not reach or afford. Other times the book goes the exact opposite direction, for example by telling you to drive the 5 kilos from Malpica to St. Hadrian when there is a beautiful coastal walk (complete with boardwalks) that passes several sheltered coves, beaches, fountains, and picnic parks, as if only older drivers and never anyone fit would be on the Costa Morte. The book tries to be both "Fodors" and "Rough Guide" at once, and comes off not being as good as either.

4. Far too much space is devoted to food. For example, octopus is the traditional dish of Galicia, but do I really need to know 5 different octopus restaraunts in every city, and 2 in every small town? No one wants to eat that much octopus, and I can just look at the signs anyway. At least for me, I get in the car and drive Spain to see the sights, not to eat stuff that I could just buy in Madrid without difficulty. This seemed to relate to the book's lack of sense of itself - the huge focus on food is clearly meant to appeal to the fat American cruise ship crowd that would normally buy a Rick Steves guide. But it really turned me off as the traditional LP customer (young professional with lots of travel experience). And the vegetarian advice is severely lacking, even where vegetarianism is easy like Madrid. Please LP - less food, more sights.

5. The book alternates between a snide tone and an overwhelmingly positive one, without directly stating the reasons for either. For example, the town of Arena at the base of the Picos is described as "singularly unimpressive". But why? It has a nice river park, plenty to eat and drink, and is the obvious base to start the gorge walks. The real reason is that it is a tourist trap for Madrilenos taking day trips, so there are a ton of stores selling "local artisen" products at a 1000% mark up from the same item in the supermarket 50 meters away. So, why not just tell me that, a la "Note that often the 'local artisan' products are really mass produced items available at supermarkets for substantially lower prices.". I appreciate directness.

6. A minor complaint - the book wastes a lot of space writing out that places are wheelchair accessible. A simple picture of a wheelchair (like a handicapped spot) would suffice. Such symbols are already used for things like accomodation (a house) and dining (a fork and knife), so this is a no brainer.

Rolled together, these issues made the book less enjoyable for me than a typical LP product. That said, it does provide a lot of information and can really guide you through most of the country, hence my "fair" rating. If I had it to do again I would look at the other guides first before reaching for this one, which is contrary to my usual always-buy-LP standard. Happy travels!

While the maps for Madrid are more or less useless, Barcelona maps were easy to use, and information on both cities was generous. Unfortunately does not cater as much to budget travellers as it used to. Information on Valencia was a little sparse. It's a good security blanket though on sights to see and stuff like that. Kinda misses out on all the really good grub holes in Valencia though. How is Padi's not mentioned?

We spent the last 22 days backpacking all over spain and we found this book very helpful.. The maps were very accurate and were plentiful.. (unlike frommers portugal guide which only has a few maps in the entire book). The description of the smaller cities, even some small villages were included and helpful.. It is true about some opening and closing times and the admission rate was different than the book, but those change all the time.. I expected to pay a bit extra for admission and in general, most sites open around the same time during the day anyway..
We stayed at several hostels and found many different travellers from different countries than the states used the same book for their plans..
We got a good use out of this book and would strongly recommend it to those who are planning a trip to Spain to see just more than Madrid and Barcelona and Sevilla.. Frankly, a tourist information booth at major cities in general are the way to go for updated information on restaurants and events....
The only thing I would have a different opinion on is some of the hotel author's selections which I found if fair, maybe not worthy of the title...

Lonely Planet provides a great complement to my reliance on Rick Steves. Between the two I am able to map out wonderful trips, with LP providing the lower end of the cost scale way to go about traveling. Cleanly laid out, written in a way to convey information rather than overawe the reader, their guides are invaluable, timely, and fun.

I travelled in Spain (Madrid, Basque Country, Cantabria, Andalusia) in the summer of 2005 with the fifth edition of this book, and generally found it to be very useful and reasonably up-to-date. As a budget traveller not wanting to make too specific plans in advance, the listings of places to sleep (with phone numbers) in each town or city made it quite easy to find accommodation even during "high-season". (Although use of other sources as well, for example online, is advisable; Spanish towns seem to be full of cheap hotels (hostal or pensión in Spanish) and this book, understandably, lists only a few of them.) The book is also good for finding out about the major sights, attractions and activities, as well as for general orientation when arriving to new places.

Also, the background information about Spain and its history and culture in the beginning of the book seems well worth reading, preferably before your journey, to get some sort of basic grasp of the diverse country, in case you didn't know much about it already.

Maps are quite small but again this is understandable and doesn't matter too much as you can find better, more detailed maps for free in the tourist offices of most towns.

To sum it up, this book has a great deal of useful, tight-packed information which should meet the needs of someone like me who doesn't want to carry several guidebooks in their backpack while travelling across the country.

I use Lonely Planet and Guide Vert/Green Guide on most of my trips. They complement one another well. Lonely Planet had some good recommendations for hotels in Barcelona; and for all the sites we went to the historical background, opening times, and descriptions were very well done. Spain is a tricky country in terms of opening hours, as many museums close for 2 or so hours in the middle of the day. As we did not have a car, information concerning metro stops, train station locations, etc. were quite useful.

As usual, LP lacks in the maps (they are detailed enough , but the black/white format makes it almost impossible to read); and lack of photos makes it difficult to decide what to see. Whatever happened to the pictures/thousand word thing?

LP is oriented towards the backpacker/middle-means traveler. But even if you are traveling in luxury, this is a more than sufficient guide except for the maps.