Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Venice & The Veneto (City Guide)

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

 

 

Although this guide book did have useful information and was small and easy to carry, I thought our Eyewitness Venice travel guide was much better. The Lonely Planet descriptions seemed to tell me about everything that was going badly in Venice and focused very little on the beautiful and positive side of the city. I would recommend checking out the Eyewitness book instead.

Some devoted followers of Lonely Planet will immediately click "NOT HELPFUL" to avenge this comment, I am sorry if this reviews disappoints you, but one has to be honest, right?

Yes, I admit I am not the greatest fan of Lonely Planet - although I recognize there are destinations where no-one does the trick better than this cheap-and-nasty house of publishing. In Africa, for example, Lonely Planet was the best guide available. But Venice, this magical and charming little patch of magic in the Adriatic? This guide is a joke, but I am not laughing.

The book is more concerned with righting the world than with doing its job. Do you want to read more of the same moans about evils of international tourism and how irresponsible travellers are ruining the world? If the answer is yes, go buy this book. It will certainly accomplish the mission of ruining all the enjoyment of travel to one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

However, if you need a travel guide, not a campaign newsletter, you will be better off with another book. A book which might tell you that all the tourist crowds in Venice occupy perhaps five percent of the city's territory, while the rest is the real Venice with people getting on with their lives, buying groceries in small shops and hanging their washing outside, Italian-style. Another book may show you how charming, how crazily enchanting and breathtakingly delicate this city is.

Maybe with another book you will realize that all the alarmist moans about Venice which will die in five/ten/fifteen years unless tourism is banned are just another shameless exagerrations, concocted by scaremongers and killjoys.

Writing is excessively dry and is difficult to follow or enjoy. I find it hard to believe that a reviewer was pleased with maps - they are just sad and amateurish, worse than anything that I have seen in my life, aside from Lonely Planet Iceland and Greenland, which is and probably will be the world champion of poor mapping.

This guide is not a match for Eyewitness or Fodor's, it does not even come close to being a good guidebook. Do yourself a favor - buy something else.

The guide itself - like most Lonely Planet guides - is divided into basically two parts: First, things to know before you go, like history, geography and climate as well as information about visas, customs, money, health, etc. Second, the "traditional" description of places, monuments and museums as well as tips of where to stay and where to eat. The book is written in a casual way that makes reading easy, but still gives precise information when needed. On my last trip to Venice I found that almost all prices, opening times and other details where up to date. Another detail I liked was that some recommended hotels had their e-mail addresses in the guide. It made advance reservation so easy, and I am not talking about a Hilton, but a midrange hotel. One point that some people might find offensive is that sometimes the authors don't hesitate to give their personal opinion about politics, lifestyle, etc. But if you just take it for what it is, an opinion, and are able to go, see for your self, and make up your own mind, than this travel guide is for you. I really recommend it.

A guide book is ESSENTIAL when visiting Venice. This dull offering is not much better than nothing. The Michelin, Dorling-Kindersley and AA guides eat this one alive. Like other Lonely Planet Europe books the maps are cheap and dull and the commentary is superficial "churnalism"- pump and dump waffle. The advice on food and shopping is useless unless you want $120 mains. He doesn't capture the atmosphere of Harry's Bar accurately (expensive+++, classy++, fun++, tiny, famous, popular with rich regulars) nor of the various tourist sights and churches.

I didn't see any warnings about the Murano tour touts who frequent the St Marks boardwalk (just ignore them and take the public ferry (vaproretti) and when in Murano go to the delightful Restaurant B!(NB outside it looks dull but inside it is tres chic).

Aside from the cutesy name, Lonely Planet's Europe books are a great disappointment. There are some interesting historical anecdotes but these are common in all travel guides.

Venice is slowly sinking (literally) and some say that it is because of the additional weight of tourist visiting the island (at peak tourist tides - high summer - 100,000+ tourists a day). Venice is comprised of one hundred islands, stapled together by 400 bridges, water taxis and gondola hawkers, making this one of the most captivating cities of the world, and one that especially needs and deserves its own guide.

Damions Simonis has produced the definitive guide on Venice. In his "Lonely Planet Venice" you have brilliant maps, a solid introduction section that covers Venice's history, government, economy, ecology, climate etc. An informative practical travel section and most important, a reliable and up to date listing of recommendations for lodging, restaurants, entertainment, places to see and things to do. These, along with the beginning of Internet references (though he fails to include hotel web sites and email addresses), make this a great guide on Venice.

If you are planning to spend your time in Italy, and mainly in this city of romantic waterways and sumptuous architecture, you deserve the best guide out today - Lonely Planet Venice. Highly recommended

The book has lots of good information about Venice, its architecture, places to eat, etc. It'd be easier if pictures were included next to the described places to see. Navigating back and forth between pages is somewhat hard when you walk at the same time. Since we traveled by train back between Treviso and Venice (about 25 minutes ride one way), I had enough time to study about sites planned for that day. But when I needed information while walking in the city, finding the information was harder. It'd help me to choose a book if an ad had a sample of a few pages or a chapter of each book.

I bought this book because I was traveling to Italy with a tour group, but wanted to get out on my own. I've had good experience with other Lonely Planet travel guides for Libya and Mauritius (not your usual tourist areas). I bought the guide to Italy as whole, then a city guide for Venice so that I would have more detailed information and less weight to carry.

First of all, about 40 pages of the book is wasted because it repeats the standard information provided elsewhere -- the stuff about women travelers, gay and lesbian travelers, etc. And when you are in Venice, a city where *you HAVE to walk* every ounce saved counts!

The walking tour guides were good - gave me an idea about how to shape the track of a day of touring. The disadvantage was that when I wanted to look up something specific, I had to go to the index, find the page for the walking tour where the place was, to get information. And if I forgot to dog ear the page, it was back to the index, since the sites (or sights) aren't in the guide in a logical order. However once a site was located, the information was spot-on -- particularly is opening and closing times, since many places close for lunch. Knowing which ones do, can help you plan your visits for the day.

I give the book a plus for providing reviews/comments on hotels, dining, and shopping. One can quibble with selections - the hotel I stayed in, the Gabrielli Sandwirth is just a canal away from Londra Palace and Hotel Danieli, with similiar accommodations wasn't mentioned in the guide - but I think the book gives one a good idea of what to expect in terms of price and availability for a wide variety of dining, shopping, and sleeping.

I too, found the vaporetto guide confusing, but then the Vaporetto website wasn't any better. Usually the hotel concierge can explain it to you, or if you ride it a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.

Finally, yes, one should read the guide thoroughly before you arrive in Venice (and that doesn't mean on the plane to Europe, either...) But, humans are failible. This was a great guide to skim through before I went, it was a helpful guide (mostly) to use while I was there, and it's also a good guide for when I returned, because it helped me identify some things I saw while I was there and didn't realize it.

Book was brand new. Can't wait to take it on vacation with me.