Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Venice & The Veneto (City Travel Guide)

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Bought this after being terribly disappointed in Time Out's book. Lonely Planet has much more detailed information on the surrounding area. They also have more relevant and updated information than Time Out does. Very pleased with the book.

I bought the digital version of this book (which is practically the same as the paper version) and I was very disappointed.
The guide does give some information on Venice but doesn't have almost any pictures or illustrations. The nice pictures that you can see in the preview are from the first chapter "getting started" are the only pictures you'll find and are quite misleading since they tend to make you believe the rest of the book would have a similar format (numbered pictures of the attractions followed by a description of these sites).
For example, there is a chapter on art and architecture with 19 pages and absolutely no illustration at all, which doesn't help much on the planning of your trip. Some pictures (even in low-res) would help a lot to decide where to invest your time, specially in a city so visual as Venice.
Lonely Planet should at least state clearly that the guide is not illustrated

I was really disappointed by the hundreds of blatant inaccuracies in this travel guide. It's fine for reading little bits and pieces of background history for the monuments of Venice but that's really about it. The prices for public transportation (and public restrooms!) are wrong. The schedules aren't even given, and the Treviso airport, where many budget travellers arrive from is almost entirely ignored. Most of the stores mentioned do exist, but they don't sell what Lonely Planet says they sell. And some of the stores and places mentioned in this book have closed down already. It also seems, frankly, that Lonely Planet has lost touch with it's audience when it comes to the suggestions it gives in this guide. The author suggests a back-packer budget of 100-250 Euros per DAY?! Are they crazy? People are supposed to give their kids more than 1,500 PER WEEK for a budget back-packing trip? Give me a break. People live in Venice just as in any other city and they certainly DON'T live on 100-250 euros per day.