Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Vienna

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

 

 

I've long been a Lonely Planet fan, never thinking twice about buying the appropriate Lonely Planet book whenever I travel. However, the new format and emphasis of the LP guides has made me re-think my commitment.

Specifically, the "Fact for the Visitor" section has been greatly reduced, and moved under the confusingly titled "Directory" section. Unfortunately, this is difficult to locate because the Table of Contents has been bowdlerized from the former detailed breakdown into a simple section listing. If you want to find a specific piece of information, you now have to guess which section it might be hiding in (as in "Directory" -- which is almost nothing like a directory), then flip the to beginning of that section for the more detailed contents.

The new, less coherent, structure is frustrating enough, but when you get each section, you find it very hard to read. One of the first things that you learn about graphic design and publishing is that sans serif typefaces are difficult to read for long passages and should only be used sparingly. The new guides have turned this on its head, and now very light sans serif faces are used almost everywhere (contrast this with earlier editions where sans serif is only used for headings). I find it difficult to read for more than a few paragraphs, which is very annoying.

Being able to locate, and read the information are the two most fundamental things a guidebook needs to have, and these new editions really fail.

Which raises the biggest problem of all -- LP seems to be changing its emphasis from a guide which provided lots of useful information to the budget traveler as well as the higher end independent traveler. The new guide really de-emphasizes the budget traveler, in favor of being a generic, middle of the road guide. Which, from someone who looks to get the most from his travel dollar, is extremely disappointing. In contrast with my second edition copy of this guide, the fourth edition lists half as many budget accommodations, and twice as many mid-range to expensive ones.

On the plus side, the maps *finally* include a grid, making it much easier to find locations on them.

On the whole though, LP has taken the guides I've loved for years, and made them much less valuable to me. In the future, I'll be shopping around for guides, instead of knowing that I can trust LP without a second thought.

I packed two guidebooks for my trip to Vienna: this one, and an ancient Michelin Green Guide to Austria that devoted about 20 pages to Vienna. I found the latter more useful, even though much of the information was frozen in a long-forgotten 1978.

It's difficult to look up specific information in this guide, and, once found, it's sometimes misleading. "The regal rooms of Schloss Schonbrunn are in a league of their own in Vienna - the Kaiser apartments of the Hofburg hardly come close." Perhaps. But the Schonbrunn was so packed with tour groups that I ran through the forty rooms that are open for viewing as quickly as possible just to get out of the place. By contrast, a visit to the Hofburg included a moving exhibit on the wife of the emperor Franz Joseph; for me, this humanized the rooms and added a depth that the mere viewing of endless amounts of gold leaf could not.

The typeface of this book is too small and faint, and the maps are unreadable. A reference for the Albertina is given as `Map pp.240-3.' Turning to page 240, I found tiny dots with tiny numbers going up to 351, but no dot with a 3. After much searching of page 240, I found the 3 on an inset map on page 241. This is inexcusable in a guidebook.

Vienna is too wonderful to entrust to this guide. Friends who carried the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Vienna at least had a book that was readable.

A deeply disappointing, if not awful, guidebook to Vienna. I have purchased dozens of Lonely Planet guidebooks, and have had universally good experiences with the series until purchasing Lonely Planet Vienna. The guidebook was filled with inaccuracies, including wrong addresses, grossly mistaken opening hours, and misleading maps. The supposed insider recommendations often led to very touristy restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. Do yourself a favor and buy a guidebook from another series; this one will certainly lead you astray.

First, let me observe that I have never been to Vienna. Thus, I cannot comment on how accurate this volume is.

Second, though, I would enjoy visiting this city at some point my life. I have always felt that it is one of the "magical" cities of Europe, from reading a number of works in which Vienna figures.

The book begins by providing useful context for the reader. At the outset, we get a brief introduction to the city (more detail provided in a later section on history of the city). Key quotation here (Page 6): "Vienna is a place where culture, history, art, and nightlife all mix together seamlessly. With only a few days on your hands, there is a lot to experience, but any time spent in this magical city will bring rich rewards."

The volume covers the normal issues in such a guide--city life. architecture, the arts, history, sights, tours, eating and drinking, entertainment, shopping, where to stay, excursions, and basic information on language. None goes into great detail (a consequence of a travel book that is comprehensive in coverage--can't really be avoided).

Let's take a look at a couple of the sections, to provide a flavor of this work. History: This section traces the development of the city from a Paleolithic settlement to a Roman city through the Hapsburgs to fascism to the contemporary era. The portion on "Music, Literature, and Cinema" provides the reader with a brief glimpse into the key role of Vienna in the arts. In music, of course, we find giants, from Gluck to Mozart to Beethoven to Mahler and beyond. . . .

There is also the helpful summary of places to eat and to stay, the kinds of walking (or biking) trips one can make, shopping opportunities. Each should contribute to a visit being able to make sense of the city and how to take advantage of its multitudinous charms.

All in all, to a novice, this seems like a nice adjunct to any proposed visit to Vienna.

This was a gift for my father, who is planning a trip to Vienna in the fall. He loved the gift and is looking forward to the trip in the fall.

I read some of the other reviews of this book that were not very positive and thought, "how bad can it be, it's Lonely Planet?" I've been traveling with Lonely Planet for over a decade now and have never been disappointed...until now. While I'm sure that for some of LP's audience knowing which nightclubs is the best may be essential information, that's not me. And the air of contempt with which the author talked about the sights I was interested in was a real turn off. The "local perspective" sections seemed negative and condescending. And, after a while, I got tired of the repeated references to dog poop. BTW I was in Vienna for 10 days and only saw one pile. This book seemed designed to discourage me from visiting. Fire this guy LP. Rick Steves did a much better job on this city.

The 2nd edition of Lonely Planet's guide to Vienna is a welcome edition to the guidebooks on the Austrian capital. Of course it contains the usual information: how to get there, how to get around, and what there is to see. But this book also tells the reader about other important facts such as the climate, history, government/politics, bicycling, and farily current email and web addresses. The Lonely Planet guide also has lots of interesting tidbits of information that most of the more staid guides do not, such as info on Lauda Air, gay Vienna, The Third Man (movie), and Viennese actionism. The maps are excellent, and prices (as of 1998) are listed for most attractions. I doubt that a more versatile guide exists.

Very helpful. I had a day to spend in Vienna and I could quickly find all the sites I needed/wanted to go, plus discover new ones.

The fancy of going to Vienna next summer crossed my mind more than once so I decided to pick this up just to get some more information on the City of Music. It's a very concise book that can be easily toted around in a bag or pocket, which I immediately liked because should I go I would want to keep it on hand. I liked the layout for places to stay, going from campgrounds to hostels, to the hotels, going from one star to five. It has a great listing for restaurants and has the city pretty much covered in respects to places to visit and a calendar of events, which makes planning a trip a lot easier. The history was a nice added bonus for someone not knowing about the city, as well as historical people that spent time/grew up in Vienna (ie: Mozart). Colour photos and things such as political mindset, attitude towards children, the legal system are nice touches as well. However, take the prices with a grain of salt, especially with the new introduction of the Euro.