Customer Reviews

The Mini Rough Guide to Paris

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow, after reading the previous review, I had to write in. I travel frequently, have used nearly every popular guide out there (Fodors, Frommers, Time Out, Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, and my least favorite - Eyewitness Travel), and The Rough Guides are the best and by far the most comprehensive out there. They are chock-full of information. The colored photos are limited to several pages in the front of the book, but if you want to be a traveler (as opposed to being a 'tourist'), you shouldn't need pages of glossy information that just shows you what you will be seeing once you're there anyways! The Rough Guides gives you history, gives you insight into various neighborhoods and areas and people. They go far, far beyond just the 'landmarks' that an area is known for. If you read them before traveling, you'll feel like one of the locals and the more knowledge you have about an area, the more you can enjoy it. I'm sorry if some travelers are sadly uninterested in learning about the cultures of the areas in which they are visiting. Rough Guides are now the only guides that I will use. And if you're bored by the reading, then maybe you should question why you are traveling there! I will say that Rough Guides does not supply you with a very detailed street map stuck to the back cover like some other books offer and so sometimes an additional purchase (or a visit to a tourism office) is warranted. This personally does not bother me.

Heavy reading. Not a fun or easy read. Not very user friendly. No pictures of the sites. Informative, but wouldn't recommend this for those traveling to Paris for the first time.