Customer Reviews

Montenegro: The Bradt Travel Guide

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Annalisa Rellie has written a smart, indgithful and passionate survey of this fascinating small country. Her descriptions tend towards the poetic but her insight is strong. It's a thorough and authoritative guide which I found to be really practical and useful. Well done Mrs. Rellie, and well done Bradt.

Bradt should be commended for producing guidebooks to locations that few other companies (even the ubiquitous Lonely Planet) have tried to tackle.

This books is typical for the series -- exploring out of the way and little known destinations and offering a mixture of practical information and cultural background.

The one flaw of the book is one common to most guidebooks in the series. Information about opening hours for sites tends to be sketchy at best. They USUALLY give hours for museums, but not for other sites. If one is spending several months in a place, this may not be a problem, but if a traveller is trying to plan a vacation and has limited time, it can be very helpful to know when specific sites are open. Also, while the hotel information is quite detailed, complete with prices; restaurant info is also sketchy, rarely providing opening hours/days, and almost never giving more than the vaguest indication of price. ("Moderate" isn't much help, really!)

Annalisa Rellie has shown remarkable insight into this hidden gem of a country. She writes with sensitivity and understanding. This is an indispensible guide for anyone who wants to visit Montenegro.

I have always loved Montenegro, but Annalisa Rellie has taught me so many new things. She is not afraid to express her opinions, and to take a contrarian view - but she made me love the country even more. Rellie might just succeed in putting this country onto the beaten path. Her scholarship is commendable.

This book is probably the poorest one in Bradt's unique series of guides covering the relatively little-known countries of the Balkan region. While most other Bradt guides successfully combine insightful background info and coverage of sights with providing the useful and necessary practical travel information, this one fails on the latter front miserably.
A previous reviewer has already pointed out some shortcomings, but I could also add that coverage of accomodation option was often poor, especially lacking in the budget options - and for some towns listing no places to stay at all! Even worse is the almost complete lack of information on public transport. The author very obviously toured the country by car and couldn't be bothered to check out the existence and fares of buses and trains that are used to get around by most independant travellers!

While coverage of sights was mostly OK, it also proved pretty bad about, of all places, the nation's capital, Podgorica!

Without exception all those people whom I met using this guide were quite unhappy with it.
One can only hope that the publisher will eventually take note and either get a new author to rewrite the book, or provide some strong guidelines to the current author on what practical details are needed to bring this book in line with the quality of Bradt guides to the neighbouring countries: the ones covering Albania, Serbia and Hungary are all very good and could serve as a model.

Until that happens, you have a choice of buying this book just to plan WHERE you want to go (but not HOW!), or simply wait till you reach Montenegro and visit the tourist offices there that will provide you with just as many useful ideas on places to visit, and more heplful info on transport and accomodation!

I only wish I could have gone to all the places this book tells about. It was, however, a terrific help in getting the best out of my way-too-short side trip during a visit to AlbaniaAlbania, 2nd: The Bradt Travel Guide. Even if you don't like guide books as a rule, if you are interested in Montenegro, this is an excellent resource. Of course, as with all such publications, some information is out of date before the book is published; but Ms. Reille and other Brandt Guide writers are so familiar with the countries they write about that the really important information (little-known places to visit, eat, stay, etc. that will make your trip particularly memorable), are going to be there for you, even if rates, hours, frequency of transport departures, etc. have been altered.

For broader tourist population, yet undiscovered land.
It is a magnificent little country on southern Adriatic coast. From breathtaking mountains and stone-desert to beautiful beaches of azure-blue sea, spreads a country of perhaps the smallest nation in Europe, Montenegrins.
I heartily recommend this book.

This is a fascinating place to visit - and relativaly unknown. This book gives insight otherwise imagined and long overdue. Thank you!

Perhaps I'm looking for something else, but it seemed most of the restaurants and hotels listed were fairly pricey. After doing some websearches, I found a castle to stay in for 10 Euro a night since Montenegro is largely undiscovered. There were many, many other cheaper, better, and fantastically located places to be found online, whereas the book had a smattering of listings of highend places to stay and eat. The plus side of this book is that it is one of the few travel books on Montenegro so it's tough to do without.

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (11/06)

The Balkans are an area that the Westerners rarely dare to tackle, whether in writing or in person; and when they do attempt to do it, all too often they end up in a convoluted maze of sentiments, ideas and facts so incomprehensible to them that they either give up or leave with a totally wrong impression. Therefore it was so very refreshing to read such a well researched travel guide as this guide to the tiny country of Montenegro.

Let me start by saying that some of my family roots actually are from Montenegro and I also worked there as a tour guide many years ago. Studying the history and the people of the truly amazingly beautiful country of Montenegro made me fall in love with it even more deeply. Well, it seems that something similar happened to Annalisa Rellie. Her love for Montenegro and the desire to truly understand this magical country and its charming inhabitants shines from every page.

This is an exceptionally useful guidebook with all of the usual, expected information; but it will also give you an unprecedented insight into the reality of everyday life in Montenegro. Ms. Rellie included even such tidbits as what are the little white squares of paper pinned to roadside trees (burial notices) and what do the different color of borders on them mean (well, for that you should get the book and find out yourself...) Her descriptions of locations are extremely picturesque and very visual, down to the two dogs chained by a local inn in the mountains. She definitely took me on a trip down memory lane with her vivid portrayals of locations, events and people.

As I mentioned previously, the guidebook includes all of the usual, expected and useful sections on geography, history, economy, people, politics, and practical information on when and how to travel and what to do and not to do, as well as extensively researched guide to sights, tastes and sounds of Montenegro. (And yes, I agree with Ms. Rellie that most of Montenegrin music is an acquired taste for Westerners ears... Oh, most definitely so...)

You will even find a section with several very authentic, very tasty recipes for traditional dishes - which made me extremely hungry! If all of that is not adventurous enough for you, Ms. Rellie included information on a side trip to Albania. It does not get much more adventurous as that...

I was quite impressed by the accuracy of spelling throughout the book, especially in view of the fact that the language in Montenegro has been evolving greatly in the last couple of decades. There are some cute misspellings (wrong word for cheese in the glossary...) and some not-so-cute ones (consistent misspelling of the name of the former Yugoslav president...), but overall nothing too distracting.

Well written, well researched, with a selection of wonderful photographs showing a tiny fraction of the natural beauty of Montenegro, this guidebook, "Montenegro," will be of great help to anybody desiring to visit this jewel of a country.

Received book free of charge.