Customer Reviews

Prague (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To the previous reviewer- get Let's Go: Europe- it has the hotel/accomodation information you are looking for. I have it also.

For travel guides on Prague this is FAR & OUT the best- I have many many guides on Prague because it is my most beloved city in the world. This one is the best. The breakdowns of central Prague are unparalled and this guide gives you a heck of a lot more sites than just the most popular and most famous sites.

As well, it guides you through an adequate stay in Prague...transport systems are explained, table manners are explained, currency, etc...it's all here... except for great detail on housing- but that information is found easily (and cheaply) else where. Go to the library and find a recent book and write down names of places...that's all you need to do before you go. While in Prague, without this guide with you, you will miss A LOT!

After years of traveling in Europe and buying countless books and maps on every country, city and tourist site, finally a series of books that gives you a little of everything, but is small enough to carry easily.

This Eyewitness Guide, like the others in this series, gives you a way to quickly identify areas of interest and gives you enough detail and colorful pictures, that country, city and site specific guide books are no longer necessary. The maps in the back are correct and easy to use with an amazing amount of detail. The opening and closing times are always correct. The restaurant and hotel recommendations are right on. The survival guide in the back gives you quick reference on everything from what the currency is to how to use the telephone.

On top of all of the contents, the book itself is tough enough to be thrown around in that backpack or shoved into your pocket without hurting it. The paper is of high quality with sharp graphics. The cover is tough and has built in page marks.

I travel to Europe several times a year and have tried every travel series there is. After using the Eyewitness Travel Guide, these along with the Rick Steves' series is all I ever use anymore.

The series of Eyewitness Travel Guides (particularly one on Prague) has been highly recommended by several travel sites. With my forthcoming trip to Prague this summer, I immediately got curious & ran to the nearest specialty bookstore right after office hours. I have to agree that this is the BEST guide book I have ever seen. Not only does it have maps or the tourist highlights, but it also contains a history of the place, background of the famous sites & LOVELY photos! It also has a primer on culture, etiquette & currency, a guide on getting around via public transport, a suggestion on restaurants & a limited selection on housing (you can find more of this in the Net or other travel guides). This book is as good as a real souvenir from the trip itself with all its lovely photos & background. I will definitely bring this book (together with the other series I bought for Vienna & Budapest)with me when I leave in August.

First off, the book is heavy on style and light on substance: lots of glossy pictures with scant historical/cultural background.

I bought this book 6 years ago and compared it to the more recent edition and they are almost exactly the same. As a resident of Prague I take issue with many of the book's recommendations, chiefly the restaurant and hotel offerings. Caveat emptor on many of these as they no longer exist or the management has since changed. Furthermore, many of the listed telephone numbers are no longer in operation or have changed their format due to new telephone changes.

For a more accurate and up-to-date review of Prague's service industry try Inyourpocket's website. Just do a web search for Inyourpocket and order up a copy of their quarterly guide. It's really cheap. Also, try Praguepost's website and check their cultural section for a complete listing of all cultural offerings -- museum exhibits, opera, ballet, jazz, club, indie etc...

Here are some basic questions which travellers often ask of Prague, and in many cases the answers will make a huge difference in your trip preparations:

Should I change money at exchange offices, banks, or just use an ATM? Which ATM services are in Prague? Are travellers checks accepted at most restaurants? Do restaurants accept dollars and Euro? Which hotels are closed due to the 2002 floods? etc...

Inyourpocket guide and Praguepost should answer most of these questions if not all. Eyewitness doesn't even come close.

Edward's "Praguewalks" is excellent for those who'd like to plan daily excursions and self-guided tours. It's historical scope is impressive without being overwhelming. For example, Eyewitness will tell you that Wallenstein was a wealthy noble who ran afoul of King Ferdinand, while "Praguewalks" explains just how Wallenstein amassed his fortune and the significance of his gardens and estates to Czech history. For the more scholarly inclined try Sayer's "The Coast of Bohemia." Sayer combines some historical narrative with an in-depth cultural timeline of how Czech art evolved.

I won't advise you not to buy the Eyewitness book, but only if you do, use it to supplement your other trip's resources, not as some all encompassing guide.

As with all Eyewitness books, the Prague guide is a great partner to help you explore a new city or area. It is high in quality and great in detail, and the presentation of the material is done in a very fun and beautiful way. Specific to Prague, the book was an excellent tour guide for us within Prague itself but if you plan on venturing out of Prague you will need another guide to work with.

My friends and I were prepared to fall in love with Prague based entirely on this travel book. The street-by-street descriptions are right on the mark. The historical buildings are dissected to show you the interiors, a wonderful and unique way to give you the floor plans. There are also timelines throughout the quide to chart significant events of the major buildings and people of Prague. I read a large portion of the quide book before I left home, I kept it close to me the entire time I was in Prague for easy reference and I still keep it handy at home. This one is packed to bursting with all the information you could ever need. When I think of going on holiday now, the first thing I go looking for is a travel guide in this excellent series!

I bought this book before I left with my friend to go to Prague for Spring Break. I could not have seen half of the sites without this book. This book shows you all the sites you would like to see and the pictures are awesome. My friend had with him Lonely Planet Prague. Compare to this book, it was vague and useless. It overwhelms you with too much information but never shows you what they have described. It is hard to imagine whtat they tell you in Lonely Planet if the things are foreign to you. We left LP at home while we travel with this one. Plus, the subway and street maps in the Eyewitness are good. By the end of the week, I can navigate the city very well with the help of the maps. If you need to get a guidebook, this is the One.

This was the best travel book I ever have purchased. I had never been to Prague before, and we took a trip in October 1997, using this travel guide as our primary resource. I have to say that the history and walking/public transportation plans contained in the book made great advance reading, and the dining and lodging references were right on. This book is a major reason we had such a great trip. I will be purchasing this series in the future for other cities whenever we travel!

My wife and I have visited Prague twice before in the last ten years, so we have collected just about all the major Prague tourist guides. We are planning another trip for next month, so I picked up this new little guide. It has become my favorite. The "Top Ten" format works really well, and this author knows the territory really well, too. Also, I'm simply amazed at how much information (including good tips) he packed into this slim volume. I'm a big fan of the full-sized DK Eyewitness Travel Guides (which are beautiful and interesting), the Michelin Green Guides (which are so well-written and go into more depth), and the Frommer guides (which embody our travel philosophy so well)--but this Top Ten Guide is the one that I intend to carry in my jacket pocket every day as we travel around the city: It's like having an expert checklist--that includes things that we missed on our previous trips. We have the London Top Ten guide, and were impressed with that one, too. By the way, you're going to love Prague. We lived in Paris for six months, and have travelled to most of the countries and major cities of Europe; Prague is wonderful, and our personal favorite. See you there!

I like the "Top 10" travel guides because they pack a wealth of useful information, with lots of photos and maps, into a very compact size. The "Top 10 Prague" travel guide is no exception. It is slim enough so that it can easily fit inside a small purse.

As with all the "Top 10" books, this volume provides information in the format of giving ten subsections for different subjects. For example, you have a listing of Prague's top ten "Highlights," followed by lists of the top ten things to see at each of the top ten highlights. Prague Castle, for example, is listed 1st under "Highlights," and then, when you turn the page, you have the "Top 10 Features" of the palace listed, along with a diagram of the palace showing where each feature is located.

This book has subjects like "Top 10 Places of Worship," "Top 10 Museums and Galleries," "Top 10 Parks and Gardens," "Top 10 Performing Arts Venues," "Top 10 Children's Attractions," etc. There are also, of course, top ten listings of restaurants, "bars and kavarnas", clubs, "shops and markets", and the like. This book also has listings of restaurants, cafes, pubs and retail shops for different sections of the city too, so that you can easily find one near your hotel.

At the back of the book is the "Streetsmart" section with its lists under headings such as "Getting to Prague," "Getting Around Prague," "Sources of Information," "Things to Avoid," "Prague on a Budget," etc. There are ten lists of Prague hotels and pensions.

Because of its compact size, great maps and diagrams, and the wealth of useful information on tourist sites, restaurants, shopping, etc., this is the one and only book that I carried around with me while walking through the streets of Prague on my last trip there.