Most Helpful Customer Reviews
96 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good set of travel dvds, July 12, 2004
A great DVD that shows you Europe up close. Watch these DVDs before making your next trip to Europe! The breakdown of the discs: Disc 1: British Isles
North Wales
Edinburgh
Scotland
Dublin and Belfast
Western Ireland
London
Cotswold Villages
Bath
Extra Features: London Day Trips, Blenheim Palace, Rick's Back Door Travel Tips. Disc 2: France
Burgundy
Provence
The Loire Valley
The French Riviera
Paris
The Dordogne
Normandy
Brittany
Extra Features: Paris Day Trips, Limous Wine Festival, Rick's Back Door Travel Tips. Disc 3: Spain & Portugal
Madrid and Toledo
Seville and Andalusia
Barcelona to Segovia
Grenada to Tangier
Costa del Sol
Lisbon
Portugal's Southern Coast
Cape Sagres and Lagos
Extra Features: Alcoy's Moors and Christians Festival, Gibraltar, Cordoba, Rick's Back Door Travel Tips. Disc 4: Germany, Austria & Switzerland
Munich and Bavaria
Berlin and Potsdam
Vienna and the Danube
Salzburg
Austrian Lakes District
Swiss Alps Western Switzerland
Bern, Murten and Gruyere.
Extra Features: Munich's Oktoberfest; Austrian Christmas Festival; Switzerland's Fasnacht Festival; and Rick's Back Door Travel Tips. Disc 5: Italy
Rome
Naples
The Amalfi Coast
Venice
Florence
Hill Towns of Tuscany
The Italian Riviera, and more.
Extra Features: Venice Regatta, Lake Como, Milan, and Rick's Back Door Travel Tips. Disc 6: Greece, Turkey, Israel & Egypt
Athens and the Acropolis
The Peloponnese and the Mycenae Palace
The Greek Islands
Central Turkey, Ankara and Cappadocia
Turkish West Coast, Kusadasi and Ephesus
Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Kibbutz Ein Gedi
Cairo to Luxor
The Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.
Extra Features : Gates of Jerusalem; Thessalonika and Greek Monasteries; Istanbul; and Rick's Back Door Travel Tips. There are 21 hours on 6 discs. Each disc is approx. 210 minutes.
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65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Travel Planner and Souvenir Par Excellence!, November 22, 2001
This review is from: Rick Steves Best of Travels in Europe - Collector's Case (DVD)
My wife and I are very familiar with this series: we watched and taped many of the episodes on cable TV; we used the travel tips and "back door" attractions to plan our own travels and we revisit our tapes frequently, using them a souvenirs. The entire series is friendly, factual, educational and features fine cinematography. All of these virtues have been transferred to the digital medium and...no commercials or breaks for public television fund-raisers! The travel tips, culture, art and history, architecture and scenery are fine, just like the first time around! This time, you can stop the action and still get crisp images of art and architecture. Questar adds a minimum of "packaging." The slip case holding the set is flimsy weight paperboard and they have "pumped up" the musical entry to each disk, but inside this wrapper, all is as it should be. Questar includes "special features": Rick's "travel tips" segment from the first series is repeated on each disk; a couple of "extras" are not from the Rick Steves series but are well-narrated and very finely photographed items from a generic series. Most "extra" segments are ones that were originally included in the main programs from each series but no harm is done--Questar's order of presenting the material is logical. Each destination is given high-quality treatment: there are no "lesser" destinations since Rick selects ones he has visited and revisited...and continues to enjoy. The material on Turkey, for example, was a real surprise--we discovered a rich and varied set of attractions beginning with Greco-Roman remnants. The scenery is spectacular. Rick and fellow travel-writer, Steve Smith, provide thoughtful, well-written commentary and the whole series illustrates the educational value of open-minded travel to a variety of cultures. You get 20 hours of quality programming (discounting repeats of the travel tips), so the pricing is still reasonable, just as entertainment. If you make use of Rick's insights and tips on places to stay, the set is invaluable.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Goes so FAR BEYOND what you'd find in a book!, March 17, 2005
Let's face it - some of like to read travel guidebooks and make detailed lists of itineraries, places to visit, etc. Others of us yawn at the thought of wading through all that print... but do better when we can actually see, with plenty of action and dialogue, the actual PLACES that we might be visiting.
For those who like to get a feel for the country they are about to visit, these DVDs do the trick. We were awed by the film quality and even the humorous asides that Rick Steves provided about unique experiences he'd had.
Be aware that Steves has strong opinions about how one best experiences a new country. He does provide basic info for the new or inexperienced traveler while also encouraging visitors to stray from the beaten paths and experience cities away from the usual "touristy" spots. In short, he suggests a mixture of planning and spontaneity, something that is sure to guarantee some unexpected surprises that could be the highlight of the trip.
Each DVD is a delight and I was actually dissappointed when each ended, feeling as though my appetite was just getting whetting for a particular city. Looking at the DVD on Barcelona, for instance, only made me want to see more of the artist Gaudi's works and I was awestruck by churches which were still in construction after hundreds of years - such painstaking work! Seeing these images on the screen was so much more intense an experience than readng about them in a guidebook.
We gave a set of these DVDs to a college student who was taking his first trip overseas and he was able to hit the ground running, knowing where to go to get the basic info he needed. From watching the DVDs, he also had a strong sense of WHAT he wanted to see and how best to travel, where to eat and how to avoid some of the pitfalls that one learns only AFTER becoming an experienced traveler. Well worth the price, especially since the savvy viewer should save time and money while having a wonderful time!
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