Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 2002 [Paperback]

Rick Steves (Author)

Book Description

Series: Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, 2002 | Publication Date: January 9, 2002

Rick Steves doesn't just list where to travel in Europe, he leads travellers through the "back door", revealing how to give every journey an extra, more authentic dimension. He shows travellers how to delve into European culture, and experience each region's natural wonders - economically and hassle-free. Rick Steves' television series Travels in Europe with Rick Steves is seen on more than 200 public tv channels in the US and Canada

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Pub; Revised edition (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566913616
• ISBN-13: 978-1566913614
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Travel Guide, May 27, 2002

By 

Andrew L. Estes (Little Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 2002 (Paperback)

If your doing these countries without touring agencies then this book is the best guide I have seen in a very long time. All the details of travel are contained within and Mr. Steves leaves nothing to chance in his in depth explaintations of your travel. We particularly enjoyed the insights of the different modes of transportation along with little tidbits of info on important yet not often thought of subjects such as how to get around once in country and advise on the different sites to see once arriving. We particularly liked his explaination of how to get to Murren, Switz and would use this as a good standard of which to judge the entire book. Thanks Rick for a very thorough and in depth guide to Germany, Switzerland and Austria of which we visited all three. You made our trip very enjoyable.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too Ambitious in its Concisiveness, August 3, 2002

By 

M. Swinney "Marc My Words" (Flower Mound, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 2002 (Paperback)

Rick Steves' travel guides have a cult following and for good reason. They are practical, opinionated, fun to read, and filled chock full of good economical advice on how to enjoy the essence of the place instead of spending your money on sterile luxury rooms and tourist trap extravaganzas.

My wife and I lived in Germany for 3 and a half years and traveled extensively within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and I'll have to say that this Rick Steves' guide tries to tackle too much. In including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in one concise guide...sure it makes it easy to carry...but it also makes it easy to leave things out. I suppose if you only have two weeks to spend and a limited budget for these three countries this book would more than do justice to your trip planning...but you just might miss Baumburg's Rauchbier (beer that tastes like smoke bacon if you can imagine that), that cool antique store on the pass between Austria and Switzerland where you can buy a huge cow bell for little to nothing, and the wine store in Lucerne on the lake where you can buy the rarely exported Swiss vino. So maybe Rick Steves' discrimination is well and good especially in the case of liquid bacon beer but the rest of Baumburg is pretty phenomenal.

If you are going to live in Germany get a more expansive and complete book on each country. It's not economical, but you have time to wait until the dollar is good against the Euro. If you are going there with a Euro rail pass just graduating from College, by all means my dear Wanderlust, don't leave without this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great family trip planner, March 18, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 2002 (Paperback)

I have dozens of guide and travel books and found this one of the most useful. I used Rick's GASP book to plan a trip that included children under 12 and a grandma in a wheel chair. With the information in this book I was able to contact the hotels by email and fax and save expense and time in reservations. (Although there is no specific help in finding handicapped-friendly hotels the centrality and convenience of the location was as important as any other detail) The cities/towns he recommends were all great and we liked each one better than the last. We used the train and found his tips on train travel extrememly useful. If you drive a car you need to invest in a good Michelin map no matter which guide book you use.
Since you can't see it all in a few weeks it is great when you can see some of the best and not spend a fortune. The audience for this book is people who want to feel part of the town when they visit and not stay in overpriced luxury hotels.