Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' Spain 2009

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Rick Steve's books are all wonderful in my opinion, but this one I especially appreciate, as my little sister has lived in Madrid for about 9 years, & I visit whenever I can. I think Steves hits the nail on head with his focus on how much of your time to spend where, although since I've been able to stay with my sister & her guy, I don't have to be concerned with hotels or hostels. I also have more time to spend, & so go slower than a tour or fast trip would. I do think his picks for where to focus a limited amount of time are on track, however, & his section on Madrid & surrounding day trips, which I am most familiar with, are straight up. I love reading his books, they go down like stories, very easy to read, & you're taking in information without even realizing it.
His description of Madrid's night life is real & surreal & the truth, it is completly strange to be out on the streets & sidewalks at 11:00 PM seeing the crowds of people, not all partier's, but whole families, just strolling. It feels safe, in fact the only real crime to concern yourself with is the one Steves stress's, which is pick-pocketing. I've been fortunate although dumb on occasion, hasn't happened to me, although it did to my sister her first year or two there. Her experiences helped me learn what not to do. You never feel weird like you do in large American cities as woman alone out late.
The public transportation is also excellent as Steves states, the bus's are a bit more complicated, but you really can easily get around as a newcomer on the subways, without speaking spanish, the signs & free maps are clear, & the 10 punch cards are a bargain, exactly as he says.
I've read other of Steves books about places I haven't been, & wouldn't hesitate to place myself in his hands.

I bought Spain 2008 for my trip. My main language is Spanish, my second language is English so I was looking for a book in Spanish to guide me into my Spain trip. I look many books in Spanish and English I couldn't find a better explained book than this Spain 2008 by Rick Steves. I just came from my trip and I have to say the book is fantastic!!! it is literally a guide to what to see what not to see and how you can save money, the advices he gives you for each city what to do and see are great, very well explained, simple and easy. Also he explains a small summary of the history around the place you will see. He says where to go and how to go, buses #, timetables and prices. I have to say he was short by 10% on each of prices. I assume it is for the economic crisis Spain is going trough so the buses he said was 1 euro in the book when was 1.10, but that is something Rick couldn't knew off course.
We met some tourist in our first stop, Madrid and see them in the next cities by the end of the trip all of them were with us following what the book suggest. You will never find a better written book that guides you in a trip to Europe. The book cost me $25.00 I saved way more thatn than just with the suggestion of the splitter (Rick suggest to buy a splitter in US $2.00 cost that can be plug in the audio guide and share it by headphones for two people so you rent only one instead two if that cost an average of 4 euro each) and I visited more than 8 places that use audioguide between museums and churches. I save at last 16 euros, so the book was paid. All of the tourist friends we made came to me like I was a local that can guide them trough the tourist places in the city, and more likely I was thanks to the book. I highly recommend you to buy this book!!!! Make yourself a big favor!!

We travel off the beaten path and discovered last month in Spain that many less-traveled areas are not even mentioned. The entire province of Extremadura and all of its cities, many of which are delightful and deeply steeped in history, are missing, as well as much of the western and northern coasts. Contrast that with the amount of detail given about "The Alhambra", a very touristy site. My comments pertain to the 2007 version, which was the most recent one available. However, upon checking the index for the 2009 version I find that it, too, lacks so much.

First of all, I love Rick Steve's books (and products) and use his books and videos exclusively.

HOWEVER...there is a major problem with his books. He's got these great city maps...great stuff. But on the maps, where he points out places of interest, there is no indication of where the review is. Argh!

For instance, you look at a city map, and it shows 10 restaurants. You're in one section of the area, and see 4 restaurants close to where you are. The next thing you'd do, of course, would be to check out the 4 reviews...alas, though, the 4 reviews are on different pages, and you have no idea where they are.

I literally spent 2 hours writing on these little maps, putting page numbers next to each restaurant/place of interest, etc. What a pain! It would take the Rick Steve's editors a couple hours to do this, and wouldn't take up much room (for instance, where it says on the bottom, "2. - XXX Restaurant", you could say, "2. - XXX Restaurant, p. 53." How hard would that be? Yeesh!

I used this book and found helpful information. In Madrid the two restaurant suggestions near our hotel were great. I was disappointed to find no information on Valencia. There is a reference to a website but that is after the fact once you are travelling. Also, the great buildup for Nerja at the Costa del Sol is not justified. We were at Torremolinos and thought we must go to Nerja since it was so fondly written about. However, we were extremely disappointed and the water quality was inferior to where we were. And it takes hours to get there by train and bus. I guess any travel book is good once you go for the second time, but, many of the references to places were confusing to me on a first time visit and I missed doing all that I wanted.

Rick Steve's Spain was the second travel book I purchased; I had gotten Rick Steve's London for a previous trip. Rick covers everything, and it's easy to read (not dry like other travel books). He covers the history on down to finding local restaurants with the best ambience and food. I plan on purchasing his books for future international travel.

I keep buying travel guides hoping for more. Superficial for the active traveller like myself who likes to hike, bike and mix plenty of play with experiencing truly authentic local flavor. I have yet to find a guide that has probed much beyond the most popular tourist locations.
Spain was a perfect example of this as highlights of the trip came in the form of mini-explorations into smaller pueblos and cities not mentioned in this or other guide books. I suppose what I was really hoping for and didn't get was the "local's guide" to smaller regions rather than a topical guide on the whole country.

First, there is a lot to be glad about in Rick Steves' phrase book: it has a wealth of information for food and a decent dictionary for a book its size. It is entertaining, although once in a while, I had the impression that he was fostering stereotypes. In his introduction to pronunciation for instance, he says that when one is speaking a Romance language, "sex is unavoidable." Granted, he obviously was looking for a way to spice up his introduction to the concept of gender, but it's not just over-the-top, it's an incorrect interpretation of the word "Romance" in the phrase "Romance languages." Here, "Romance" refers to languages derived from Latin -- the language of the Romans! He also spends too much time trying to help folks, who admittedly don't know the language, to understand the subtleties of peninsular pronunciation, which by the way makes the book useless in Mexico or any other country in our hemisphere.

His pronunciation guide is also counter-intuitive. I speak Spanish and tried his pronunciation guide -- thinking in English and without looking at the Spanish. I didn't know what I was saying in many cases.

Still, even though I speak Spanish, I'd definitely buy the book just for the practical information about food, transportation and so on -- to get around easier -- as I would as an English speaker going to San Francisco or New York.

Sincerely,

Eric W. Vogt, Ph.D.

This guide book is complete...no need to load up on other books. Easy to read and is very comprehensive.

I love Rick's books! In fact, I think I have a crush on him! His writing style is very easy to read (like a story as another reviewer stated), and he is right on track with his suggestions. I like his 'through the back door' mantra. I stayed in Barcelona, Madrid, and Toledo, and used his rooming reccomendations. All of them delivered! His restaurant suggestions are great (although he missed a few good ones in Madrid) and his descripations of what to expect are accurate. Don't travel abroad without buying a Rick book!