The Rough Guide to Scandinavia, Edition Seven (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

Various Authors (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2006 | Series: Rough Guide Travel Guides

Authoritative and fully up-to-date, the Rough Guide to Scandinavia is the essential handbook to Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Covering both popular sights and less well-known destinations the 24-page, full-colour section and two additional 4-page, full-colour inserts introduce all of the regions highlights, from whale-watching in Norway and Denmark’s vibrant nightlife to a husky safari through Lapland and Sweden’s chilly Icehotel. The new ‘author picks’ section of all the regions finest hotels and restaurants, will help you decide on the best places to stay, eat and drink, to suit every budget. There is plenty of practical advice on exploring the Scandinavian countryside, from Finland’s frosty wilderness to Norway’s wild mountain range. The guide takes a detailed look at Scandinavian history and contemporary life and comes complete with maps and plans for the entire region.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 820 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 7th edition (May 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843536056
• ISBN-13: 978-1843536055
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,745,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good guide to Heaven, June 2, 2008

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Jon L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rough Guide to Scandinavia, Edition Seven (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Before I jump into some comments about this book, the best of all Rough Guides I've bought to date, let's get a few facts down about Scandinavia:

1) This part of the world is absolutely picture perfect. You'll not visit cities more architecturally stunning, clean, geographically blessed and culturally dynamic than these... anywhere. You'll not visit geography and nature more awesome and pristine than here... anywhere.

2) There's a price to pay for all of this loveliness: Scandinavia is the most expensive tourist destination in the world. The capital cities are hilariously expensive. What you pay in Stockholm and Oslo will be twice what you pay in Paris, four times what you pay in Prague, and ten time what you pay in Riga.

3) Three words: white, clean, and neat.

Now, the book. There are 800 pages to get into the four countries that make Scandinavia. That's kind of like condensing world history down to one volume: There's the inevitable Wikipedia effect. People already familiar with Scandinavia will find the context a bit summary, but people new to the region will probably feel overwhelmed by the grandeur, rich history, and somewhat oppressive homogeneity.

It's hard to please everyone, but this guide tries hard to fit into the gap between local comprehensiveness and general knowledge. I love this, but some readers will really hate it. If you want more detailed, pragmatic information, Bradt is probably the way to go. If you want more historic and cultural context, you'll need to buy a narrative history to complement this guide, though this history sections in this guide are particularly well done. Here's the point: Knowing that the British navy blew Copenhagen into oblivion in 1807 is not only one of history's great ironies, but reveals a critically important insight about the incredible accomplishments of the Danes since then. This guide will frame the issue for you without boring you with contrived or conjectural detail.

Of course, there's emphasis on the capital cities here. Stockholm and Copenhagen, despite their relatively small sizes (each about a fifth the size of London or Paris), are so rich with sites, bites, walks, drinks, parks, boats, trains, shops, churches, palaces and universities that a quick tour around town will get your attention like a punch in the mouth. Helsinki, being relatively young by European standards, contains the most comprehensive ensemble of neoclassical and distinguished modern architecture you'll find in Europe.

But one of the really nice things about this guide is that it gives you complete portraits of important towns OUTSIDE the capitals that you might otherwise, and unfortunately, overlook: Uppsala, Visby and Lund in Sweden; Arhus, Denmark; Bergen, Norway; and Turku, Finland are worth the journeys. In fact, they may even be the highlights of your trip.

The density of life and institutions in Scandinavian cities are both exhilarating and frustrating. You'll feel anxious and stunned. Copenhagen is compact enough to get your mind around, but Stockholm and Oslo are real mind-benders. So, knowing this beforehand, get your eyeballs into this book and make some sense of it all before you fall in. You can put some organization into this vast land of steeples and fjords. Take it with you to keep yourself focused, or do what I do: Spend about an hour over coffee each morning blowing through the text and maps, make some mental notes, and leave the guide in the hotel room. Then get yourself lost in the streets. Rough Guides are better pre-read than on-the-fly. I like to travel that way, so I love these books.

There are some problems with this book. First, Rough Guides seem to have abandoned their "Film" section, usually contained in the contexts chapter. This is particularly unfortunate in a guide to Scandinavia, the source of many of the world's great cinematic masterpieces. As I mentioned before, the guide itself is somewhat summary, so readers looking for some detail about art, architecture and literature may find the book too broad-brush.

Scandinavia: Take LOTS of money, plenty of layers, and prepare yourself for Big Sky Country the European way.