Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Switzerland, 1st Edition (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Doing my due diligence on this year's trip to Switzerland, I checked all the relevent guidebooks in local bookstores. Finally settled on this book over the similar Lonely Planet one. This one wins out for all the bonus info it manages to squeeze into its numerous sidebars. I am especially impressed by its mini-history of counterculture in Bern and Zurich - throws a monkey wrench into the usual Swiss stereotypes. It labors to do justice to the many less-well-known charms of Switzerland, and to a large degree seems to succeed (e.g. a full section on CERN - birthplace of the web), while still remaining compact and useful (as opposited to Michelin)

However, there are still a few shortcomings:
* No coverage of the major scenic trains of the Swiss Railway (Golden Pass, Glacier Express, William Tell Express, etc.) A major omission, since they are well-known, excellent experience in themselves, and make for a great backbone to hang your entire visit.
* More generally, not enough help for new visitors to pick and choose all these sights and put together a sensible itinery, e.g. scenic routes, top-10 experiences, and sample 7-day or 14-day itineries (although very few guidebooks do this). In particular, the book should help me take advantage of the best rail system in the world to maximize my stay. Swiss Rail deserves a section all its own.
* Not enough web addresses are supplied for hotels, attractions etc. where usually only phone #s are given. URLs are much more useful than phone #s for trip-planning (esp. hotels).
* A general problem for Swiss guidebooks, but still annoying: On Lake Leman and Maggiore, coverage stops at the border, as if the other French and Italian halves don't exist. C'mon - borders are for politicians. When I am at Lake Maggiore, I want to know what's there around the _whole_ lake, and how to enjoy them all. Just give me the info and I'll deal with the technicalities. In the case of Lake Leman, the French side on the south may well be on another planet - cuz it's too small for the French guides to cover!
* In Jungfrau region, it overlooks the small town of Gimmelwald - currently the exclusive scoop of the Rick Steves book

What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular hotel or site. The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides. I would balance your trip to Switzerland with a Fodors (or Frommers) book because the maps are often better and there are more higher end hotels listed.

This book will help you decide where is best to spend your vacation in Switzerland. There are clear critical descriptions of all the regions and great general info on getting around in Switzerland.

If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels.. the guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels.

I would definitely read this book before going to Switzerland.

This guidebook covers Switzerland from a British point of view. The Rough Guide series is not known for it's in depth coverage. The entries in this guide tend to be brief--only giving a mention and a list of business hours and transportation info. For those who are looking for more in depth coverage, this obituaries style of writing may leave you looking for something else. If you cut out the phone numbers, lists of business hours, and transportation information, then the page count would be cut in half. Also, for a book that spends so much time talking about transportation, it's a little frustrating that there aren't more maps to illustrate the directions. If you're looking for a comprehensive guidebook for Switzerland, I would get another guidebook.

The Rough Guide To Switzerland stands out because of its thoroughness: it goes well beyond the usual travel-book sketches to include specific information on transportation, accomodation, dining and local customs. Unlike other guides, it has extremely useful information on local regulations, for which Switzerland is sadly famous. For example, it notes that ``parking in Switzerland is hellish,'' and goes on to describe in detail the parking regulations in Zurich and Geneva (which almost require you to have a law degree to understand). Note, however, that some of the information is outdated, and you should check in advance with the local tourist office because some rules have changed since the book's publication. The Rough Guide also gives excellent travel tips.

Thanks for the great review, Milesyao! (see below for what s/he says). To answer your criticisms:

* Major scenic train routes are covered on p.38.
* Picking & choosing sights; see 2nd edition update, due for publication next year, which will have more on this.
* Web addresses, ditto.
* Cross-border coverage, ditto again.
* For details of Gimmelwald, see p.271 (top and bottom of the page).

Hope this helps!
Matthew Teller
Author, Rough Guide to Switzerland

I have been to Switzerland many times. Recently I sat down with my daughter who has worked at a hotel at Interlaken in Switzerland during her years in Business Administration at McGill - up to last summer - and we went over the Switzerland guides to see how they ranked, and what was currently the best guide in our humble opinions. We are not experts but have certain requirements and preferences. It helps if one can get a feel for the area in advance of a trip, and generally that is helped by good maps and color photos. So those guides do better in our review. We like to make reservations by internet and telephone and just use the Guide as a "guide".

Generally it costs more to publish a book with color photos so when all else is reasonably equal, one feels that they get better value with a guide with photos. Also we wanted to see if the ambiance at certain hotels and resorts was accurately portrayed in the text based on our knowledge. So those aspects of the guides determine our ranking. Incidentally all the books are excellent. When we did our review the new DK Eyewitness guide was not yet available, but in any case it will be short, under 400 pages.

For the Swiss guides we separated the guides into three groups, 5, 4, and 3 stars.

5 Stars (this group has nice color photos plus maps and text).

A. Green Guide to Switzerland published February 2001 by Michelin, 395 pages, $14., ranked 24,380 on Amazon.com, 0.64" x 9.4" x 4.7", lots of photos, maps, text, accurate portrayal of areas. Gives a nice idea of what you will find. Goes right down to small villages in detail even though it is just 395 pages. First choice.

B. Lonely Planet Switzerland published July 2003, 335 pages, $ 14., ranked 29,913 on Amazon.com, .69" x 6.42" x 6.5". Solid effort, lots of good photos and descriptions.

4 Stars (this group mainly text and maps).

C. Rough Guide to Switzerland published June 2003, 704 pages, $13.27, ranked 30,209 on Amazon.com, 1.08" x 7.8" x 6.38". Solid effort lots of things to see and do and best "text and maps only" books.

D. Frommer's Switzerland published February 2003, 512 pages, $15.39, ranked 47,638 on Amazon.com, 1.1" x 8.5" x 5.08". Similar to Rough Guide but shorter.

E. Fodor's Guide to Switzerland 42 edition, published December 2002, 448 pages, $14.7, ranked highest in group on Amazon.com at 3,172, 1.2" x 8.98" x 5.01". The smallest in the group, do not know why it is so popular?.

3 Stars

F. Michelin Red Guide published in 2004, 563 pages but in four languages: Italian, French, German and English so English sections are just a fraction of the book.

I'm the author of the Rough Guide to Switzerland - I couldn't resist responding to the review below titled "A must for a Swiss trip" by 10za. Rough Guides may have started out 22 years ago as "rough" backpacker guides, but the guide I wrote is anything but! As well as budget sleeping & eating options all round Switzerland, we cover high-end choices in detail. Here's a brief rundown. In Geneva we give full, hands-on reviews of the best six luxury hotels, and seven more midrange hotels, plus critical assessment of fine restaurants such as Le Bearn and Miyako. In Zurich, discriminating reviews of five luxury hotels, ten more midrange hotels (six in-town and four out-of-town), and eight of the city's grandest restaurants. Where to stay inexpensively - and very expensively - in St Moritz, Montreux and Gstaad. The cheapest nosh in Bern and the finest cuisine in Lugano. You get the idea. Had to put the record straight.

Areas of the country are easy to locate. Good regional maps. Some accommodations provided (nice to have moderate listings as opposed to many travel guides that list the high priced, luxury places) and eating places, but kept minimal so that the majority of the book focuses on things to see and do. Particularly like the "travel details" section at the end of each chapter that gives trains and bus information which includes length of time to travel between cities.

As a solo traveler through Switzerland this book was amazing. I leafed through other travel guides before my trip and finally decided on this one due to it's thoroughness about various regions and it's extras (history, festivals, maps (loved all the maps) etc). I spent two and a half weeks there and this guide made it all worthwhile. I recommend it to anyone going to Switzerland!