Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to The Czech & Slovak Republics 7 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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In comparison to Lonely Planet and Let's Go guides I've used in the past, I found this guide very disappointing. The author/editor can't seem to resist inserting his negative editorial opinion about every last city, village, hamlet, mountain, forest, castle and stone in either country. Cities are frequently described by their relative degree of "sovietness" or industrial decay. Areas in the countryside are typically described by their degree of industrial desolation, pollution, tourist exploitation, and environmental neglect. Even when he has something positive to say about a particular destination, it's couched in whingeing about something negative about something nearby. Humphreys' jaundiced tone makes visiting these countries seem like a trip to the Pennsylvania Rust Belt of the early 1980s. I've read travelogues that make Chernobyl seem more appealing.

Avoid this book. You're better off with Lonely Planet.

ADDED: having been to Slovakia and Czech Republic twice now, I can say that his descriptions really are off the mark. I didn't see any of the rust belt horror show that Humphreys describes.

So, I've been to the area several times in my life and what I loved about this book is that it added so much more historical, little known facts, and helped to tie a lot of stuff together. These countries have changed a lot in the last 20 years and this is a very good book to have if you are travelling to the area. It is thick and full of info -- I meant to read it 'en route' like on the plane, and never got around to it, and then once we landed, forget it. But I referred to it a lot and read many helpful snippets.
Highly recommended.