The Unofficial Guide to Paris [Paperback]

David Applefield (Author)

Book Description

Series: Unofficial Guides | Publication Date: December 19, 2003

The Unofficial Guides® are the Consumer Reports of travel guides, offering candid evaluations of their destinations' attractions, hotels, restaurants, shopping, nightlife, sports, and more, all rated and ranked by a team of unbiased inspectors so even the most compulsive planners can be sure they're spending their time and money wisely. Each guide addresses the needs of everyone from families to business travelers, with handy charts that demonstrate how each place stacks up against the competition. Plus, all the details are pulled out so they're extremely easy to scan.

In a popular, pricey city like Paris, you need a book like the Unofficial Guide®, with its honest advice about what's worth your time and money, its tips on planning your time and avoiding the crowds, and its ratings of the best hotels and restaurants for every budget. Planning a trip and learning to negotiate such a huge, sprawling city can be overwhelming, but the Unofficial Guide® will help you to avoid headaches and see Paris like a local.

The Top 5 Ways The Unofficial Guide® To Paris Can Help You Have the Perfect Trip:

1. Honest advice that allows you to feel safe and comfortable in the City of Light, despite the language barrier
2. Insider tips on finding the most charming hotels -- plus which rooms offer the best views
3. A complete guide to Paris's cultural and historic sights--with helpful hints for making the most of your time
4. Information to help you save money, including how to exchange currency and not lose
5. The inside story on shopping -- where to get the best for less

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

From the publishers of The Unofficial Guide? to Walt Disney World?

"A Tourist?s Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Indispensable"
—The New York Times

The Top 10 Ways The Unofficial Guide to Paris Can Help You Have the Perfect Trip:

1. Information that?s candid, critical, and totally objective
2. Honest advice that allows you to feel safe and comfortable in the City of Light, despite the language barrier
3. Insider tips on finding the most charming hotels?plus which rooms offer the best views
4. More than 60 restaurants reviewed in detail and ranked for quality and value
5. A complete guide to Paris?s cultural and historic sights?with helpful hints for making the most of your time
6. Information to help you save money, including how to exchange currency
7. Expert advice on how to get around the city, so you can look and feel like a local
8. The inside story on shopping?where to get the best for less
9. All the details on how to enjoy Paris with your kids
10. Everything you need to plan the Paris vacation that?s right for you

Get the unbiased truth on hundreds of hotels, restaurants, attractions, and more in The Unofficial Guide to Paris?the resource that helps you save money, save time, and make your trip the best it can be.

About the Author

David Applefield is a novelist, travel writer, lecturer, and editor from Boston who has lived in Paris for over 20 years. He publishes the popular Paris website www.paris-anglo.com, writes the weekly newsletter My Mercredi, and is the author of Paris Inside Out. His fiction includes Once Removed and On a Flying Fish. Applefield edits Paris’s longest-running expat literary journal FRANK, teaches American Culture at Sciences Po, and represents the Financial Times in French-speaking West Africa.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 3 edition (December 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764540645
• ISBN-13: 978-0764540646
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,589,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide for all Travelers to Paris, Old and New, April 18, 2001

By 

"bdg55" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Paris (Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)

As a Paris veteran I was pleased to pick up and read an excellent Paris guide written for the everyday traveller. Applefield and Sehlinger have proven to understand the moderate cost traveller more then any other guide book currently on the market. This, and their ability to educate the novice and amuse the Paris regular proves they have written this for everyone. The advice is useful and to the point, while not being from the USA (Canada to be exact) I can appreciate the advice given to the general readers. Very informative and an excellent buy, worth every penny.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE guidebook to carry, IMHO, April 24, 2005

By 

E. L. Hobbins "hobbins" (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Paris (Paperback)

The Unofficial guide to Paris (UGP) is an excellent resource on the everyday logistics of getting around a major city. We purchased several books once we'd decided to visit France: of course, the Michelin Red guide, Frommer's Guide to France, Fodor's Paris CityPack, and then my husband brought this home as a "flyer" (we'd never used an Unofficial Guide before). Fodor's turned out to be not so useful - they included what I thought was a great Paris map but it basically disintegrated in 2 days into our trip. I immediately followed advice from the UGP and purchased a Plan de Paris - much easier to use and more detail. Frommer's Guide was very useful for finding hotels and restaurants in the Loire Valley (also part of our itinerary). But I didn't bring that book with me. The UGP provided incredible amounts of info on how to make this wonderful city very easy to navigate at reasonable prices and to enjoy with a minimum amount of tourist angst. We found the reviews for restaurants and hotels pretty much on the mark. Frommer's gave the Carte Visite an ever-so-brief mention and never mentioned (that I found) the Carte des Musees. Both these coupons saved us tons on time and money. My recommendation to future travelers to Paris would be to buy the UGP and the Michelin guide and then go to the library for other refs.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for return trips to Paris as well!, June 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Paris (Paperback)

I hadn't planned on buying another Paris guidebook, since I've been to Paris twice before, but as I was leafing through the Unofficial Guide to Paris (looking for a particular piece of information), I realized how much information this book contained that was different from other guidebooks. So I broke down and bought it! I really appreciate the perspective of the authors, who have written the book for people who are somewhat price-conscious and perhaps looking for some Parisian experiences that may be slightly off the beaten path. I particularly like the book's organization and the authors' practical insights. I like it when guidebook authors actually offer opinions and don't just list information that may turn out to be a poor choice. Well done!