Customer Reviews

Vietnam and Angkor Wat (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

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

 

 

I used this guidebook when I went to Vietnam this May. Absolutely loved it! Inside were nice pictures of the attractions and sights, and also comprehensive maps to major locations. I practically used the map inside this book while navigating through Ho Chi Minh City! Also has a nice map of the entire country where you can locate where the different provinces are.

I highly recommend this guidebook! Makes navigating so easy!

Oh, and for the record? Everyone who's ever been to Vietnam knows that Angkor Wat is a popular sidetrip. WHICH IS WHY IT IS INCLUDED IN THE TITLE. For those idiots who are raising bloody hell about how misleading the design of the title is, well, DUH it's COMMON SENSE! If you've been mislead to think Angkor Wat belongs to Vietnam, then you need to read more, my dears!

This guide book was helpful during our side trip to Angkor Wat. I used it before the trip to decide which attractions was worth visiting. The major attractions have color sketches showing the layout and color images with a description. The smaller attractions had a color image with a description or just a description. I found the images and star features helpful to determine if an attraction was worth seeing.

When I got to Angkor Wat, I read about each sights beforehand and used it during our private tour to follow along. Even though I had an English speaking guide, I sometimes found it easier to read our guide book for more information when I didn't understand him.

I recommend it for people who plan to visit Vietnam and Angkor Wat as a side trip but don't want to purchase another guidebook for Cambodia. It helps to keep the weight of your luggage down as guidebooks can be heavy.

I would suggest supplementing it with Lonely Planet Vietnam for logistics. I own many DK and Lonely Planet guide books and I always find it helpful to have both with me. DK for pictures and sight layouts and Lonely Planet for logistics and restaurants.

We just used this book on a very thorough package tour of Vietnam. It provided just the right amount of information we needed as background for the sites to which our tour guides took us, with great pictures that will help us remember what we saw, and also helped us when we were had time to explore independently. Particularly good in this book series are the combination diagram/picture/explanation guides to important sites. Unlike other tour books that overwhelm with sometimes irrelevant details, there is just enough information presented for 30-60 minute visits, and the photos help to immediately identify the features. Additionally, the well illustrated history and cultural sections were far superior to the alternative guide books.

On the other hand, this book is not great for restaurant and hotel information, where other books give needed detail. Were we to travel to VN on our own, we would definitely bring the same book, but we would also bring a recent Frommer's.

Just as it has done for me on trips to Europe and the British Isle DK has come through for me again with this series about South East Asia. The maps make it easy to navigate and don't require me to buy maps of major tourist sites as they are already included and it helps to get you excited and know what you want to see when you get there with its beautiful displays. They got it right as they always seem to do.

I have always been a fan of the Eyewitness Travel Guides. For me, it is important to get a preview of sites before I travel so I can decide if I want to bother visiting them. These guides do a great job of visually presenting the information. (The back of the book provides general travel information.)
These books concentrate on the areas and sites of interest, broken down by region. If you want back-packing/low-budget hints and/or precise travel details, then these books are not for you. Get that from Lonely Planet or Frommers with virtually no visual presentations. Personally, I read both types, however, I only find the Eyewitness Guides worth purchasing for its visual appeal.

All I can say is "wow" to the two reviewers who rated this book low because of their ignorance concerning Angkor Wat/Cambodia.

Book is long on pictures, short on usable info. It is more of a guide to what Vietnam is, as opposed to a valuable asset in planning what and how to organize a trip. Nicely put together but not at all for my purposes. Wrong buy on my part.

If you want pretty pictures of a few sites in each city, buy this guidebook.

If you want the in-depth logistical information you need while traveling - doctors in Saigon, how good/bad the train really is, more than a handful of hotels/restaurants in each town, names of interesting shops - buy something else.

I bought this ONLY because Lonely Planet got horrible reviews and Footprint, which are my guidebooks of choice, had not been updated in a couple of years. I will never buy it again.

Like all the Eyewitness Guides I've used, this is chock full of pictures and lively information. I'm sure it will be hugely useful on my trip.

The design of title is very offending and misleading the public . Big lettering on "VIETNAM" with below small subtitle "and Angkor Wat" -- implied Angkor Wat belongs to Vietnam. Shame on DK Publishing. I will have my reserved before pickup anything put out by this publisher again.

What happened to the rest of Cambodia? Last time I saw Angkor Wat it was still in Cambodia. What gives? Does Cambodia not rate reviewing? Gezzzz