Customer Reviews

Wales: The Rough Guide, Second Edition

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This was the first Rough Guide I bought for the first of my solo
vacations. I chose it after comparing with various other guides,
such as the Blue Guide and others. This provided an immense
amount of detail on all sorts of historical sites, little towns,
etc. and was of great value in planning out my trip. One thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that I later discovered that there are a number of "dark age" monuments (forts, inscribed stones, gravesites, etc.) that it doesn't list; it concentrates on larger places. I would have liked to have seen alot of those, as dark age Britain is an interest of mine. To be fair, other guides leave those things out, too, and I had to find the info in archeological and historical references.

The 2006 "Rough Guide to Wales" features a part of Great Britain generally off the beaten track for most tourists coming from the United States. Although a small component part of the United Kingdom, Wales has fiercely maintained its independent character over the centuries. Travelers will find a geographically varied region celebrating its Celtic origins while welcoming tourists.

The Rough Guide to Wales combines vital visitor information, maps, graphics, and photographs in a compact format, along with the expected Rough Guide opinions on where to go and what to see. Wales offers some dramatic shoreline and equally dramatic hill country in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons. Wales also features an excellent selection of castles, many in good repair and most open to the public. If some popular areas, especially along the seacoast, have become overrun with caravan (trailer) parks, other parts are relatively uncluttered and offer spectacular attractions. Wales has been a tourist destination for the British for many years and the infrastructure for accomodations, eating, and traveling are both well-developed and offer options across a broad price range.

The Rough Guide breaks down Wales into seven geographic regions in order to address to address the principal attractions, accomodation, and information on how to get around. Website addresses are generously included for those needing additional information about hours, rates, and times of specific facilities. The last portion of the guide features some interesting narrative essays on the history of Wales, its modern sense of nationalism, its natural history, and its music and other cultural attractions.

This guide is highly recommended to visitors to Wales. Coupled with the appropriate Ordnance Survey maps, the guide should be a very sufficient planning resource for most vacations.

After travelling in Europe with the Lonely Planet guides for Paris and Barcelona, I found this guide somewhat more difficult to navigate. However, I suppose you must consider that the city guides will generally be more detailed than those for an entire country.

Although the guide gives a wealth of attractions, restaurants, and sleeping options for the various regions, I found it a bit lacking in maps and "how to get there" information. In addition, I would have liked it if the author had included a more website references. Finally, for some of the hotel and restaurant options, it would have been nice if there was some system used to denote how cheap or expensive a place was.

If you plan on using this book as your primary reference for your visit to Wales, I highly recommend purchasing a good map and plan on doing a lot of driving.

I ordered this book a few weeks ago and was absolutely thrilled to finally receive it! I was so discouraged that most book stores don't carry Welsh travel guides. This guide did not disappoint at all! The two authors are very thorough and divide the guide into the following sections:

- Colour (as the Brits say) gives the reader a feel for Wales. They describe various events throughout the year (like the Dylan Thomas festival, great places outdoors for hiking, cragging) and where to go, how to get there.
- Guide describes the various cities in North Wales and South Wales in depth. Each section has a map and lists most restaurants, prices, and local cuisine and venues to try out.
- context describes the history, culture, music, literature, films, books, and enough Welsh to get the reader by.
I'll be going to Swansea, which is by Cardiff, and I imagine I'll be exploring that town greatly! I am interested in finding many different castles in the surrounding areas too and the guide points out where they are and the best means to get there.
I think perhaps the only thing I would have liked more is more color photographs. But other than that, it's a very functional and easy guide book to use.

Great book for sightseeing and understanding history. Would be a perfect book if a bit more info on dining and shopping was added.

Wales is the Celtic country par excelence and the least known and least written about of all of them that remain - Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Cornwall and Galicia and also possibly Asturias.

This book goes a way to redress the balance with Wales more well known neighbours. Of course living in the permanent shadow of England will always draw attention away from it to more easily identifiable tourist interests such as grand museums, big shops, a wealth of historical buildings and emblematic architecture etc.

The Rough Guide to Wales is indeed a joy to read and a delight to use, it follows the Rough Guide philosophy that has worked with so many other locations, and it makes Wales appear to be a very approachable and friendly place that has a welcome for everyone.

If you are thinking of going native Celtic then think of Wales - if you want to know more or you have decided already then this book is for you.

Regards,

Martyn_jones@iniciativas.com

My husband and I just toured Wales with this book and bought it because of the evaluations from other Amazon readers. I'd like to add my two-cents -- we were disappointed (probably because it came highly recommended). There is lots of information but no opinions so all items read as "this is the facts" == which is good but missing a "trip must see" or a "don't go out of your way" evauation. With a limited time to tour, we would have liked a guide to some of the must-sees.

In all fairness, all the facts are there and correct.

We have now used Rough Guides to travel extensively to many countries, and have typically found there to be no better guide. Unfortunately, the Rough Guide to Wales seems to let the series down a little.

We are fans of getting off the beaten track, and we certainly did that when following this guide. However, some of the destinations we went out of way too (often by hours) just weren't all that the guide left us expecting. Often we would arrive at a muddy field with a mediocre attraction, having expected a spectacular view or ancient monument. We also failed to stay in any accommodation mentioned in the guide, but this was due to lack of availability, albeit out of season. It seems many places in Wales won't accept one-night stays. Forewarning of this would be beneficial.

Typical of Rough Guides, though, the restaurant reviews, and a couple of mentioned attractions were worth visiting. The guide appears to be written by an older person that is particularly keen on the inside of churches, and may not appeal so much to people looking for something a bit more adventurous. For us, this was fine... as history is what draws us on our travels.

I would still suggest anyone planning a Wales holiday should buy the book. We didn't find a better one. Also, visit Wales... it is worth the effort.

Like other Rough Guides, this book excels in its depth and breadth of coverage - if a town isn't covered, it does not have very much for the tourist. However, I was very disappointed by the out-of-date price information found in this ostensibly brand-new guide. While I don't expect guidebooks to be perfect, it became obvious that they had not contacted many of the bed and breakfasts they list for many years, as rates I was quoted were often almost twice as much as the Rough Guide price! In a couple of cases, the proprietor was no longer doing B&B, and had not been doing so for several years! So buy the Rough Guide for its detailed site information, but look elsewhere if you need accomodation advice.