Customer Reviews

Walking Easy: in the Swiss and Austrian Alps

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

 

 

I used this book (along with a few others) to help plan a 2 week trip to Switzerland in June 09 with my family. The book focuses on hiking from: Zermatt, Saas-Fee, Lauterbrunnen, Kandersteg, Samedan, Arosa, Engelberg, and Meiringen in Switzerland (half of the book is devoted to Austrian hikes). For each hiking base, there are several walks of varying ability (easy to challenging), along with other options in case of rain. This book should NOT be used as a trail guide--the descriptions are more general of the whole hike, and do not have enough specifics to guide a hike. The maps are useful only to show where a hike is relative to the base city and should not be relied upon. This book needs a serious editing--lots of typo's and some elevation readings that are not to be trusted. I don't think the photos in this book add much and are so generally labeled, that one cannot be sure they represent the hike or area on the page. Based on this book's recommendations, we went to Kandersteg and enjoyed the village and its walks very much.

I used this book as a basis for a 3 week trip to the Swiss and Austrian Alps and it was invaluable. We stayed in recommended towns, Lauterburnen, Zermatt, and Alpbach and they were perfect jump off spots for hikes. We are day hikers, so it was nice to return to comfortable hotels in the towns. All of the hikes were on the mark for difficulty and scenery. I combined some of the shorter hikes into longer ones and used a couple of other books to find ways to extend some of the hikes in the book. We had a fantastic vacation and owe much of the success to this book.

We followed the trails suggested in the Bernese Oberland section. We chose a walk rated as having medium diffiulty for the book. The descent was so steep that my 30-something walks-a-mile-to-work-everyday husband was not able to walk at all the next day because of the extreme pain in his knees. We missed out on all our subsequent hiking. We later learned (from our swiss maps) that the red-white-red trail markings meant "paths for experienced hikers". The yellow markings mean paths for everyone. There was no mention of this distinction in the book. And given the book's title, we would have thought that all of the walks would have been pretty easy. What would we have done if we were older or had our children along? I think hikers should ask their hosts in Switzerland to recommend walks. Our hotel (the Hotel Regina in Wengen) had many easy walks to suggest. I'd get a good map and order something better to read.

My wife and I, now in our 70's, are still using the first edition for our third walking trip in the Bernese Oberland. It has been our "bible" for each trip. There is no way we could have managed so easily without it. Not only for the actual walks but also how the down-to-earth advice on preparing, what-to-pack, getting around Switzerland and so forth saved hours of research and on-the-job learning.

As I write we are once more in Kandersteg on our third trip. The only negative we have found in the walks from the first edition is that some of the glaciers have disappeared due to global warming and of course the inflation in prices mentioned. In fact that is the reason we are checking to see if there is an updated version.

Now we will purchase the newest edition. I have no doubt that it will be equally as useful as the first.

The book was a disappointment for me. It does present a choice of top alpine towns/regions suitable as a base for short mountain walks. But descriptions of regions are much too short and don't help much in taking decision which one to choose for your trip. Surely it was my mistake also to believe that it's possible to deliver more comprehensive info on such extensive topic within 200+ pages only.
Another downside is that book doesn't contain even basic maps of regions and only very few rough sketches of trails - for me it makes reading walks descriptions much harder.
As for walks choice - the title "Walking easy" really means it - they are mostly recreational short walks with extensive use of lifts and public transport Amatours of more challenging hikes should skip it. I admit that walks proposed in their category - meaning "easy" - are ok (though I expect suggested trails to be crowdy due to their popularity&easyness), and there are usually 7 of them for each region - good for an avarage 1 week stay. Walks descriptions are short and concentrate on giving directions and sometimes are bit chaotic - some information given in introduction to a walk is frequently repeated in actual description. As a plus - most of walks descriptions seem to be pretty good as for giving accurate directions for a particular trail. Clues given allow to plan particular walks well as for using transport, lifts, planning stop-overs for a snack etc.There are also alternative trail options given for some of the walks.
Finally, but this goes for editor/publisher, the number of typos in this book is appaling! Sometimes it makes reading a nighmare, and is especially harmful as for names of places/towns. Shame! Graphics in the book are virtually nonexistant (I guess budget was tight, as even cover image looks like taken using cellphone camera).
To sum up - the idea of the book was very ambitious - pity that the actual result is of limited use. It could be 3 star if not for typos and poor graphics.

We recently completed two weeks of traveling and hiking in Switzerland and Austria. Prior to our trip we were looking for a "101 hikes in the Alps" type of book and this book was the closest we could find. When we were on the ground in the Alps and faced with the hundreds of hiking options available, this book did little to help us locate the trails or select hikes based upon hiking capabilities and scenic interest. The lodging recommendations appeared to be tailored to the more affluent traveler. The book would have been more useful if it had focused on the hiking and left the travel tips to another book. Before the next printing some editing is needed on the Zermatt section: Furi is misspelled Fun several times and Zermatt is misspelled Zenmatt.

A great hiking guide for easy walkers...in the picturesque villages of the alps.. these villlages are easy to get to with public transportationand all hotels cater to summer hikers/walkers. Lifts are nearby and trails are described and well signed and maintained... great for families and hikers of all ages... the book describes the details of the walks with many maps and hotel suggestions. A very user fiendly edition... try it