Frommer's Switzerland (8th ed) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Danforth Prince (Author) "You're visiting Switzerland to relax and have a good time, so you don't want to waste precious vacation hours searching for the best deals and..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It's simple: Frommer's offers the most complete, easy-to-use, and up-to-date travel information consumers can buy. No other series can match our commitment to offering all the practical details in such a fun, user-friendly format. Our candid, authoritative hotel and restaurant reviews are the best in the business - theyre incredibly detailed, and they include carefully chosen selections for every taste and budget. And we offer a wealth of sightseeing, sports, strolls, and special moments - from the major tourist highlights for a first-time visitor to off-the-beaten-track discoveries that will impress even the most seasoned traveler. And its all accompanied by our detailed, accurate two-color maps that show you the way.

Most guidebooks read like textbooks or promotional brochures - but not Frommers. We know that readers turn to us when theyre planning a vacation, so even though we take the details seriously, we produce guides with a sense of fun and discovery. And we believe that you can tell a book by its cover - so we dont settle for anything less than spectacular photography. No wonder were turning heads. And no wonder readers have rediscovered that Frommer's is the name you can trust.

From the Back Cover

Frommer's. The best trips start here.

Experience a place the way the locals do.
Enjoy the best it has to offer.

• Including detailed walking tours to guide you through the cobblestone streets of Zurich, Bern, Geneva, and Lucerne.

• Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.

• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.

• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 491 pages
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company; 8th edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028620836
• ISBN-13: 978-0028620831
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,719,158 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth taking with me, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

I recently purchased this book from a local bookstore and found it very informative. It had a balanced view of history and was entertaining reading. I am planning on taking the book with me as I travel Switzerland. It seems to have a good selection of hotel and restaurant offerings and I can't wait to get there. I find that the Frommers books as well as the on-line site at frommers.com are very valuable to the budget minded traveler. I paid more for the book than Amazon is selling it for so it is a good value from Amazon.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good But There are Better, December 22, 2005

By	J. E. Robinson - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Frommer's Switzerland (Paperback)

I have been to Switzerland many times. Recently I sat down with my daughter who has worked at a hotel at Interlaken in Switzerland during her years in Business Administration at McGill - up to last summer - and we went over the Switzerland guides to see how they ranked, and what was currently the best guide in our humble opinions. We are not experts but have certain requirements and preferences. It helps if one can get a feel for the area in advance of a trip, and generally that is helped by good maps and color photos. So those guides do better in our review. We like to make reservations by internet and telephone and just use the Guide as a "guide".

Generally it costs more to publish a book with color photos so when all else is reasonably equal, one feels that they get better value with a guide with photos. Also we wanted to see if the ambiance at certain hotels and resorts was accurately portrayed in the text based on our knowledge. So those aspects of the guides determine our ranking. Incidentally all the books are excellent. When we did our review the new DK Eyewitness guide was not yet available, but in any case it will be short, under 400 pages.

For the Swiss guides we separated the guides into three groups, 5, 4, and 3 stars.

5 Stars (this group has nice color photos plus maps and text).

A. Green Guide to Switzerland published February 2001 by Michelin, 395 pages, $14., ranked 24,380 on Amazon.com, 0.64" x 9.4" x 4.7", lots of photos, maps, text, accurate portrayal of areas. Gives a nice idea of what you will find. Goes right down to small villages in detail even though it is just 395 pages. First choice.

B. Lonely Planet Switzerland published July 2003, 335 pages, $ 14., ranked 29,913 on Amazon.com, .69" x 6.42" x 6.5". Solid effort, lots of good photos and descriptions.

4 Stars (this group mainly text and maps).

C. Rough Guide to Switzerland published June 2003, 704 pages, $13.27, ranked 30,209 on Amazon.com, 1.08" x 7.8" x 6.38". Solid effort lots of things to see and do and best "text and maps only" books.

D. Frommer's Switzerland published February 2003, 512 pages, $15.39, ranked 47,638 on Amazon.com, 1.1" x 8.5" x 5.08". Similar to Rough Guide but shorter.

E. Fodor's Guide to Switzerland 42 edition, published December 2002, 448 pages, $14.7, ranked highest in group on Amazon.com at 3,172, 1.2" x 8.98" x 5.01". The smallest in the group, do not know why it is so popular?.

3 Stars

F. Michelin Red Guide published in 2004, 563 pages but in four languages: Italian, French, German and English so English sections are just a fraction of the book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good as reference, not for much else, July 30, 2001

By	Julius Kusuma (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Frommer's Switzerland (Frommer's Switzerland, 9th ed) (Paperback)

I purchased a copy of this book to help with my summer research internship in Switzerland in 2001, and found it to be less useful than the Rough Guides.

The Fromer book is written as a fairly terse reference book, listing a few restaurants, hotels of various price ranges, and not much else for the different cities. Sure, there are listings of attractions for the different cities, but the way they are presented is not very helpful to plan trips. On the other hand, the Rough Guides have suggestions on things to do for the different places.

So all in all, it depends on your style of planning but I feel that this book is more suited to business travelers.