Croatia (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

~ Leandro Zoppe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'No other guide whets your appetite quite like this one.' - The Independent --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

From its beautiful coastline and archipelago to its splendid architecture, explore Croatia in renowned Eyewitness Travel Guide style. Includes practical advice on how to get around, where to rent a yacht, travel between the islands, and where to enjoy the best local food.

Features over 850 full-color photographs, maps and illustrations.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: DK Travel; 1st edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789493306
• ISBN-13: 978-0789493309
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #761,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great niche book to bring to Croatia, May 29, 2003

By	JRK "jkunzvt" (VERMONT) - See all my reviews

If you understand the type of guides published by Eyewitness, you will be real happy with this purchase. As a future traveler to Croatia, I needed a book to help me with where to stay, where to eat and where to go for nightlife. For that, I looked to the Rough Guide Croatia (search on 1858285445) and Lonely Planet Croatia (search on 1864503327). These books have lots of text and lots of information! However, when I wanted a guide that explains the history of Croatia, detailed information on each sight that I'm visiting, and great pictures to boot, that's when I picked up this book. It does have a restaurant and accomodation section, but it's pretty small. I wouldn't rely solely on this book to plan your stay in Croatia...

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars pretty but often of little use, June 22, 2004

By	Nacozari - See all my reviews

I think the title of my review wraps it all up: the eyewitness guides are a work of graphic art. Their highlight is probably the great work on the maps, both small and large scale, which are of great help as you navigate around the city looking for the hot spots. As a tool for reaching all of the sights you want to see, I would say that the Eyewitness Guide is among the best, with its close-up street maps, neighborhood maps and public transportation guides. In addition to this, as another positive comment I would say that it is a great guide to take on a trip if you don't have much time and you need information presented in an easy-to-read, simple manner. The drawings and photos, and the way they are laid out, is very appealing.

The advantages stop there, however. If you really want to get to know a city, town or island, you simply need more in-depth historical and cultural information on the sights you are seeing. Most of the descriptions of places in the Eyewitness Guide for Croatia do not stretch beyond a paragraph or two, which is quite superficial in my opinion. If you really want to know about the history behind the church, monument, museum or park you have traveled so far to see, you will definitely need another guidebook to give you any kind of detail. This flaw becomes far worse when you read the sections on sights that are off the beaten track (which are many!). The descriptions become utterly superficial, with sometimes no more than a sentence dedicated to a whole island.

Harsh critique also for the hotel and restaurant information, which is limited to places designed for the rich and famous, or at least the very upper of the upper-middle class. The best guides give you a little information on all styles of lodging and food, from low budget to luxury, but these guides make little effort to do so, and even the information on the laps of luxury is limited to little symbols, instead of providing descriptions like other guides do.

With this combination of characteristics, I think Eyewitness is good to take along for a short trip in which you have little time to spend seeing the city and you don't really care about getting any deep information on what you're seeing. Otherwise, keep looking for another guidebook.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Warning This Guide is Rubbish., August 3, 2004

By	S. Fitzgerald - See all my reviews

This review is from: Croatia (DK Eyewitness Travel Guide) (Hardcover)

We have just used this guide on our annual family holiday to Croatia. It is expensive, out-of-date, and worse, its coverage of the subject of 'Where to Stay' is misleading in the extrem. important information is completely missing.

Get yourself a copy of the Rough Guide, owned by the same publishing conglomerate Viking Penguin. Apparently the author cannot even do a cut and paste job from a stable mate book!

Or dump the lot and use LONELY PLANET CROATIA, that's my best advice.

To the publishers DK, I say PRETTY PICTURES ARE NOT ENOUGH.