Lonely Planet Europe On A Shoestring (Paperback)

by Sarah Johnstone (Author), China Williams (Author), Reuben Acciano (Author)
Key Phrases: plaza mayor, Nové Mésto, ville nouvelle, Getting There, Old Town, New Zealand (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
…Lonely Planet for honesty, history, irreverence and budget.' --Esquire
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
Can't choose between the northern lights in Lapland, fairytale castles in Transylvania, picturesque beaches on the Mediterranean coast or the bright lights of Paris and London? Then why not try them all! Written for backpackers by backpackers, this guide lets you go further, stay longer and pay less for a trip of a lifetime.

• FIND YOUR WAY - inspiring itineraries and hundreds of maps help you plan your modern-day Grand Tour

• EAT, DRINK & BE MERRY - extended listings for cheap and chic sleeps, tasty budget eats, uber-cool bars and world-famous clubs, with hand-picked splurge suggestions

• BE IN THE KNOW - our culture coverage puts everything from ancient Greece to flamenco dancing in context

• SEE ANOTHER SIDE - discover wife carrying in Finland, cheese rolling in Britain and tomato fights in Spain with our lowdown on the strange world of Europe's festivals

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1324 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 4th edition (February 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740597796
• ISBN-13: 978-1740597791
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #407,648 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No guidebook is perfect..., December 19, 2005

By	Julia Webber "nerd" (South Bohemia, Czech Republic) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

... but I find the Lonely Planet guides to be better than most. Obviously this book covers a very large area, so it goes for breadth rather than depth. If you want to explore a country outside the major cities, get a local guide. This book contains a good amount of details about major Western countries- specifically Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. If you are planning on travelling through the Balkans, Eastern Central Europe, the Baltics or Scandinavia, you should know that this guide only provides information about the major cities and tourist centers, and will not guide you away from the beaten path. Also, be aware that the book does not include Belarus or the Ukraine.

Lonely Planet provides excellent maps, directions to attractions, and instructions for using the local transport (very useful), along with a language guide. Their advice regarding where to go and what to see, along with what to stay away from, is usually quite good.

The main problem with this book is price inaccuracies. Naturally, prices change, so it is to be expected that the restaraunt, hotel and attraction prices cited in the guide may not be entirely accurate, but a person should be able to take it as truth when a guide says that ________ is the cheapest place to get food/accomodation/internet access... Lonely Planet misses a lot of budget traveler's gems and focuses mainly on expensive things in city centers. If you take the metro/bus/whatever a few stops away from the center in most of these towns, you can find hostels/restaraunts/internet cafes which are much cheaper than those listed in the book. It's worth the 10 extra minutes of travel time if you truly need to travel "on a shoestring."

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 2007 Edition: More Complete, Great for Planning, May 5, 2007

By	W. László (Hungary) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Europe on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides) (Paperback)

So the latest edition of Lonely Planet's Europe guide is out.
Note that most of the earlier reviews posted here refer to the previous edition(s), and there have been improvements in this new one!
Most importantly, this book now covers ALL European countries, including little-visited Belarus and Ukraine. It has basic coverage of European Russia, too.

The prices and other practical details really seem to have been updated specifically for this book - unlike in certain earlier shoestring guides, which simply seem to have been compiled by picking info from the already published (few years old) individual country guides.
So the info in this one is pretty correct as of 2006 state of affairs - that's when it was researched. Be prepared for some changes, of course, especially in some of the still rapidly-changing Eastern European countries.

The contents include the usual practical details all LP guides provide: not just an overview of sights and history, but practical matters like accomodation and transport details, all with actual prices (remember, these do change!), as well as useful info on things like getting visas and crossing borders.
Coverage of individual countries definitely varies though.
You will still find that the most popular Western European countries are covered in pretty good detail, certainly enough for an "All-Europe-Trip", while coverage of Eastern European countries is much more brief, in case of less visited ones really sketchy - hence the 4 stars only.
For more obscure countries like Belarus or Ukraine, this guide only provides detailed info on the capital and at best one or two other towns/cities, or perhaps just a brief overview of the rest of the country.

So this book is great value if you are still in the planning stages of your trip, and simply want to have an overview of the entire continent, prices, visa matters and all, to help you decide where to go.
It will also be an adequate guide to take along if you are planning a whirlwind tour of the continent, concentrating on the more established tourist destinations, with only brief forays to less visited countries.
However if you are planning to spend any length of time in Eastern Europe, I definitely recommend getting LP's separate Eastern Europe guide - it covers it in maybe three times as much detail as this book.
If you have a specific interest in a few countries rather than the whole continent, get the individual country guides to those ones.
But if you have only a summer holiday to tour our continent, you will probably find this book has enough information for you.

Have a good trip!

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Overview, September 6, 2005

By	Carolyn Howarter (germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is really great for young people seeing Europe on a tight budget, as the title suggests. It is also suitable for families as it gives hotel and camping options in addition to hostels. One of my favorite aspects of it are the quick tips, which are very useful, and the mini history lessons for each country. The book also includes how to say basic words (hello, goodbye, please, thank you) in each language as well as a little phrase book in the back. The book is incredibly helpful in planning trips because it also gives a suggested daily budget and whether or not a visa is needed to enter a country.

However, since it highlights so many countries, it is not ideal if you are staying mostly in one country. None of the sections go very in depth on the small towns in each country. For most travellers, that is not a problem. If you are staying in a country for a semester or a year though, you might want to also buy a book specific to where you are.