The Rough Guide to Germany 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

by Gordon McLachlan (Author) "Germany can be reached from the UK by flights from numerous airports, by train or bus through the Channel Tunnel, and by a direct ferry..." (more)
Key Phrases: free imperial city, soft style, François Cuvilliés, World War, Closed Mon, Middle Ages (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"There is no better German travel guide out there. Belive me, I've looked through bookstores and have not found anything close."

Product Description
The Rough Guide to Germany is the definitive handbook to this fascinating country. It features a full-colour introduction to Germany''s highlights, from the beer halls of Munich to the hiking trails of the Bavarian Alps. There is lively and detailed coverage given to the full range of attractions, from the spas of Baden-Baden and castles of Bavaria to the jazz clubs of Munich. For every city, town and village there ae discerning reviews of the best places to stay, eat and drink, in all price ranges. In the final ''Contexts'' chapter, incisive discussion is given to topics as diverse as the Oberammergau Passion Play and the occult figure of Johannes Faust.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1104 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 6 Sub edition (May 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184353293X
• ISBN-13: 978-1843532934
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #663,201 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of three guides to Germany I've used, February 17, 2005

By	N. Zhu (Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've lived, studied, and travelled a lot in Germany, and I've used three guidebooks: Let's Go (2003 edition), Lonely Planet (the two most recent editions), and this edition of the Rough Guide. The Rough Guide is the best of them hands down. For starters, it contains more text than the others: though I don't have the Let's Go on hand for comparison, the Rough Guide is almost 300 pages longer than the most recent Lonely Planet Germany, which comes in at about 800 pages. (Because of the thinner paper, however, it is almost exactly the same size as the LP.) The print is also denser and finer, so that the Rough Guide contains probably twice as much actual text as the LP. Legibility suffers a little, but it's a fair trade-off.

More words, of course, isn't necessarily better. Where the The Rough Guide beats the others is in detail and quality of information. For example, where the other guides tell you that the Frauenkirche in Dresden was the most important Protestant church in northern Germany, was destroyed in the firebombing of March 1945, and is now being rebuilt, the Rough Guide tells you also that they are doing the most painstakingly accurate restoration ever - where possible each piece has been dug up from the pile of rubble that was left as a "memorial" after the war and put back where it originally was, and only 10% of the total masory is new. That information adds a lot to your appreciation of the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche. That's just one example. Consistenly, the Rough Guide is more detailed and more authoritative on art, architecture, music, wine, you name it. The LP is by no means bad (although the Let's Go, at least the 2003 edition, is a pretty mediocre effort), but I see no reason to carry any other guide when the Rough Guide is so clearly superior.

UPDATE: I wanted to add to my original review and also address some points made by another reviewer:

- The reviewer says the RG is a well written but a bit snobbish. You could call it that; I say that the RG is not afraid to come right out and say that a sight, restaurant, or entire town is a total tourist trap, or that a place just isn't worthwhile. That's their opinion, of course, but I've found that their opinions are often very well founded. Compare to the LP, which tries to be more balanced and is less opinionated. Given that most travelers have limited time and money, I think they are well-served by the RG's more opinionated approach.

- The Holocaust memorial in Berlin (which is an artistic failure, in my opinion) was unveiled in the spring of 2005, a year after the RG was published and probably nearly two years after it was researched. RG can't be faulted for failing to include this sight. More generally, although there's much overlap between the two guides in what sights are included, RG includes some worthwhile ones which LP overlooks (the Deutsche Bahn Museum in Nuremberg being one good example).

- One thing which travelers often prefer LP for is the inclusion of travel details such as EXACTLY where and when trains depart from, how often they run, how much they cost, or the EXACT prices of hotel accomodation. RG is not as specific and gives just general information (e.g. Berlin to Hamburg, x hours, x times daily) and approximate hotel prices (on a scale of 1 to 9, with ranges given for each). LP's details can be useful, but as often as not I've found that they were outdated or plain wrong. Train/bus services and prices change all the time, and it's very risky to rely on a guidebook which was, say, published a year or two ago and researched another year before that. In any case it's very easy to get all the details from the Deutsche Bahn's excellent website or at the station, so the space in the guidebook should really be reserved for something more useful. As an example, the LP tells you that the ICE train between Nuremberg and Dresden pulls into Zwickau into the center of town, away from the main station. As far as I've been able to tell this was never the case, and in any case since the flood of 2002 the line has not been operated with ICE trains. LP should have gotten this right for the 2004 edition, but it didn't. Better not to include such details at all.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Guide, October 25, 2006

By	G. Bucher "Professor Butcher" (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first picked up the "Rough Guide to West Germany" in 1990, and have bought every update since. The key to remember is that the guide is written for the average tourist, not for someone that lives in Essen. Having said that, I have lived in Europe for 8 years, and find the guide indispensable. The beginning chapters provide you with all the essential information you need to plan the trip, including tourist office addresses, best prices for airlines, reminds you to purchase Eurail passes while still at home, etc. The guide itself is written in a slightly irreverent way, giving a wide berth to commercial tourist attractions in favor of historically significant areas. It lists accommodation (sp?) for all price classes, and even directs you to a good meal in individual cities. The guide stands as a good read, even if you aren't traveling. It gives you everything as advertised, and then some.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So much has changed!, June 26, 2008

By	J. L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If I can fade into hyperbole for a moment, attempting to capture Germany, a diverse world super-power with more history than the Roman Empire, in about 1,100 pages is perverse.

Germany is a country of 90 million crammed into a space the size of Montana. It's had so many names (the Holy Roman Empire, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, Prussia, etc...) that we have to wonder where the word "Germany" comes from. A comprehensive history of the country would fill a hundred volumes. Its economic, cultural, religious, and imperial impact on the world is tremendous. A list of "famous Germans" would look like a Who's Who of world history. It contains so many colorful towns, villages, cities, lakes, rivers, mountains and landscapes that a curious and dedicated tourist could spend two years attempting to see it all. There is no country on earth that even comes close. None. Nada.

How can a travel guide take all this and present it to a tourist in an organized way? Rough Guide has the answer. This is the book you need to keep yourself sane while trying to navigate and understand this amazing place. Since there's so much to see, the book is necessarily summary, and the brief historical and cultural "context" chapters are essential. It's done in typical Rough Guide format, namely, practical information up front, the bulk of the guide - the catalog of places, arranged by state - in the middle, and the historical, cultural and artistic contexts in the back. Photographs are few: Rough Guides are not known for their glossy photography, but for their insightful writing. This one won't disappoint you.

The author has done a nice job attempting to condense it all down for you. All the places you know (and many you don't) are here, East and West. So what's special about all this? The author has applied a slightly irreverent style to the text that will help you organize and (especially) prioritize your trip. For example, the author goes on about how so many foreign tourists (Americans in particular) head straight for Heidelberg and Neuschwanstein, but never consider Berlin! Big mistake. Visiting Germany without seeing Berlin is like going to France and not seeing Paris. Berlin is an infinitely fascinating city. Sophisticated, beautiful, and marvelously dynamic. Don't expect twisting medieval streets in Berlin, but keep your eyes wide open and appreciate what this city has become in the last 60 years.

This is a great book, but I'm rating is slightly down for being a bit out of date. Germany is a rapidly changing place, and a book published in 2004 (like this one) is getting a bit long in the tooth. You run the risk that the listings, particularly in Berlin, will be inaccurate. I traveled to Germany with an older edition of this book and found it to be indispensable, but know that finely detailed practical information is not the Rough Guide's strength. This book is intended to point you in the right direction, but you need to be proactive.

Also, since there is so much to cover, there are a few conspicuous omissions that can leave one slightly irritated. Schloss Bellevue, the gorgeous Baroque palace in Berlin's Tiergarten that is now the residence of the German President, is nowhere to be found, for example. Neither is Berlin's Holocaust Memorial. In general, you may get the feeling from the text that the author prefers Munich to Berlin.