Lonely Planet Vienna (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

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

Product Description

Waltz through the culture-paved streets of Vienna with this comprehensive guide. The extravagant headquarters of the Habsburg dynasty offers an intense historical experience and a rich musical and architectural heritage.

• 16 pages of color maps, including a public transport map
• the insiders’ view of Vienna’s famed coffee houses and best eateries
• a special section on Vienna’s great gift to the world – its music
• detailed plans for day trips to the Danube Valley, the Vienna Woods and Burgenland
• accommodation options for everyone from business travelers to backpackers

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 3 edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864501952
• ISBN-13: 978-1864501957
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,673,521 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars New format messes up a classic, November 14, 2004

By	D. Fuhriman (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lonely Planet Vienna (Paperback)

I've long been a Lonely Planet fan, never thinking twice about buying the appropriate Lonely Planet book whenever I travel. However, the new format and emphasis of the LP guides has made me re-think my commitment.

Specifically, the "Fact for the Visitor" section has been greatly reduced, and moved under the confusingly titled "Directory" section. Unfortunately, this is difficult to locate because the Table of Contents has been bowdlerized from the former detailed breakdown into a simple section listing. If you want to find a specific piece of information, you now have to guess which section it might be hiding in (as in "Directory" -- which is almost nothing like a directory), then flip the to beginning of that section for the more detailed contents.

The new, less coherent, structure is frustrating enough, but when you get each section, you find it very hard to read. One of the first things that you learn about graphic design and publishing is that sans serif typefaces are difficult to read for long passages and should only be used sparingly. The new guides have turned this on its head, and now very light sans serif faces are used almost everywhere (contrast this with earlier editions where sans serif is only used for headings). I find it difficult to read for more than a few paragraphs, which is very annoying.

Being able to locate, and read the information are the two most fundamental things a guidebook needs to have, and these new editions really fail.

Which raises the biggest problem of all -- LP seems to be changing its emphasis from a guide which provided lots of useful information to the budget traveler as well as the higher end independent traveler. The new guide really de-emphasizes the budget traveler, in favor of being a generic, middle of the road guide. Which, from someone who looks to get the most from his travel dollar, is extremely disappointing. In contrast with my second edition copy of this guide, the fourth edition lists half as many budget accommodations, and twice as many mid-range to expensive ones.

On the plus side, the maps *finally* include a grid, making it much easier to find locations on them.

On the whole though, LP has taken the guides I've loved for years, and made them much less valuable to me. In the future, I'll be shopping around for guides, instead of knowing that I can trust LP without a second thought.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Up the Danube without a Paddle, September 1, 2005

By	Born to Read (Metro New York area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Vienna (Paperback)

I packed two guidebooks for my trip to Vienna: this one, and an ancient Michelin Green Guide to Austria that devoted about 20 pages to Vienna. I found the latter more useful, even though much of the information was frozen in a long-forgotten 1978.

It's difficult to look up specific information in this guide, and, once found, it's sometimes misleading. "The regal rooms of Schloss Schonbrunn are in a league of their own in Vienna - the Kaiser apartments of the Hofburg hardly come close." Perhaps. But the Schonbrunn was so packed with tour groups that I ran through the forty rooms that are open for viewing as quickly as possible just to get out of the place. By contrast, a visit to the Hofburg included a moving exhibit on the wife of the emperor Franz Joseph; for me, this humanized the rooms and added a depth that the mere viewing of endless amounts of gold leaf could not.

The typeface of this book is too small and faint, and the maps are unreadable. A reference for the Albertina is given as `Map pp.240-3.' Turning to page 240, I found tiny dots with tiny numbers going up to 351, but no dot with a 3. After much searching of page 240, I found the 3 on an inset map on page 241. This is inexcusable in a guidebook.

Vienna is too wonderful to entrust to this guide. Friends who carried the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Vienna at least had a book that was readable.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Lonely Planet Ever Purchased, March 26, 2008

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

This review is from: Vienna (City Guide) (Paperback)

A deeply disappointing, if not awful, guidebook to Vienna. I have purchased dozens of Lonely Planet guidebooks, and have had universally good experiences with the series until purchasing Lonely Planet Vienna. The guidebook was filled with inaccuracies, including wrong addresses, grossly mistaken opening hours, and misleading maps. The supposed insider recommendations often led to very touristy restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. Do yourself a favor and buy a guidebook from another series; this one will certainly lead you astray.