Rick Steves' France and Paris City Map Map – Folded Map Author: Visit Amazon's Rick Steves Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1598800515 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Review
Today's tourists are as likely to be toting Rick Steves as Giorgio Armani, tasting the good life without burning through the Kids' college fund.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Rick Steves is on a mission: to help make European travel accessible and meaningful .
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Books with free ebook downloads available Download Rick Steves' France and Paris City Map Map – Folded Map
- Series: Rick Steves
- Map: 350 pages
- Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing (January 8, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1598800515
- ISBN-13: 978-1598800517
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 4.3 x 0.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I absolutely hate to give a Rick Steve's book a bad review but in this case I am going to have to. I will preface this however that if you have access to a car this book is proably great for you!
AND therein lies the main difficulty with this book. Most independent (and in my case young) travelers that visit Europe do so via rail. Why not? The service is good in most places and absolutely top notch in others (i.e.: Switzerland). It's also affordable and allows you to get to many places at a relatively inexpensive price.
This books, however, seems to ignore the rail traveler and focus instead on the person with a car or the person who wants to go and take a lot of local tours. For example, he'll list places in the Dordogne and then inform you that most of them are only accessible by car. Ditto for Provence. He'll also list cute little hotels and again tell you they are only accessible by car. He even lists a whole bunch of recommended auto routes. In addition, because he leaves out certain places that are easily accessible by train (i.e: Aix) the rail traveler feels left out!
That would be all good and fine if that's what one had come to expect from Rick Steves -- but at least in my case it is not! I have used the Rick Steves books before and I LOVED them! In fact I can HIGHLY recommend "Best of Europe" and "Mona Winks" (believe the title has changed). Those books were great. Serioulsy, Mona Winks made Florence come alive for me. We would read it in every museum we visited. And Best of Europe led me to some of the most fabulous places -- including Gimmelwald. But what I really liked is that those books really felt as though they were meant for a rail traveler.
I've bought Rick Steve's France 2005 but I've also come to the conclusion that it's not for me.
Having used many guidebooks, I think these are the best. Granted, the Rick Steves books are unique in that they are selective in the areas that they describe, but these areas are described well. I've used his France, Italy, and Spain guides. With his books, you feel like Rick is on the trip as your personal tour guide. Most guides (Frommers, Foders, etc.) give you a superficial overview of the whole country. Rick lets it all hang out. He tells what he thinks is a worthwhile stop and what isn't. Most of what "isn't" doesn't make it into the guidebook at all. Thus, I suggest taking another more comprehensive book (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, etc.) to fill in any gaps should you find yourself in a location Rick doesn't describe. On the whole though, I love his itineraries. Most people traveling to Europe have limited time (1 month or less). There's only so much you can see; why not have someone boil it down and provide a straight forward opinion as to what to see and do? In his books there is easily enough to keep you busy for a month, maybe even two. Beyond the big sites, which he does describe, he spends a lot of time directing you to quaint towns which he feels are the most atmospheric. He lets you know when a particular place is really touristy so you can avoid it in lieu of a more authentic place. In his guides, he directs you to personal experiences such as wine tastings or tours with particular individuals that he introduces on a first name basis. There is a lot of attention paid to saving money. It's not that the suggestions are cheap, rather he tries to help you have the best bang for your buck. His attitude is that travel shouldn't cost you a fortune, although he lets you know if a splurge is really worth it.
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