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| Great design, excellent for city tours, no good for backpackers
Design No other Travel Guide can compete with the design of the Eyewitness series. The shining white paper, all the 3D illustrations and the photos make this guide very pleasant to read. It's also very user friendly and and it's easy to find inside whatever you are looking for.
General information The books do have extensive general information about the country/city it covers. But compared to the information about the history of the country in the Iwanowski- series (in German), the Eyewitness are more superficial and a bit less interesting to read. The design and photos in this section is outstanding like in the rest of the book.
Detailed information The detailed information about bus schedules, pensions and so on won't be found in these books. Backpackers who need this sort of information have to try other guides. But most of the detailed information is today available and more accurate at the Internet.
Destinations The Eyewitness Country Guides do tell us about very man destinations, also small villages which are hardly mentioned in some other guides. We are also informed about who many inhabitants every town do have and this is a very important information. We get small photos from most destinations, but not from all of them and many of the photos are far too small. The bigger towns and the most interesting destinations are covered with many photos and 3D drawings which make a stroll in the city centre very easy. The guide tells much about the cultural and architectonical heritage of the destinations. All the cosy pubs, bars, restaurant etc which are important to many travellers are best found in other guides (like Time Out).
Honesty Like many guide, the Eyewitness don't tell much about what isn't interesting with a destinations and about the ugly outskirts of many towns etc. This is a big drawback. But AA Explorer is the only Guide series which is really honest to the reader.
Accommodation Many hotels are listed, but they very often aren't much interesting. They are mostly big hotels which you easy can find on the Net without a guidebook. Many small and cosy hotels, let alone Agrotourism are hardly mentioned. The Eyewitness guides for big cities like Berlin, London etc, do have a better accommodation section than the country guides.
Restaurants The restaurant section is fairly good, but not extensive.
Summary The design of this series (which cover most of Central and Western Europe) are outstanding. If you are going to visit a major city like Rome, Budapest, London etc. an Eyewitness guide combined with a Time Out guide will cover most of your needs. The Eyewitness Country guides should also be combined with other guides, but wherever you go, one of the guides to buy are usually an Eyewitness guide. |
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Top 10 |
Interesting Top 10 lists, but far too little information about what you see
Design A good design, but can't be compared with the ordinary Eyewitness guides.
General information The general information about the destination is in no way extensive.
Detailed information Not much detailed information either.
Destinations We get all sorts of "Top 10" from the destination, like Top 10 lakes, rivers and canals, Top 10 Pubs and so on.
Honesty When they have picked out the Top 10 of "everything", the negative and uninteresting aspects are of course not mentioned and that's Ok.
Accommodation Many hotels are listed, divided into categories like Budget hotels, Design hotels etc. The best aspect of the accommodation sections is just these different categories which can be a great help when searching among hundreds of city hotels.
Restaurants The restaurants are listed as Top 10 for each area. If the Top 10 really is Top 10, this is a good way of listing restaurants.
Summary The Top can make it easier for a tourist to find the most interesting sights. But every thing listed are just described with a few words. If you want this Top 10 you also need the "big Eyewitness guide" to get extensive information about what you are visiting. Just this Top 10 books don't tell you much about the interesting parts of your destination. |
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| The honest guide which help you choosing your destinations
Design The design and photos aren't this series strongest aspect. But it isn't like searching in the Holy Bible either.
General information The general information is honest and of good quality.
Detailed info Here is not much detailed information about trains schedules or telephone numbers etc. But most tourist don't need all this information.....
Destinations The AA Explorer country guide don't have as many destinations as many other guide series (like Eyewitness). But this guide rate the destinations (with one, two or three stars) and this rating is very trustworthy. This is the best aspect with the AA explorer series. Even if you don't bring this book with you, please have a look at their rating before choosing where to go.
Honesty Few if any guide is as honest as the Explorer guides. We'll find many passages like "inside an ugly outer city we'll find a jewel of a medieval town". Other guides would just tell us about the medieval town and we would get an surprise when checking into our hotel outside in the ugly part of the town!
Accommodation The accommodation section in these guides are not worth to mention.
Restaurants Very few restaurants are mentioned.
Summary This guide is very good at what they are good at, to be honest and to rate the destinations. This means that the AA Explorer guides are good guides when you search for the best destination. When you are there, other guides like the Eyewitness are far better.
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| Well written and interesting for the demanding explorer
Design These books written on white shining paper are well designed, but not distinguished like the Eyewitness guides.
General information The information about topics like history, art, culture and so on are very good.
Detailed info Most detailed information necessary for the usual tourist is available in the book.
Destinations Many different destinations are mentioned, but there are often not much good information (and photos) from the places described.
Honesty Not better than most guides concerning honesty.
Accommodation Average on accommodation.
Restaurants The restaurant section is pretty good, but not outstanding.
Summary If an area is covered both with an National Geographic guide and an Eyewitness guide, there can be hard to tell why choose NG guide. But there are more interesting articles about many subjects in the NG guide. But if you will buy only one of these guide, The Eyewitness must be preferred. The best thing about the NG guides is probably that everything written seems of good quality, nothing of that "tourist brochure history light nonsense" we often find around.
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| Strongest on dining, bars and the night life
Design No breathtaking design, but mostly OK.
General information The general information about history, art etc. is very good and up to date.
Detailed info You will find more detailed information here than in most of the other guides mention on this site.
Destinations This is the guides weakest point. The design of this part of the guide isn't any good and the information about different buildings and towns are often far too spare.
Honesty The guide provide us with information in a honest way.
Accommodation The accommodation section (at least for the major cities) are extensive, not in describing more hotels than other guides, but to write more about each hotel.
Restaurants This guide covers restaurant, bars and nightlife far better than most other guides.
Summary This guide combined with an Eyewitness guide gives you an detailed information about both the architectural heritage of the destination (Eyewitness) and what you need to find all the good bars, restaurants and drinking holes (Time Out).
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| For the German speakers: A great guide for the serious traveller
Design When you open the book it can seem dull compared to an Eyewitness guide. And here are few photos and no 3D drawings, but it has the best design possible to make with few photos. If they had doubles the amount of photos it would have meant enormous the make this guide more popular. But the photos included are in a very good quality and they are informative.
General information The information regarding history, architecture, culture and "thousands" of other aspect regarding the destination is extremely extensive and of very high quality. No guide can compete regarding the general information with Iwanowski's.
Detailed info There an own section with detailed information which is very good. This information and the description of the different destinations are to be found on two different places in the book. But this is a clever way to do it because it makes both sections easy to read and with a good design.
Destinations The text offers much good information. Many destinations are mentioned, but as most guides they don't get any stars or are ranked in any way. More photos would have been a big plus.
Honesty This is one of the more honest guides.
Accommodation Even in the smaller towns they mention accommodation on offer. But as new accommodation pops up every year a book can never beat the Net!
Restaurants Extensive restaurant section.
Summary No Iwanowski guide is made in a fortnight. Everything seems very thorough and well written. I don't think it's a coincidence that this guide is made in Germany. This guides are the just right for the serious traveller who really want to know the place he is visiting. Combined with an Eyewitness guide and some information from the Net we have got an unbeatable alliance.
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Kunst Reiseführer |
Fort the Art lovers (who do read German)
Design White and shining paper and many great photos makes a pretty good design.
General information This guides deals with history and architecture. The history section is extensive and the rest of the guides is mostly about art and architecture.
Detailed info Some detailed information, but not much.
Destinations The architecture and art are described very carefully. This guide is a must to the the real lovers of art and architecture who also do read German.
Honesty The guide naturally write most about all the great architecture and art we can find around and not too much about other aspects with the destination which have a more negative touch.
Accommodation Some accommodation is mentioned, but you don't use this book to find a hotel.
Restaurants One or two restaurants are listed from every destination.
Summary This isn't a guide for most tourists, but for the lovers of art and architecture who can read German. Here is mostly text and not so much photos, so if you just can understand some phrases in German, this book isn't any good for you. |
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