[.ca] Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland Map: ... (ISBN 1598800523)

What's good is very good. What's bad...oy.:
I'm both attracted and annoyed by Rick Steves' travel guides. I'm giving this book a 3, not because it's generally okay, but because it's an average of 1 and 5. Steves does some things really well. His maps are really good, for instance. Rather than try to show every street (you'll have an ordinary map for that), he makes it easy to find the places you probably care about (or the ones he thinks you should care about); the museums, train station, etc. are easy to find -- like the map you'd scribble on a cocktail napkin for a friend. Plus, he's reassuring about distances from one place to another (a ten-minute walk to the museum from the train station, etc.). He also does a good-to-excellent job at, hmm, how shall I put this -- describing the experience of a place. I haven't been to Munich, yet, and his is the only guide that tells me that the biergarten tables with no tablecloths are reserved for customers who are drinking only (no food, in other words). And to look for a vomitorium in the bathrooms (!). When I'm traveling, I'm tripped up by the "ordinary" things I didn't know -- so this sort of information is reassuring. (Why do none of the guide books tell you that "Ausfart" is the word for "car exit" on the autobahn? As a friend of ours said, "The first time I saw all those Ausfart signs, I thought, 'Wow, this is a really big city!'" Ausgang, by the way, is the word for *people*-exit, a helpful item to know when you're in an underground parking garage, looking for the way out.) Also, Steves is better at orientation than most. I think his is the only book that says you can get tickets ahead of time for the big Bavarian castles, so you don't spend time waiting in line. That sort of stuff is incredibly useful. On the other hand... his priorities and taste do not coincide with mine. As another reviewer pointed out, Steves gives you the itinerary *he* thinks you should follow, and ignores or disparages other destinations. Maybe he thinks that Triberg is a tourist trap, but I spent 3 days in the area (in Hornberg, a few miles north) and I thought it was both a lovely town and a great base of operations for Black Forest exploration. What finally turned me off was realizing how differently he travels than we do. (There. That doesn't seem so negative.) Steves gives a one-day itinerary through the Black Forest, starting in Frieburg and ending in Baden-Baden. To accomplish that, he has you zoom through the Clock Musuem in an hour (we spent two, though maybe it could have been less), and 1.5 hours at the Volksbaurnhof in Gutach. That's way too little time; we spent 3 or 4 hours there on two trips (obviously, we liked the place). Yes, in an hour and a half you can walk around this open-air museum, but you won't have time to watch one of the demonstrations, or read more than a few expanatory signs. If I followed his itinerary, I'd be skimming the surface of every destination rather than experiencing the place. I own several guidebooks to Germany. It's probably worth looking through this one, especially if you happen to be planning to visit the sights he says are worthwhile. But it's far from a complete guide to the country, and you're stuck relying on HIS opinions -- which may or may not agree with yours. I'm glad I read through this book, but it's sure not being stuffed into my backpack.

Steves abandons the east:
It's clear that Steves does not want to put out exhaustive, encyclopaedic guidebooks. They wouldn't be Rick Steves' guides if they were. But, this book is completely west-centric. Berlin seems still divided in Rick Steves' chapter on the capital, given that he hardly covers the east. I question some of the tacky sites he recommends within western Berlin: were they pulled out of a guidebook from the Cold War era? Information on other cities and sites in the former east is practically non-existent. Maybe Steves wants to keep his information about the friendlier, more affordable regions of Germany to himself.

Extremely basic, almost insulting:
I bought this book because I had seen (and suffered through) Steves' amateurish and infantile videos on visiting Germany. I was curious to see if his books were as bad as his videos. The verdict: they are equally as bad. The problem is, Steves isn't an innate or talented traveler, though he apparently has performed a miracle and makes money fooling others that he *is* a great traveler. The Arthur Frommer Guides are much better than these Steves offerings. Problems abound. Steves concentrates most of his time on two cities: Berlin and Munich. He hasn't a clue on how to locate a low-cost Pension and opts for dingy tents on the outskirts of town. His suggestions on eating are obtuse. Snacking in Germany is a cinch: go to a bakery in the morning, buy your rolls, cheese and coffee and be on your way. His suggestions of hanging around railway stations and saving a few pennies are insulting and poorly rendered. Similarly wretched is his advice on getting about the country. Forget the railway, you can rent an econo car for about $150 a week. Yes, gas is expensive, but driving is the only way to see these three beautiful countries. Another weakness is Steves' summation of Austria, which basically consists of 10 pages divided between Vienna and Salzburg. If that's all there is to see in Austria, then we're all in trouble. Truly, this is a terrible book written in plodding, patronizing style, guaranteed to set your nerves a-jangle.

DON'T GO WITHOUT THIS GREAT GUIDE:
My teen-aged daughter and I used this book extensively on our recent trip to Germany and Austria. (My sixth visit to Germany.) No one has the time to poke around in every corner of a country during a vacation and Rick helps minimize wasted days by offering great tips and suggestions. His sightseeing recommendations all proved to be 'right-on', and we never regretted staying in one of his recommended lodgings, or following his suggestions for meals. We appreciated Rick's recommendations for rooms in Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Salzburg and Hallstatt. The hotels were centrally located, clean, quiet, offered great breakfasts, and were staffed by friendly and helpful personnel. All at attractive prices. I have five guidebooks for each country that I used during planning, took my favorite two about each country to Europe with us, but it was Rick's book that we carried as we left the hotel each morning.

A Solid Guide:
You can really tell that Steves loves Germany and Austria because this is one of the best guidebooks in his series. First things first--this is not a regular guidebook in that it doesn't show an endless list of cities that you will probably never visit. Instead, he figures that you'll have less than two weeks for your vacation, so he picks out the places that he thinks you will enjoy the most. If you are looking for a more complete listing, then another guidebook would be better. Getting back to the guide, he has a particular flair for finding the scenic beauty of this region of Europe, and he gives lots of advice for finding those picture perfect spots that you're looking for. Also, Steves is good at tapping into the beer hall scene, so if you're thinking of checking out Bavaria, you'll be able to get some good tips. Of course, you can get better recommendations from a local though. Just think of this as a starter kit, and once you make a few contacts and start talking to the locals, you'll be able to find the places that aren't list in any guidebook. Another good thing about this guidebook is that the maps are fairly easy to follow. The downtown maps for cities are especially good. However, this book is for train travelers. If you are going to be driving, you'll need to pick up a seperate road map because there aren't any good road maps in this guidebook.