Rick Steves' Russia & the Baltics (Serial)

Rating:
Summary: ..., its an utter waste of money.
Review: Simply stated, this book borders on useless. If you buy this book and are planning to go to the Baltics, I hope you only want to see the capital cities. There is no mention of the beautiful seaside resort towns, eco-tourism spots which are very popular there, or even the major cities other than Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn. Similarly, with Russia, don't plan on learning any useful info beyond what's written on Moscow & St. Petes. Even the info which *is* presented is so minimalistic that you it would not aide anyone. Advice such as "ask a native speaker to help you get a taxi" isnt exactly helpful, is it? No, and neither are the handdrawn maps. One saving grace with this book: it has good bus information (but the most recent info given is for 1997!). Want a good guide on the Baltics? Check out the "Lonely Planet" guide for this region, which I would give at least 4 out of 5 stars. I hope Amazon lets me "return" Rick Steve's book.

Rating:
Summary: ..., its an utter waste of money.
Review: Simply stated, this book borders on useless. If you buy this book and are planning to go to the Baltics, I hope you only want to see the capital cities. There is no mention of the beautiful seaside resort towns, eco-tourism spots which are very popular there, or even the major cities other than Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn. Similarly, with Russia, don't plan on learning any useful info beyond what's written on Moscow & St. Petes. Even the info which *is* presented is so minimalistic that you it would not aide anyone. Advice such as "ask a native speaker to help you get a taxi" isnt exactly helpful, is it? No, and neither are the handdrawn maps. One saving grace with this book: it has good bus information (but the most recent info given is for 1997!). Want a good guide on the Baltics? Check out the "Lonely Planet" guide for this region, which I would give at least 4 out of 5 stars. I hope Amazon lets me "return" Rick Steve's book.

Rating:
Summary: Concise and perfect
Review: This book covers the gateway that you'll probably use (in my case Helsinki), the cities you'll probably go to (Moscow and St. Petersburg), and the Baltics. Steves separated the wheat from the chaff, and this tiny guide was all I needed for 2 weeks in Russia and the Baltics. Others may be bigger, but they will have you working overtime to determine where to go, and what to do. This tiny little guide covered everything needed for the independent traveler. The only thing I have to criticize is: whenever possible use trains, not buses.

Rating:
Summary: Concise and perfect
Review: This book covers the gateway that you'll probably use (in my case Helsinki), the cities you'll probably go to (Moscow and St. Petersburg), and the Baltics. Steves separated the wheat from the chaff, and this tiny guide was all I needed for 2 weeks in Russia and the Baltics. Others may be bigger, but they will have you working overtime to determine where to go, and what to do. This tiny little guide covered everything needed for the independent traveler. The only thing I have to criticize is: whenever possible use trains, not buses.

Rating:
Summary: Rick is Better on PBS.
Review: We felt like we wasted our money on this guide. The authors tried to cover too much ground in one book -- in doing so, the reader is left with a feeling that the info is incomplete and inadequate. We did not visit Latvia or Lithania, but we did see some of Moscow and St. Petersburg before taking the Finnish Sibelius train to Helsinki. We also visited Tallinn, Estonia by Silja's wonderful "Super Seacat IV" ferry. (The two of us traveled on our own -- avoiding the tour groups.) Russia/Finland/Estonia is a wonderful trip to for younger and older adults (leave the small kids at home). The title of the book is somewhat misleading, as the authors focus on and cram Helsinki, Tallinn, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vilnius, and Riga into 138 pages. Page 42, "Eating in Helsinki" only received 2/3 of a page (five short paragraphs). The chapter on Tallinn, Estonia is only 15 pages and is sadly incomplete -- as we walked around Tallinn, we wondered if Rick Steves had actually ever visited Estonia.