<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Some of the Best Pre-Travel Reading You Can Get
Review: I love Eyewitness Guides and have purchased them for several trips. However, other than one or two of the city guides which give in-depth walk-throughs of monuments, palaces, museums, etc., I'd leave them at home. The guides are excellent visual introductions to local art & architecture, food, etc. The photos and drawings are gorgeous and clear. The guides will give you a great idea of what you really want to see, but other than an occasional walking tour, they aren't worth the weight in your suitcase, because they simply lack real practicalities (where the train station is, how often the spot is served by public transport, opening hours for anything but the most major museums, no entrace fees, when English language tours might occur, etc.). Also, the restaurant and hotel sections (grouped together at the back rather than with the destinations) are primarily geared toward upper end travellers. 4* & 5* suggestions dominate. No hotels meet their lowest price category (no local hostel addresses, convent hotels, or bargain B&Bs). Restaurant reviews are at best a sentence.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Review: The DK Eyewitness guides adhere to the motto, "A picture is worth a thousand words." In a way they're right: there's something about a dramatic picture that can lure you to a place like no number of words can. Yet while pictures and attractive diagrams are important, there's a lot of other critical travel information you just won't find here.The city maps in this guide are anything but detailed. I challenge you to find your way around Agrigento in the dark, like I had to, with the map in this guide. You need a detailed street map. This book is also seriously lacking in information about how to get around by bus and train. By contrast, Lonely Planet's guide to Sicily lists, under a special heading ("Getting There & Away"), the number of trains and buses that leave or arrive in a given city daily, how often, where to catch them, and what they cost. There's also another section in the Lonely Planet guide, "Getting Around", which tells you which buses to take inside the cities, where to rent a car or a bike, and so forth. DK's guide leaves you stranded. The last major defect of this guide is its hotel and hostel recommendations: if you're a budget traveler or a student, this is definitely not the guide for you. Its "Places to Stay" section is almost entirely limited to pricey 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels: it needs to list less expensive alternatives. Excellent hostels like the Agora Youth Hostel in Catania aren't listed at all. Furthermore, the authors could have put their hotels on the city maps, like Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. DK's other regional guides are a little more functional than this one, but if you're headed to Sicily, take Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, or Let's Go along with you instead. 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Review: The DK Eyewitness guides adhere to the motto, "A picture is worth a thousand words." In a way they're right: there's something about a dramatic picture that can lure you to a place like no number of words can. Yet while pictures and attractive diagrams are important, there's a lot of other critical travel information you just won't find here. The city maps in this guide are anything but detailed. I challenge you to find your way around Agrigento in the dark, like I had to, with the map in this guide. You need a detailed street map. This book is also seriously lacking in information about how to get around by bus and train. By contrast, Lonely Planet's guide to Sicily lists, under a special heading ("Getting There & Away"), the number of trains and buses that leave or arrive in a given city daily, how often, where to catch them, and what they cost. There's also another section in the Lonely Planet guide, "Getting Around", which tells you which buses to take inside the cities, where to rent a car or a bike, and so forth. DK's guide leaves you stranded. The last major defect of this guide is its hotel and hostel recommendations: if you're a budget traveler or a student, this is definitely not the guide for you. Its "Places to Stay" section is almost entirely limited to pricey 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels: it needs to list less expensive alternatives. Excellent hostels like the Agora Youth Hostel in Catania aren't listed at all. Furthermore, the authors could have put their hotels on the city maps, like Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. DK's other regional guides are a little more functional than this one, but if you're headed to Sicily, take Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, or Let's Go along with you instead. 3 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide: Sicily (Dorling
Review: The Eyewitness Travel Guide for Sicily was my 10th in this series. We travel a lot and when we return home to look at our many photos that we have taken, the book is a tremendous help in indentifying these photos. We also keep a daily diary when we travel and the concise wording in the guide helps add to the documentation and color of our journals. I have used many guides in the past but the Eyewitness guide for Sicily and other locations is a must!
Rating:
Summary: Great book,
Review: the pictures presented in the book give a good feeling on what to expect in various places. However, the book lacks on practicalitities and tips and as such I had to use another guide (Rough Guide) to accompany it.
<< 1 >>
| 
