Baedeker's Belgium (Baedeker's Belgium)

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview, But Lacking in Fine Details
Review: My husband and I used this book on our week's vacation in Belgium. We were going to be staying at a small Bed & Breakfast in West Flanders, taking day trips to some of the larger cities in the country, so we chose the Baedeker's guide for its separate driving map.

The driving map served us well on the highways between cities. However, once we got off the major roads and tried to find the smaller attractions shown as dots and crosses on the map, we began to realize that the smaller roads necessary to get from the highways to the attractions were frequently unlabeled. This caused some major confusion as we also hit a road detour and ended up driving along a one-lane road that seemed to go right through the field of a private farm.

The maps of the cities listed in the guidebook itself were also found to be lacking, unless one had already figured out how to get to central Brussels, and only wanted to visit the museums around the Place des Palais. For more details, Baedeker's recommends purchasing their guides to the specific cities that you wish to visit.

The guide primarily came in handy for narrowing down which cities we wanted to visit, and for its listing of the major attractions for each city (even though the attractions aren't always marked on the maps).

Other handy features of the guide include a language section that lists common words one may need to know, with both the French and Dutch/Flemish translation. The translations are extremely useful for those who would actually like to know what food they are ordering before the waiter or waitress sets it in front of them (esp. if you do not like eel).

There are sections on Belgian art history, castles and monasteries, markets (flea, antique, and flower), and military cemeteries (of which Belgium has quite a lot). All of these make Baedeker's Belgium very useful as a first and general guide to the country. However, I recommend getting guides for specific cities you plan to visit, or finding a guide to Belgium with more thorough city maps. For, while it is a small country, it appears Belgium is too large for Baedeker's to tackle in just one guidebook.

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview, But Lacking in Fine Details
Review: My husband and I used this book on our week's vacation in Belgium. We were going to be staying at a small Bed & Breakfast in West Flanders, taking day trips to some of the larger cities in the country, so we chose the Baedeker's guide for its separate driving map.

The driving map served us well on the highways between cities. However, once we got off the major roads and tried to find the smaller attractions shown as dots and crosses on the map, we began to realize that the smaller roads necessary to get from the highways to the attractions were frequently unlabeled. This caused some major confusion as we also hit a road detour and ended up driving along a one-lane road that seemed to go right through the field of a private farm.

The maps of the cities listed in the guidebook itself were also found to be lacking, unless one had already figured out how to get to central Brussels, and only wanted to visit the museums around the Place des Palais. For more details, Baedeker's recommends purchasing their guides to the specific cities that you wish to visit.

The guide primarily came in handy for narrowing down which cities we wanted to visit, and for its listing of the major attractions for each city (even though the attractions aren't always marked on the maps).

Other handy features of the guide include a language section that lists common words one may need to know, with both the French and Dutch/Flemish translation. The translations are extremely useful for those who would actually like to know what food they are ordering before the waiter or waitress sets it in front of them (esp. if you do not like eel).

There are sections on Belgian art history, castles and monasteries, markets (flea, antique, and flower), and military cemeteries (of which Belgium has quite a lot). All of these make Baedeker's Belgium very useful as a first and general guide to the country. However, I recommend getting guides for specific cities you plan to visit, or finding a guide to Belgium with more thorough city maps. For, while it is a small country, it appears Belgium is too large for Baedeker's to tackle in just one guidebook.