Rating: 
Summary: Not what it's cracked up to be
Review: I expected, because of Rick Steve's reputation as a budget traveler, more tricks on good deals. I found better tips in Fodor's book of Paris. Actually, the Fodor's book was better overall in terms of descriptions, a quick historical explanation, and opinions on personal experiences. Rick Steve's Paris book does have a few good tips, but little or nothing that I didn't get from Fodor's. The book also is contradictory to his website. In the book, it says not to bother booking a trip yourself, but to go with a travel agent (I looked into this, but the agent wanted $1000 more, and offered a lesser hotel!). On the website, it suggests looking for deals yourself online. I found the book to be a little too self-promoting, suggesting you buy additional items of his, either more travel guides or actual tours, or travel gear. I disliked the feeling I was being pitched to. There are, as others have noted, political references. And the museum guide, while written in language accessible even to the most novice of art-visitors, does have some strange, off-color remarks. It's not a terrible book, but there are far better books that give more information and offer more venues for finding bargains and saving time. The one thing I did appreciate about the book were the frank explanations of what is not worth bothering to see. There's a ton to see in Paris and you can't see it all. Many tour books list all attractions, describe them all as wonderful, and you don't know which ones are best to see. Overall, though, the Fodor's book is far superior. I wouldn't really recommend this book for anything more than taking a peek at it while in the bookstore, or borrowing it from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Rick Steves Winner
Review: I just returned from a solo trip to Paris. I used Rick Steves guide exclusively to plan my agenda prior to the trip and as a helpful guide along the way. Expect to find good tips about how/what to pack, restaurants, walking tours, history, etc..without a lot of boring and extraneous background. If you are on a limited time table and want to make the most of your vacation, get this book! In my travels in Paris, I often saw American tourists with this book tucked into their bag, or their nose pressed into its pages, reading the history of the site we were at. I was amazed at its popularity. I did not follow hotel recommendations as prescribed by the book because I got a package deal, but based on the accuracy of the other information contained within, I wouldn't hesitate to try one of Rick's recommendations next trip. Another great feature of this book is its size. It fit right into my rainjacket pocket and wasn't very heavy. Eyewitness guides fail in that regard, as well as not being budget-conscious. When you do as much walking around in Paris as one must, this is a key consideration.
Rating: 
Summary: A useful guidebook, but I could do without the politics.
Review: One of the great things about travel is the chance to get away from the pounding of ordinary, everyday life. It's something that can be universally loved and shared, despite whatever other differences we may have. Put a Michigan fan and an Ohio State fan in a football stadium and they're bitter rivals....put them thousands of miles away in a far-off destination and they're fellow Midwesterners. Rick Steves is a fine travel writer. The Paris 2004 book, like Rick's other books, is a must have for anybody looking for the best deals, the hidden gems, and the keys to a memorable leisure trip without breaking the bank. His museum reviews are outstanding and insightful. And he's careful to pick out the hotels, restaurants, and sights that will appeal to his kind of reader. In short, he does a great job of separating the wheat from the chaff. But he sprinkles all of his writings with pithy, often bitter, and sometimes smarmy political quips. Now, a reader's attitudes about such things are probably going to be largely determined by the degree to which they agree with Rick's points of view (he's a liberal). Agree with him and you'll probably nod approvingly, disagree with him and you'll probably find yourself slightly and unexpectedly (not to mention needlessly) offended. My question to Rick: why? You're not Al Franken or Ann Coulter. If we were looking for some sort of critique of government policy, there are plenty of places to get it. And, indeed, if you wanted to write such a book, I'd encourage you to do so. At least buyers would know what they were getting. But a travel book? I'm looking for a good hotel and a memorable bite to eat...not some sort of out-of-place editorial. We've got enough to divide us in this day and age. Can't something as fun, rewarding, and unifying as travel be free of that kind of stuff?
Rating:
Summary: He may be smart....
Review: I got this book because I was going to be in Paris alone for 3 days. I usually use Michelin books - it is like having your own personal tour guide and local encyclopedia. However, the set-up of the Steves book was appealing for this particular trip because of time and budget restrictions and because it also had accommodation information, which the Michelin does not include in its Green Guide. The positive aspects of the book are that it is set up to help the reader prioritize for 1,2,3, and 7 day trips. Very helpful. Most of his sightseeing suggestions (particularly the Orsay) are also good. Finally, his hotel suggestions were right on. HOWEVER, the book is littered with his own little sardonic witticisms, frequently in the place of real information. For instance, he suggests that the peasants killed Marie Antoinette because they were offended by her taste in wallpaper. This is amusing, certainly, but this sort of BS really ought not to take the place of the real, and interesting stories. Perhaps he thinks he's so funny that he's more interesting than the French Revolution? IN ADDITION, his goofy little hand-drawn maps, while they lend the book that cute coffee-shop napkin flavor, rarely resemble anything identifiable in 3D, and are extremely unhelpful when attempting to negotiate the twists and turns of the older parts of a city. Thus necessitating the purchase of a real map, which one must unfold like a large spaghetti-patterned flag of tourism ('PLEASE rob me') . When it comes to guidebooks, I am certain that it is really a matter of different strokes for different folks. If you are interested in travelling cheap and experiencing the ultimate in cafeteria and youth hotels, Lonely Planet is great. If you are interested in the real history and culture, the Michelin Green Guide is your book. For the safest, most comfortable, least-frazzling (most expensive) travel, you go with Fodor's. If you want to have better pictures in your guidebook than you will ever take with your own camera you must have Eyewitness. And if you want a snide, sarcastic., if knowledgeable paper companion sharing its opinion with you every step of your trip, you definitely invest in Mr. Steves.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Published Guide for Planning a Trip to Paris
Review: I have used both the 1999 and 2000 editions of this excellent guide, and can only say that it is the best of the lot, closely followed by the Lonely Planet and DK Eyewitness guides. What makes Steves' guides so useful is that he addresses himself to Americans who are not used to foreign travel with the principal goal of eliminating their fear by helping to get their feet wet. To this end, his guides are more PRESCRIPTIVE than DESCRIPTIVE. For a good DESCRIPTIVE guide, I would turn to another guide such as Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, supplemented, perhaps, by Rachel Kaplan's excellent "Little-Known Museums In and Around Paris." A PRESCRIPTIVE guide like this will urge that you avoid the Madeleine, Opera Garnier, and Pantheon because they aren't worth it -- and don't bother with the Bastille, because it was torn down over 200 years ago. Steves concentrates on accommodations and restaurants in only three parts of Paris: Rue Cler (near the Eiffel Tower), the Marais, and the Rue Mouffetard area. That saves perhaps a hundred pages and makes the book more compact and easy to carry during a trip. One of the strong points of the book is the merging of material from Steves' useful "Mona Winks" art guide into his Paris book. "Mona Winks" shows how you can visit the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Cluny Museum (highly recommended), and Versailles without killing yourself. For the Louvre, as an example, he concentrates how you can devote your attention to parts of the Sully and Denon wings and see the key works in about 2-3 hours. (Okay, if you're a purist, don't flame me: You and I would, of course, devote more time -- but that's not the issue here.) For the most complete info on Paris, I would suggest you supplement Steves with two fantastic Internet resources: the postings on the rec.travel.europe newsgroup (especially by JACK), and the website of the RATP (which runs the Metro and buses in Paris) at http://www.ratp.fr
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm a fan of Steves' guides, but this one wasn't up to my expectations. First, let me say what I liked. Steves' recommendations for sights to see are excellent. Also, his hotel and restaurant recommendations are on target. Also, his city walks in Paris are very enjoyable. This book is a great source for this kind of information. The part which I found useless was the section of museum guides, which take up half of this book. Steves seems to have written his museum guides for junior highschool dropouts. I can't respect a guide which uses, for example, "cultural fart noises" to describe the Dada movement. Throughout the museum guide section, he continues to make these kinds of childish remarks. You get the impression that Steves doesn't like to spend time in museums, and he tries his best to rush you through them too. As for the content, it't very light and tends to be of trivial nature. He never goes into why the art is great. If you get this book, just skip the museum guides. One other thing that really bothered me was an out-of-place political comment in the section about the Babylonian collection in the Lourve. He mentions that the area of Babylon has bee plagued by war and violence for over 5000 years (true enough). Then he makes the unbelievable comment that in 2003 the violence came to an end when "peace, prosperity, and democracy were established . . .by George W. Bush." First of all, Iraq doesn't have any of those qualities in 2003, so it's just plain accurate. Second, any progress made in Iraq is thanks to the American soldiers who risk their lives every day, not to Bush. Lastly, strong political comments like that don't belong in a guidebook unless Steves plans to change the title to "Rick Steves' Paris 2004 for Republicans". As for my rating, the three stars are for the useful information in this book. THe two missing stars are for the museum guide section which takes up half of the book. The political comment didn't cost any stars, but a little bit of Steves reputation was tarnished. Aside from the museum guides, it's a good book.
Rating:
Summary: the best way to travel
Review: A friend recommended using Rick Steves' guide a few days before we left for our honeymoon in Paris. They said their friends also swear by it, and now so do we! We LIVED with this guide for our stay - saved money following his advice on transportation, and had a wonderful self guided tour of the Palace du Versailles reading the passages from the book for a room by room blow of its riches and history. Not only does he do a fantastic job of giving travelers the 'don't miss' sites to visit, but includes great out of the way places that not only saved us money, but enhanced our trip by directing us away from the highly touristy places (like the great little crepe restaurant on the side street in the town outside Versailles). Very much the insiders guide for budget conscious travelers who want to experience Paris like an insider. We're going to Italy in the summer, and I'm ordering his guides now so we can save more on our trip by using the lodgings guidance too! Thanks Rick!
Rating: 
Summary: Paris in 11 nights with Rick's help
Review: I used this to plan our 11 night stay in Paris. Good choice over the other books mentioned. Remember it is a a guide book not a CONCRETE OUTLINE of what you should do. be flexible. This reads just as he sounds on PBS and his videos. Just his tip on what to get for the metro pass saved us 8E which payed for the book itself! (sorry, go read the book for this) Comments on other reviewers:
1. Don't walk around with the book in front of you. Put discrete brown bag book cover like in grammar school with a handy pocket. Don't just stare down at a book when you should be looking at the sights.
2. Paris city and metro map is adequate for what you need to do in his book to preplan as your hotel and airport will provide better free maps.
3. Rick's quick hand drawn maps are a bit off and lack details such as street.
3. Rick's view: I find this a bit centered on what he likes which ends up quite a bit of what I like. Attention is drawn to the historical aspects on how the current cultural and attraction evolved rather than just have fun. You get more than just superficial beauty.
4. Main Musee with his written guided tour:good history lesson: Louvre,Orsay,Pompidu,Picasso,Cluny,Marmotten,+Versailles. Guided tours got a bit confusing as there were no maps of Musees.
5. Main Sites: Eiffel,Notre Dame,Arc,Champs Elysees, I tried to do everything in the book & almost did! Marais,Montmarte,Historic,left Bank,Champs,Rue Cler. But wow that was tiring.
6. Restaurant and Hotel Guides: these are limited to what he likes and not all of it agreed with me. I tried a few of those and found that my own experimentation worked out better. Foder's gives you more of a list to pick and choose from. Just remember Rick likes Mom and Pop shops. I found Foders not as good in describing main sights.
CONCLUSION: Book is good for visiting the sites listed BUT not so hot on picking restaurants and hotel. Decide if you are more interested in food-hotels or the cultural-sights-museums.
Rating:
Summary: Best Guide Book
Review: I was in Paris for 13 days and Paris 2003 was the best thing I could have ever purchased for my vacation!!!
If you are going to Paris, don't leave without this book. Thanks!
Rating:
Summary: You must have this book!
Review: I am not an experienced world traveler but this book made it almost easy! This is a must have for anyone traveling to Paris this year. I used Rick's French, Italian, and German Phrase Book along with this and had no problems communicating and getting what I needed and wanted in Paris. I will always travel abroad with one of Rick Steves' books in the future...I highly recommend this book.
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