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Summary: Rick Steves is the best travel companion you could have.
Review: He's amazing. I walked in to a travel agency one day and decided it was time to make sure I fulfilled my girlhood wish to go to Paris. So I bought a roundtrip ticket, went to a bookstore and started to plan. I was quickly overwhelmed and frightened. Sure, other guidebooks list every hotel in the city, but how would I know where I wanted to stay? I knew I wanted to go to the Louvre, but it's a friggin' huge place--where does one begin? Thankfully, a friend recommended I look into Rick Steves. It was the best travel advice I have received; Steves helped make my trip incredible. No other guidebook can compare.
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Summary: Great guide for planning your trip to Paris
Review: Of the varioius guides we used to plan our trip to Paris, this guide was absolutely the most useful for prioritizing what to see. In includes several very good self-paced walking tours with sites marked along the way and self-paced tours to the major museums of Paris, with lots of interesting historical notes. While this book is extremely helpful in deciding what to see in Paris, it is much less useful in determining where to stay and where to eat. The eating/sleeping areas of the book are limited and focus on three neighborhoods, leaving out many other good options. In addition to taking this book to Paris, I recommend the Michelin Green guide. While Rick Steve's book gives a lot of information about a relatively small number of Paris sites and is very helpful in organizing your trip, the Green Guide contains encyclopedic information about every neighborhood in the Paris area, but provides little insight into organizing and prioritizing for your trip, so these two books complement each other well. Additionally, Michelin Map #16, which is a pocket-sized spiral bound map book makes up for the vague maps in Rick Steve's book.
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Summary: You must buy this book if you are traveling to France!
Review: We brought 3 travel guides to France and really wore out this one! The book is updated annually and customer's comments are really taken to heart. We are planning another trip this summer and bought the 2001 edition. Rick Steves has wonderful suggestions for travelers who want an "off the tourist route" kind of vacation.
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Summary: michelin green still the way to go
Review: While I found parts of this book to be useful, overall it is lacking in some elemental areas. For someone who spends as much time in Europe as Steves advertises, it's surprising that this is the first edition by Steves to include the Paris Catacombs as a site to visit. The raves about the Rue Cler area are overdone; there are newer areas that have become neighborhoods in their own right: in the 17th, the distinct North African Arab influence is everywhere. There are good couscous restaurants and very friendly people who give the lie to the, by now, universally incorrect impression that Parisians are rude and snobbish. I visit Paris two or three times a year and it's rare to be met with disdain by Parisians. The Michelin guide gives an excellent historic overview of the particular site along with a decent snapshot map of the area. I agree with others that the maps in Steves' books are inadequate. What I do agree with is his attitude that you have to be willing to dive into Paris in order to get a good experience out of it. The Parisians like everyone and they only get their backs up when someone is rude, pushy, or impolite. Impolite, of course, can merely be asking for directions somewhere without the obligatory "Bon jour, monsieur/madame", before making your request, but when in Rome.... There are many good chain hotels available in Paris for as little as $ a night. Ibis runs good, clean hotels with courteous and knowledgable staff. One hotel I strongly recommend is the Frantour Berthier-Brochant at the Place de Clichy RER stop. It's clean, affordable, and has a pool and exercise area. It is accesible to Metro and RER stops and many rooms have a view of the Eiffel Tower. Overall, I would recommend this book if you have an older Michelin guide which you want to supplement. This would not be my first choice as a guide book; there's too much left out.
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Summary: Excellent Guide!
Review: This book was essential on my trip to Paris. Not only was it helpful, but it saved me money. Rather than spending money on audio tours at the Louvre and Orsay museums, I did the tours that come in this book. Excellent!!!
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Summary: Great for a Beginner, Lousy for Something New
Review: This book is undoubtedly one of the best if you are a first time Paris traveler. We are making our fifth journey and were hopeful to find something out of the ordinary -- it is not here. This gives you the basics, but nothing more...
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Summary: Simple, concise information
Review: I'm a fan of both Rick Steve's series of books and the Eyewitness guides. What I like about the Rick Steve series is that he gives suggested itineraries depending on your length of stay. Whether you follow it, based on your interest on the subject matter, is entirely up to you. I have yet to use the book in practice, but I have finished the book and feel prepared with the basic framework of information I'll need to survive.
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Summary: A Focused look at the Best of Paris
Review: Rick Steves writes books with a focus on a style of travel that is relatively inexpensive and attempts to maximize your sense of being an understanding participant in the culture of the place you visit. In Paris, he selects two areas of the city noted for their charm, explains why he likes each so you can select the one that is best for your style, and provides extensive detail on lodging and dining in those areas. I find that his hotel selections are excellent, and I'm one of those people who has to buy 10 guidebooks for every place I visit. His two Parisian neighborhoods (Rue Cler and Marais) are wonderfully researched and his opinions are opinionated -- you really get a good feel for what the differences are between different hotels. His sightseeing section is extremely detailed with interesting mini-tours for the major musuems. There is good coverage of all the major sites and quite a bit of information on the more obscure destinations. He includes a lot of handy suggestions, like good places for quick, cheap lunch near the big sites and lots of thoughtful touches. As someone else pointed out, he does tend to go for humorous comments and to interject some attitude into his guides. If you want a serious Yellow Pages of every hotel and cafe, you don't want this book. The maps are also not very good, but I don't think you can really get by with a guidebook map anyhow. Get the Streetwise foldout map which is a handy trifold laminated map with great detail of the city. My other quibble is that Rick isn't really an expert on dining. If you look at eating as an activity that you do to provide fuel for sightseeing, he does just fine. For lunches between stops and things like that, his suggestions are great. If you are one of my kind of people that realize that great meals are as important to understanding Paris as any musuem, you might want to do some web research or check out the authoritative Michelin Red. All in all, I can highly endorse the guide. For me, hotels and sightseeing are the key thing I need a guidebook for and these are the areas where this book stands out. Lots of tips on avoiding the crowds and enough information that you can make an informed decision about which sights will interest you. I've been to Paris 8 times and bought 4 editions of his France/Paris guides. I'll probably buy the next one too!
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Summary: walking tours walked off the calories!
Review: The walking tours proved to be a highlight of our Paris experience! We did ALL of them--the more we walked the more we could eat and boy, did we-- when running short on time even did his 2 hr Louvre tour--we raced from there as it closed to his recommended Seine boat tour from Pont Neuf--took two other books along but this one was all we needed.
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Summary: The only book you need for Paris - trust me
Review: My mother and I went to Paris 2 months ago. We had numerous guide books (about 6). Two days before I left, a friend recommended Rick Steve's Paris. My mother bought it in the airport on the way out. By the end of the second day, we quit even looking at our other guide books. Rick Steve's book included all of the information we needed (when put with a current map of the city and the Metro/RER/bus systems). He takes you anywhere you want to go and tells you everything you need to know. We were using the 2000 Edition (it was still the year 2000), but 2001 can only be better. From now on, whenever I take a trip, Rick Steve's books will be the first thing I look for. I hope he has one for every country.
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