Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe 2004 (Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe, 2004)

Rating:
Summary: This book rocks.
Review: Get this, and you won't need to schlep around any other travel guides - it has everything you'll need. Very user friendly, and great suggestions (especially for someone's first trip to Eastern Europe).

Rating:
Summary: Not too helpful
Review: I'm a 'tweener when it comes to travel: Too old for the hostel racket, but not rich enough to hit every 5-star. So when I travel, I generally take two guidebooks -- Fodor's, the old reliable when it comes to hotel and restaurant recs, and Rick Steves, for practical stuff like the best way to getting from airport to hotel and discount passes and such.

I like Rick Steves' attitude toward travel, which is to be as local as possible. I also like that he has definite opinions and that he prioritizes his listings. Even when you don't agree (and I don't a lot of the time) it still helps the planning when you have only a limited amount of time.

Well, I bought this guide because I was hitting 3 cities in it -- Berlin, Prague, and Budapest -- and was frankly a little disappointed with the dearth of useful information available. Now don't get me wrong: When I first picked it up, there was definitely some stuff I could use. But with the vast resources available (for free) on the internet, I realized this book's shortcomings. Check out www.inyourpocket.com, which has more current restaurant, bar and nightclub listings; terrific calendar of events; better directions from airport to downtown. Plus lots of website links. And you can print it out or download to a PDA! (No, I don't work for them.)

Perhaps it's unfair to compare a book, which must be researched and edited 2 years before it's printed, to a website, which can up updated to the minute. But then the book has got to offer something more, something extra, something the website can't offer. And this book doesn't. (Well, there is a good color Berlin map at the front.)

This book may be worth it if you are planning on going to several of the cities listed, instead of the 3 I needed. And I am not a rabid Rick Steves hater like some. The book is just bland and I probably won't even carry it when I go on my trip.