The Rough Guide to Spain (10th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Head and shoulders above the rest of the guides on Spain
Review: Here's why

1. Has tons of information on Spain, above and beyond the other guides - culture, history, architecture, cinema, you name it.
2. Not too many illustrations/pictures to distract you.
3. Maps of hotels/hostels and restaurants.
4. Detailed information even on remote/small towns.
5. The dictionary appendix is very helpful if you don't know Spanish (not many Spaniards know or even understand English/other languages, especially in areas that see few international tourists).
6. Precious info on finding budget accomodation if your budget is tight or you just arrived w/o a reservation.

This is not a guide that you can stick in your pocket - it's 1000+ pages after all! But the sheer wealth of information makes it well worth the money. A few days ago I came back from a 2-week vacation in Spain - went there w/o any knowledge of Spanish and w/o reservation in most cities i visited - just improptu decided to visit the country, although I would not recommend doing that. The guide saved my vacation, and then made it a great one. This is the first book from the 'Rough Guide' series I've ever bought - if the rest are as good as this one, I won't even look at the other guides out there..

Rating:
Summary: Head and shoulders about other guides on Spain
Review: I just came back from a 2-week vacation in Spain and let me tell you - this guide was well worth the money. After comparing it to all other guides on Spain I could find in stores, I decided to buy this one, because it seemed to have the most information. One guide that came close in that respect was 'The Illustrated Guide to Spain' - I already own 2 books from the 'Illustrated Guide' series and originally thought about sticking to it - but it's too picture-heavy, which in my opinion is a distraction.
Boy, was I glad to have had chosen 'The Rough Guide'. Here are the reasons:
1. It has detailed information about all cities/places of interest in each of Spain's regions, incl. getting there, and accomodation choices - especially valuale is the budget accomodation info, which most guides don't have
2. It provides historical background on all sites that are worth seeing
3. The city maps with highlights on hotels and restaurants were quite valuable while visiting small towns that did not have a tourist office.
4. The menu dictionary was also very helpful, because in certain regions there aren't very many non-Spanish tourists and the waiters don't understand another language and may not give you a non-Spanish menu.
5. I also found the contexts/appendixes to be a very nice surprise - no visit to another coutry is complete w/o gaining at least a bit of knowledge of its history and culture, and the guide's content was excellent in that respect as well. Also, the mini-dictionary which is in one of the appendixes was very helpful as I went to Spain w/o any knowledge of the language.
6. The guides on eating and drinking were also quite valuable, as each region of Spain has it's own 'indigenous' food and vines.
7. Finally, I liked the layout of the guide - some guides will throw in huge fonts to try to fill in 200-300 pages - this one did not make that mistake.

It is true that the guide is voluminous (1000+ pages) and won't fit into your pocket. But if you want a guide that will tell you the most about Spain, this is the book. I went to that country impromptu - w/o reservation in most cities I was planning to visit and not knowing the language (not a good idea) - and still head a smooth trip around the country and great time.