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Rating:  Summary: Green for sights, red for hotels and restaurants! Review: Fantastic size - allows you to carry the guide with you without being loaded down. Gorgeous photography gives you a visual impression of the sites. Very factual, very accurate. Can't buy a better guide for the money!
Rating:  Summary: Great Pocket Guide Review: Fantastic size - allows you to carry the guide with you without being loaded down. Gorgeous photography gives you a visual impression of the sites. Very factual, very accurate. Can't buy a better guide for the money!
Rating:  Summary: get the regional guides for depth information Review: I have fond memories of the French Michelin Guide I had 20 years ago. But it was a regional Guide (Provance). What I loved about that book was that it seemed anything of cultural importance in a town (or village) was mentioned in the Guide. That is not the case with this overview version for all of France.The other problem with this book is that it is organized alphabetically. If you want to plan a day trip from Paris you will need either another book or a lot of map reading to decide what to look up in this Guide. The regional Michelin Guides are unique, and clearly worth the high ratings they receive. I can't see why anyone would buy this excerpted version.
Rating:  Summary: You're going to LOVE FRANCE! Review: I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.
Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide
MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.
Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!
Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.
Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.
Rating:  Summary: great cultural reference Review: It would be hard to plan a visit to Paris with just this book, the alphabetical organization means you have to keep referring to a map (provided) or other guide. The hotel and restaurant information is brief, about 25-30 pages. This book is the ideal guide to the cultural sites in the city. I think that you will not find the breadth of information contained in this book anywhere else, certainly not in such a condensed form. One is tempted to say: if it is not in the Michelin Guide, then it is not important.
Rating:  Summary: Green for sights, red for hotels and restaurants! Review: Michelin's Green Guide is the most reliable of all short guides to Paris sights and has the best maps. For complete hotel and restaurant information, you will need Michelin's Red Guide, available in Paris-only or all-France editions. Again, Michelin is by far the most reliable judge of hotel and restaurant standards in France, as the fame of its star-system shows.
Rating:  Summary: Great comprehensive guide - especially for regulars Review: The Paris Michelin Green Guide was invaluable for my last visit to France. When I was a kid and lived in Paris we used to have one of these as well and I ordered the updated one this summer before going on my first trip back since I was a teenager. I highly recommend the book for those who want a detailed arrondisement and museum guide on everything there is to do in Paris. Since I lived there, I wanted something that would give me specific details on smaller, lesser known museums as well. This guide does a fabulous job of that. However, if you are a first timer to Paris and France and/or have only a few short days there I am not sure this is the guide for you - you might be better off with an Eyewitness guide or Lonely Planet Guide that will tell you what to see if you only have a short time period to work with. If you have been before or are spending a while in the city this is the guide you want - it will list places you have never even heard of before with details about times/days open (very important to know in Paris!!) and phone numbers, prices, etc etc with mini maps on each area of Paris.
Rating:  Summary: An essential for the Paris tourist Review: While it does not have all to the best places to stay and eat, it has enough of them to make this guide a worthy travel companion.
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