Moscow (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Rating:
Summary: Better than a taking a tour
Review: This is one of the best travel guides I have ever used. It gave more information than the private guides I hired. It includes some of the little known, "personal facts" as well as information on food, transportation and gifts to bring home. I highly recommend this book. It was so good, I bought the ones for my next two trips as soon as I got back from Moscow!

Rating:
Summary: Pictures helped when you can't read russian!
Review: Went to Moscow in December 2002 for 2 weeks for a funeral with my mother (I'm a hardened traveler in my 30s). I speak very little russian and read even less (i.e. none). I also took the Rough Guide book on Moscow. Didn't use the Rough guide after the 2nd day, stuck to the Eyewitness guide. Why? Because if you can't read russian your screwed - the cyrillic alphabet is like reading arabic; if you want to toodle around on the subway or walk the streets - nothing makes sense and it all looks the same. Pictures and maps (with the actual and phonetic spellings on them) are how you're going to make it work. Rough guide has no pictures - Eyewitness boatloads! I explored Moscow on my own - with no guide, no translator and no dictionary - only my eyewitness guide. I didn't get lost and I saw everything that I wanted to see. I didn't care that Eyewitness Moscow was published in 1998 - churches, museums and other places of interest do not move - prices change frequently anyway. It also cuts out a lot of the crap that other guides spend too much time on. This is a guide for seeing, doing and exploring. If you want a hotel guide, get a travel agent.