Rating: 
Summary: A WORTHLESS (AND HEAVY) BOOK TO CARRY
Review: I've done a lot of travelling in my years, and this was my first trip using an "Eyewitness" guide. This book was worthless, and was twice as heavy as any other to carry. Sure, the pictures and diagrams are clever. But when you land at the airport in Madrid or one of the several train stations in Barcelona, you will have absolutely no help from this book how to get where you need to go. And when I took a road trip around Andalucia, ALL of the highways were wrongly numbered and poorly drawn. This is the least practical book you could buy. (But the most expensive.) And you won't believe how much it weighs. Only buy this if you want to pretend you were there and need a lot of pictures.
Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculously heavy.
Review: If you are like me and:1. Are backpacking. 2. Don't like extra weight. 3. Don't care about pictures. 4. Dislike cutsie, snobbish writing style for the +45 crowd. then don't buy this book. However, the low end hotels that the book recomends were very nice, clean, and it had more than a few restaurants as well. The book was written for the **budgetless traveller**, those travelling on busses or renting cars, etc. This wasn't made for those that are actually carrying their stuff themselves for any extended period of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty pictures, but not suitable for all travelers
Review: Just got back from Spain where I put this guide to the test in several cities. I decided to try this instead of the usual guides I used in the past (Let's Go, Rick Steve's, Lonely Planet, Fodor's, etc.). My overall verdict is that this book is good for a certain type of traveler on a certain type of trip, but can't be leaned on too heavily as a reference guide. It handles a few things better than other guides, but doesn't have enough information for the budget travelers dependent on their guidebooks to make it from place to place. What it does better than other guides is provide beautiful color photographs and cutaway diagrams of major sights, like cathedrals and museums and select neighborhood in major cities. Unlike other guidebooks, the photos are presented on thick glossy paper, providing extremely vivid coloring. I leaned heavily on the city-map of Madrid to find my way to the right metro stations for all the sites. Each chapter on a town had a fairly good list of sites to see along with operating hours, and each one was keyed to a map so I could easily navigate to the site. The subway map of Madrid inside the back cover was super useful. It has a list of restaurants and hotels for various cities all in two color-coded appendixes at the back of the book, and the price ranges listed are wider than other guidebooks like Let's Go or Rick Steve's, which focus on hostels and budget hotels. You'll find five star hotels and "jacket and tie required" restaurants in the Eyewitness Guide. But many travelers will find the book problematic. First, it has very little information on how to get from one destination to another. Rick Steve's and Let's Go, which my travel companions brought, were much better on this front. Those two books saved me countless trips to tourist offices and train/bus stations and were worth buying for that reason alone. The Eyewitness guide just have had general travel info as an appendix in the back of the book, but very little on travel from one particular town to another. Not a problem if your travel plans were made out all in advance, but a fatal flaw if you're figuring it out as you go. A few other problems: the high quality paper means the books is much heavier than other guidebooks. Walking around in the heat, I didn't appreciate having to lug it in my backpack. Also, the restaurant and hotel listings are pretty skimpy--just two pages of restaurants and hotels for Madrid?! Other guidebooks are more complete--Eyewitness tends to focus on a few restaurants and hotels across a broad price range, though I have no idea how those particular ones were selected. In summary, I think this guidebook works great if you have all your travel between towns and lodging in each destination set ahead of time. This guidebook will help you pick out a few sites to visit in each area and provide great photos for each. For the budget traveler/backpacker who needs to figure out how to get from one town to the next on the fly, Let's Go or Rick Steve's or a book like that is essential. Next time I travel, I'm buying Let's Go before the trip, and if I'm in a particular town for a while, I might pick up an Eyewitness Guide once I'm in town and then toss it out once I leave. Or perhaps buy one at home and tear out the relevant pages to bring along. They make Eyewitness Guides for particular destinations, like Madrid only, which might be a better value than the entire Spain guide if you're only hitting a few spots.
Rating: 
Summary: Modern & lively - not what you'd expect from a usual guide!!
Review: My husband and I took a 15-day tour of Barcelona and Andalucia this summer and although we had no guide or anything, we found it was very enjoyable to go around places using this particular guide. Great photos, modern layout and trustworthy suggestions as regards restaurants and hotels. The city maps were a bit confusing, esp. in places like Jewish quarters but we found our way out quite easily. Loved the food pictures - very enlightening!!!
Rating:
Summary: A very good book.
Review: My wife is from Spain and I have spend lots of time there. I have many guide books, but when I saw this book, I knew I needed it. It has very good discussions on history, art, food, etc. The maps and cut-away diagrams are very good and informative. It not only gives info on the main cities but also points out many of the out-of-the-way places that really add to a visit to Spain.
Rating:
Summary: a great overview with wonderful pictures & maps
Review: obviously, a book small enough to stick in your backpack is going to short change one's favorite places, but for the most part, this book was a lifesaver! the pictures of food, money, road signs, the police, etc. were invaluable. it would be great to expand the road sign section. i'm pretty sure i know what "bandas sonoras" means, but it took awhile to puzzle out without a dictionary. we traveled to spain during holy week 1999. we used other books to help determine our itinerary, and used this book to help find the places. the city center maps were great, although, again, one wished for more detail. i wouldn't hesitate to order other eyewitness guides for any and all destinations.
Rating:
Summary: Eyewitness Travel Guides, SPAIN
Review: This book has amazing pictures. It shows and talks about food, drinks, shopping, historical sights, museums, beatiful areas, and the hot spots of all the different regions of Spain. Now, I can't wait for my trip to Spain this summer!
Rating:
Summary: Eyewitness Travel Guides Spain
Review: This book has to be one of the best I have used, with 3 D maps giving you the feel of what the building looks like is better than an address.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful info packed book.
Review: This book is wonderful and visually exciting! Its color pictures, maps and legends to historical sites make it a "must have" for travel to Spain, but what is even more exciting is the timeline detailing the country's history, from being part of the Roman Empire to Moorish influence, right up to present day. Among the myriad of covered topics, there are souvenir and shopping recommendations, information on medical care, a calender of festivals, and even a weather guide. The indespensible information and the sheer beauty of the book make it a real page turner. You're not bogged down by too long explanations or endless rambling. It whets your appetite for the culture and doesn't let you down. Going to Spain? Don't go without this book.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful info packed book.
Review: This book is wonderful and visually exciting! Its color pictures, maps and legends to historical sites make it a "must have" for travel to Spain, but what is even more exciting is the timeline detailing the country's history, from being part of the Roman Empire to Moorish influence, right up to present day. Among the myriad of covered topics, there are souvenir and shopping recommendations, information on medical care, a calender of festivals, and even a weather guide. The indespensible information and the sheer beauty of the book make it a real page turner. You're not bogged down by too long explanations or endless rambling. It whets your appetite for the culture and doesn't let you down. Going to Spain? Don't go without this book.
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