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Rating: 
Summary: What A Travel Companion for Paris!
Review: Having just spent two weeks in the Paris area, I can highly recommend the AAA Paris Spiral Guide as a prime example of what a travel guide should be. It is concise, well organized and offers just the right amount of well thought out information. In other words for the traveler packing light, it doesn't weigh a ton.While I do prefer the Eyewitness Guide series for pre-trip planning and research because of all of its excellent maps, photos, detailed information and "how-to" information, it was the AAA Spiral Guide that I carried around with me all over Paris. The Eyewitness Guide (my constant companion before the trip) never left the hotel room. The AAA Spiral guide gives excellent suggestions about what are "must see" and "check out if you have time" attractions, and even suggests possible daily itineraries based on the geographic areas of Paris. I found that my list of "to do" was very similar to theirs. Also, most of the travel guides that I read had separate sections in the back for restaurants, shopping, hotels, etc. The AAA Spiral Guide organizes these topics into the different geographic areas of Paris. This was a much more logical and welcome organization in actual practice. The Guide also has a small but excellent section of "how to" information. Overall, I am looking forward to using the AAA Spiral Guides again for future travels. I believe the title list is short at present, but hope to see it expand. Bon Voyage!
Rating:
Summary: What A Travel Companion for Paris!
Review: Having just spent two weeks in the Paris area, I can highly recommend the AAA Paris Spiral Guide as a prime example of what a travel guide should be. It is concise, well organized and offers just the right amount of well thought out information. In other words for the traveler packing light, it doesn't weigh a ton. While I do prefer the Eyewitness Guide series for pre-trip planning and research because of all of its excellent maps, photos, detailed information and "how-to" information, it was the AAA Spiral Guide that I carried around with me all over Paris. The Eyewitness Guide (my constant companion before the trip) never left the hotel room. The AAA Spiral guide gives excellent suggestions about what are "must see" and "check out if you have time" attractions, and even suggests possible daily itineraries based on the geographic areas of Paris. I found that my list of "to do" was very similar to theirs. Also, most of the travel guides that I read had separate sections in the back for restaurants, shopping, hotels, etc. The AAA Spiral Guide organizes these topics into the different geographic areas of Paris. This was a much more logical and welcome organization in actual practice. The Guide also has a small but excellent section of "how to" information. Overall, I am looking forward to using the AAA Spiral Guides again for future travels. I believe the title list is short at present, but hope to see it expand. Bon Voyage!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not the best.
Review: I thought this was the best Paris guide...until I saw a better one...and then a still better one. The practical information given in this book is quite adequate, especially the "Where to Eat and Drink" part, which tips some inexpensive yet good restaurants (e.g. "La Galerie" in Montmartre, which I'll return one day!), though the address of Musée Rodin is incorrectly given as "66" rue de Varenne (the museum is not likely to be missed as a result of this error, though). There is a clear and detailed local streetplan of various parts of Paris, but surprisingly there is not a streetplan of Paris as a whole, and the local streetplan does not cover far enough. Photos appear on almost every page, but they are small and fragmentary, and as such, this book is not a good choice to keep as souvenir after a trip to Paris. To me, the best Paris guide is the _Insight Guide Paris_--very *parisien*! Another good one is the _Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Guides Paris_. Both are worthy of their respective titles. (Of course, so is the "Spiral Guide" worthy of *its* title.)
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not the best.
Review: I thought this was the best Paris guide...until I saw a better one...and then a still better one. The practical information given in this book is quite adequate, especially the "Where to Eat and Drink" part, which tips some inexpensive yet good restaurants (e.g. "La Galerie" in Montmartre, which I'll return one day!), though the address of Musée Rodin is incorrectly given as "66" rue de Varenne (the museum is not likely to be missed as a result of this error, though). There is a clear and detailed local streetplan of various parts of Paris, but surprisingly there is not a streetplan of Paris as a whole, and the local streetplan does not cover far enough. Photos appear on almost every page, but they are small and fragmentary, and as such, this book is not a good choice to keep as souvenir after a trip to Paris. To me, the best Paris guide is the _Insight Guide Paris_--very *parisien*! Another good one is the _Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Guides Paris_. Both are worthy of their respective titles. (Of course, so is the "Spiral Guide" worthy of *its* title.)
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not the best.
Review: I thought this was the best Paris guide...until I saw a better one...and then a still better one. The practical information given in this book is quite adequate, especially the "Where to Eat and Drink" part, which tips some inexpensive yet good restaurants (e.g. "La Galerie" in Montmartre, which I'll return one day!), though the address of Musée Rodin is incorrectly given as "66" rue de Varenne (the museum is not likely to be missed as a result of this error, though). There is a clear and detailed local streetplan of various parts of Paris, but surprisingly there is not a streetplan of Paris as a whole, and the local streetplan does not cover far enough. Photos appear on almost every page, but they are small and fragmentary, and as such, this book is not a good choice to keep as souvenir after a trip to Paris. To me, the best Paris guide is the _Insight Guide Paris_--very *parisien*! Another good one is the _Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Guides Paris_. Both are worthy of their respective titles. (Of course, so is the "Spiral Guide" worthy of *its* title.)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful tour book for Paris
Review: My wife and I used this travel guide extensively while in Paris. It served as our bible, tour guide, and street map. It is laid out in a very clearly and the sprial binder makes it very easy to flip to any page. It is filled with clear, color pictures and maps. The guide is broken down into various regions throughout Paris with each section highlighting Must See Attractions, and then At Your Leisure sites that are also in the area. It also has a very nice reference on how to see a region in one day. A subway map is on the inside back cover, and a regional map of Paris is on the front inside cover. Other nice features are sections called 'Finding Your Feet' - which provides great information for when you first arrive in London (either by plane, train, boat, etc..) and a 'Practicalities' seciton that talks about currency, clothes sizes, basic French phrases, etc. What really made this book stand out compared to other Paris travel guides was it included detailed street maps of these regions. Those proved invaluable for us once we started walking around the area. The book is compact, and fit inside my coat pocket comfortably. My only gripe is that for some of the attractions, it did not have the right opening and closing times - and it suggested a shortcut to the lines at the Lourve by getting off at the Tuileries metro stop. Unfortunately, this is one stop too early, but the street map easily showed us the way. If you only want to carry one compact tour guide for Paris - I would highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful tour book for Paris
Review: My wife and I used this travel guide extensively while in Paris. It served as our bible, tour guide, and street map. It is laid out in a very clearly and the sprial binder makes it very easy to flip to any page. It is filled with clear, color pictures and maps. The guide is broken down into various regions throughout Paris with each section highlighting Must See Attractions, and then At Your Leisure sites that are also in the area. It also has a very nice reference on how to see a region in one day. A subway map is on the inside back cover, and a regional map of Paris is on the front inside cover. Other nice features are sections called 'Finding Your Feet' - which provides great information for when you first arrive in London (either by plane, train, boat, etc..) and a 'Practicalities' seciton that talks about currency, clothes sizes, basic French phrases, etc. What really made this book stand out compared to other Paris travel guides was it included detailed street maps of these regions. Those proved invaluable for us once we started walking around the area. The book is compact, and fit inside my coat pocket comfortably. My only gripe is that for some of the attractions, it did not have the right opening and closing times - and it suggested a shortcut to the lines at the Lourve by getting off at the Tuileries metro stop. Unfortunately, this is one stop too early, but the street map easily showed us the way. If you only want to carry one compact tour guide for Paris - I would highly recommend it.
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