Time Out Guide Vienna (Time Out Vienna Guide, 1st Ed)

Rating:
Summary: An amazing wealth of information
Review: As an Austrian who has lived most of his life in Vienna I was simply amazed at the wealth of information this book has to offer. This is by far the best travel guide of Vienna I've ever come across. I have no idea how much time these people spent on researching, but no matter which chapter you're turning to - history, politics, restaurants, shopping, lifestyle - the information is accurate, extensive and, what's most important, to the point.

While some may feel that this guide is more a directory of sights, places and shops, each entry contains lots of interesting facts and details and will almost always introduce you to the greater picture of things.

What's extremely refreshing is the lack of cliché, on the contrary, the authors took great care to point out what's cliché and what isn't, which is a rare commodity with travel guides. The other pro is that this guide doesn't limit itself to the first district, where most tourists seem to get stuck, but rather invites you to the rest of the city as well.

No matter whether you're coming for a few days or weeks, a couple of months or years, or whether you've already lived here for ages - chances are you will find this extremely useful. Not even travel guides published in Austria are this good. *Highly* recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive, even for a native...
Review: Being Viennese and a lonely planet fan, I must clearly say, that this is "the best" travel guide for Vienna, I've ever browsed through.

Granted, information about the rich Viennese history could fill bookshelves, but this guide does not only provide a brief, but sound historical information, but also a bunch of contemporary hints.

Moreover, it tries to go a little off the beaten path, by not only focussing on the "hardcore must visit" spots. I could not have described some places/cafes/clubs better to my foreign friends than this book.

Rating:
Summary: some bad editorial decisions
Review: Captions are sometimes nonexistent for the photos and graphics, and often too smarmy and cute to be anything but misleading. Discussion of Vienna's museum of criminology included a shockingly gory photo of a dismembered corpse that took up 1/3 of a page: nothing I'd want to encounter again.

I threw this book away and bought the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Vienna instead: a very elegant, richly graphical, dependably tasteful series. I will never buy Time Out again!

Rating:
Summary: even the "wieners" approve!
Review: i've travelled a great deal all over the world, and i always have a tough time finding good guides. knowing the wealth of information that "time out" magazines offer, i thought i'd try the vienna guide - and i surely made the right choice! the information was incredibly useful, from getting around to what to do. plus, the cultural information and inside details about the sights were really interesting.

i was visiting a friend who is from vienna, and he was really impressed to see things in the guide that he thought were known only to natives. most of the insider's spots he had planned to take me were listed in the guide.

everything in the book was right on, with the exception of one restaurant that had moved (always a problem with guides, but this one wasn't as bad as some of the experiences i've had with lonely planet).

and yes, the old woman at cafe hawelka does indeed try to set up singles - and their pastries are out of this world!

if you are going to vienna, you can't do better than time out's guide.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: If you only purchase on guide book to Vienna get this one.

It's very detailed and very honest. It's fun to read even if you're not going to Vienna

Highly recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: Paid for itself many times over.
Review: The Time Out Vienna guide made my trip much more enjoyable with it's insider tips and witty humor, even through it was published over 2 years ago.
The information in the guide was even informative to my travel partner who has been to Vienna hundred's of times over 50 years.
I will ALWAYS travel with a Time Out guide in the future.