Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable when traveling to a city for the first time.
Review: Eyewitness travel guides are invaluable when traveling to a city for the first time. Eyewitness VIENNA is no exception. I collect travel books and nothing compares to being able to visualize what your reading about. This book offers cultural and historical background along with all the all the pictures. It's virtually impossible to get lost in Vienna with this book. The maps throughout and the city map at the back are the best I've seen.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it
Review: I can only second everything the other reviewer said about this book. It is so easy to use and so thoroughly cross referenced that we simply could not put it away while we were in Vienna. We finally gave up and just carried it around for instant referral at all times. My wife had lived in Vienna for a year as a college student, but she was amazed at the wealth of interesting and important information that we gleaned from this book. Its format is extremely visual rather than verbal, which really works for me. We are going back to Vienna next year and we will have our copy of the Eyewitness book close at hand at all times.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on Vienna, period.
Review: I can only second everything the other reviewer said about this book. It is so easy to use and so thoroughly cross referenced that we simply could not put it away while we were in Vienna. We finally gave up and just carried it around for instant referral at all times. My wife had lived in Vienna for a year as a college student, but she was amazed at the wealth of interesting and important information that we gleaned from this book. Its format is extremely visual rather than verbal, which really works for me. We are going back to Vienna next year and we will have our copy of the Eyewitness book close at hand at all times.
Rating:
Summary: All you need to get around
Review: I can't stress enough how valuable this book was on our family trip. The maps were detailed and easy to read. Vienna is filled with little alleys and cobblestone streets, it would've been easy to get lost, were it not for this book. Aside from the streetmaps, I referred to the subway map often.The book also outlined a few self-guided walking tours, detailing history of landmarks and statues that you might otherwise miss if you were just walking by. Most helpful were interior 3D maps of places like Schonbrunn, Hofsburg, and the Kunsthistoriches museum. At these venues, they often charge you for sketchy, uninformative maps in English. This book was really all we needed. It's no wonder you see so many people with this guide, in all it's different language versions.
Rating: 
Summary: Unwieldy, disorganized
Review: I think one of the reasons I did not particularly care for Vienna was that I was trying to use this guidebook. It seemed to me that we were constantly crossing boundaries in the book's map of the city, which made it very confusing and not very convenient. My biggest gripe with the book however is that the index is printed in a very small and faint font, making it extremely difficult to read, for no sensible reason.
Rating:
Summary: Unwieldy, disorganized
Review: I think one of the reasons I did not particularly care for Vienna was that I was trying to use this guidebook. It seemed to me that we were constantly crossing boundaries in the book's map of the city, which made it very confusing and not very convenient. My biggest gripe with the book however is that the index is printed in a very small and faint font, making it extremely difficult to read, for no sensible reason.
Rating:
Summary: Almost all you need
Review: The only flaw with this series and it's minor is that there is little information on hostels. However, all the other information in this series of travel guides is wonderful. As everyone else said. It's all you need. I am planning a European trip this summer. I spent hours and hours in book stores looking for the perfect travel book. This is it. I got one for Prague, Budapest, and London as well. The fifth city I'm going to - Berlin- comes out in May and I'm so glad I'll have a set. I simply went to the library and bought Let's Go Europe for hostel information. Now that I know where I am staying in each city- I will bring these guides with me. They are perfect. They break the cities down area by area showing many great sites in each area...including things I haven't found elsewhere. For example, the "Figarohaus" in Vienna. Being a huge Mozart fan- I want to see all the Mozart sites I can. The "Figarohaus" is where Mozart lived for three years in Vienna and where he composed my absolute favorite opera, The Marriage of Figaro- hence the name. It's little things like that that can make your trip great as opposed to average. Get it and no other...except Let's Go Europe which provides the missing hostel info. When I get to Europe...Let's Go will not be with me- only these guides will.
Rating:
Summary: Almost all you need
Review: The only flaw with this series and it's minor is that there is little information on hostels. However, all the other information in this series of travel guides is wonderful. As everyone else said. It's all you need. I am planning a European trip this summer. I spent hours and hours in book stores looking for the perfect travel book. This is it. I got one for Prague, Budapest, and London as well. The fifth city I'm going to - Berlin- comes out in May and I'm so glad I'll have a set. I simply went to the library and bought Let's Go Europe for hostel information. Now that I know where I am staying in each city- I will bring these guides with me. They are perfect. They break the cities down area by area showing many great sites in each area...including things I haven't found elsewhere. For example, the "Figarohaus" in Vienna. Being a huge Mozart fan- I want to see all the Mozart sites I can. The "Figarohaus" is where Mozart lived for three years in Vienna and where he composed my absolute favorite opera, The Marriage of Figaro- hence the name. It's little things like that that can make your trip great as opposed to average. Get it and no other...except Let's Go Europe which provides the missing hostel info. When I get to Europe...Let's Go will not be with me- only these guides will.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but needs to be used in conjunction with another
Review: This book is possibly one of the best guidebooks around as it takes a completly new way of presenting things. For the easily lost it provides good maps as well as detailed drawings of prominent buildings and descriptions of the internal and external architectural points and displays. The book is divided into sections, based on the districts used in Vienna. Apart from detailing the sights inside the Ringstrasse, it ventures to sights and museums in and around the city and gives detailed drawings for suggested walks. The details of the food and drinks around are also great, so now you can really tell what exactly to expect when ordering in a restaurant. The downsides I found to it are that the prices are provided in brackets, as in the Roughguide series. While this is a good way of hedging bets on price rises between updates, it's a bit hard for the person trying to travel cheaply. The section on accomodation also is limited to the more expensive ones, which means that if you're backpacking on a budget, you're best to buy a Lonely Planet guide as well (I'd suggest this anyway, they're updated more regularly and are pretty accurate for countries like Austria).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide!
Review: This is a surprisingly effective and well-organized guide, with some interesting maps and information. If you're planning on spending just a few days in Vienna, then this compact little book will be indispensible in locating the famous streets and tourist sights. The maps are more than adequate and the walking descriptions to each locale are precise and accurate. There is also corresponding material on how to use the public transportation in the city and which station to take for each particular site. There is a separate chapter on the churches of the city with a brief ranking system for the nosiest places, the friendliest, the cheapest food, etc. If you're planning a lengthy sojourn in Vienna or if you already know the city well, then this book would not be as helpful. It is solely intended for the casual tourist and there is little, if any, information on the intriguing environs of the city. Many of the best sites are neglected because most tourists don't want to bother or simply don't have the time to stick around. Still, this is a thrifty guide you can stick in your pocket and consult when you need to find a restaurant, beer haunt or hotel. In short, if you're a first timer to Vienna, enjoy one of the greatest cities in Europe and be sure to tuck away Brook's guide,
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