Access Paris (5th Ed.)

Rating:
Summary: Most usable endearing travel guide
Review: This guide breaks Paris into neighborhoods, the most recommended way to explore the city. The color coding is highly useful. The maps are handy. The descriptions lively and charming. lt's condensed yet packed with invaluable informational tidbits. Don't leave home without it. lt's the one to take along every day all day.

Rating:
Summary: Most usable endearing travel guide
Review: This guide breaks Paris into neighborhoods, the most recommended way to explore the city. The color coding is highly useful. The maps are handy. The descriptions lively and charming. lt's condensed yet packed with invaluable informational tidbits. Don't leave home without it. lt's the one to take along every day all day.

Rating:
Summary: If you're staying awhile...
Review: When my friend and I went to France for the first time, we decided that our trip would consist almost totally of Paris, which has so must to see that it deserves about two weeks in itself. When the time came to start looking for guidebooks, by coincidence a letter writer in a travel magazine raved about this Access edition, so I picked it up. I wasn't disappointed.

If you're only spending a few days it isn't a good choice - you'll only be dealing with must-sees like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame anyway. It is ideal, though, if your're staying for 2 weeks or longer, sectioning off neighborhoods of the city into chunks that are tourable in a day. This is definitely a mark-up book, begging for sights you want to see, restaurants you want to eat at, and stores you want to shop in to be highlighted or circled. The color highlighting is a useful tool, the drawings are wonderful, and the entries fun and informative - a delight to read when you're actually sitting down at the destination being described.

A good guidebook for the tourist making more than a token visit and who's willing to do a little work beforehand.

Rating:
Summary: If you're staying awhile...
Review: When my friend and I went to France for the first time, we decided that our trip would consist almost totally of Paris, which has so must to see that it deserves about two weeks in itself. When the time came to start looking for guidebooks, by coincidence a letter writer in a travel magazine raved about this Access edition, so I picked it up. I wasn't disappointed.

If you're only spending a few days it isn't a good choice - you'll only be dealing with must-sees like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame anyway. It is ideal, though, if your're staying for 2 weeks or longer, sectioning off neighborhoods of the city into chunks that are tourable in a day. This is definitely a mark-up book, begging for sights you want to see, restaurants you want to eat at, and stores you want to shop in to be highlighted or circled. The color highlighting is a useful tool, the drawings are wonderful, and the entries fun and informative - a delight to read when you're actually sitting down at the destination being described.

A good guidebook for the tourist making more than a token visit and who's willing to do a little work beforehand.