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Title: Rick Steves' Spain and Portugal 2004 by Rick Steves ISBN: 1-56691-529-5 Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing Pub. Date: December, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Pros and cons of a very good guidebook
Comment: Some thoughts about Mr. Steves' largely excellent book. Highly recommended.
Pros:
* Mr. Steves provides excellent help in prioritizing your time in Spain and Portugal. I find this activity to be the hardest when planning a trip. How many days in Barcelona, how many in Madrid, etc?
* An incredibly valuable feature of the book, in my opinion, is that Mr. Steves provides a one-page listing of the primary sites in each city, ranking each site from zero to three stars based on how important it is to see each site. While I may not agree on his prioritization, the page makes for a quick checklist while you're walking or waiting for public transportation.
* Mr. Steves is particularly good at recommending out-of-the-way lodging and restaurants that you might not otherwise find in a given place.
* Mr. Steves' book is also very good for budget travelers, providing lodging and dining in every class of service.
Cons:
* As mentioned in several other reviews, the book is laden with historical factual errors. I won't go into that here.
* In a cutesy manner, many of the maps are handwritten and the street names are omitted. Specifically, if you try to drive around Sevilla using only this book, you will live to regret it.
* Much if not most of the visitor information (hours and days of availability) for tourist sites is wrong. I strongly suggest doing what we did: arriving in a particular town the night before you wish to visit its sites, walking around to see the real hours displayed, then planning your itinerary over dinner.
Some other thoughts, not particularly specific to his book but useful for your trip:
* PORK: Spain is completely obsessed with pork. More or less every menu item has pork on it. Even if it says vegetarian and you ask if it's vegetarian and they assure you it's vegetarian, the odds are pretty high that it'll have a six ounce hunk-o-bacon in it. If you are committed not to eat pork for any reason, seriously consider whether it's worth having to cookies out of a bag for the duration of your trip.
* There are department stores called Corte Ingles scattered around every city in Spain. They have grocery stores and everything else you might need. Knowing where they are is very useful on a long trip.
Best of luck!
Lydia
Rating: 4
Summary: Amazon Review Gets Results
Comment: You can't say that Amazon reviews don't get noticed. Previous editions of this book (in the Alhambra section) repeated what Daniel Boorstin called a "vulgar legend": that the Spanish court resisted Columbus because it didn't believe that the world was round. This was pointed out on Rick Steves' web site in 2002 and here in 2003. The 2004 edition finally acknowledges the truth: that the Spanish court resisted Columbus's proposals because they thought he underestimated the size of the world and the length of the voyage, not because they thought the world was flat. The estimates they used were far more accurate than Columbus's. The book also stops saying that Spain's Socialist party is in power. (Of course there's no acknowledgment of the errors. The information on Columbus is presented in the same know-it-all tone, even though it's 180 degrees different from what Rick Steves said before.)
But the leopard hasn't changed his spots. The architect of Ronda's impressive bridge did not fall off of the bridge to his death while inspecting his work. Spain For Dummies sets the record straight. The discussion of the Spanish Civil War omits the information that Stalin supported and eventually took over the Republican side. Since Steves mentions that Hitler and Mussolini supported the Nationalists, there's no reason for leaving out Stalin's role except that the author doesn't want readers to know. (Perhaps Rick Steves doesn't want readers to know how radical he is; at his web site he suggests that America brought on the terrorist attacks and sympathizes with a suicide bomber.)
Mr. Steves lacks the confidence to summarize history in a straightforward manner and let readers decide for themselves; he never passes up a chance to indoctrinate. For reliable history of the Spanish Civil War see the definitive account by Hugh Thomas, Paul Johnson's summary in Modern Times, or George Orwell's classic, Homage To Catalonia. If you browse through Amazon or your local bookstore you can find many fine books on various aspects of Spanish history.
Fortunately history is only a small part of the book. There is good practical information on hotels, restaurants, sites, local transportation, and travel strategies. For example, Madrid's Hotel Gonzalo is an excellent value near the Prado. If you're in Andalusia budget some time to visit one of the Pueblos Blancos villages, such as Ronda. Tours only make short stops here, but they're worth several days. Wherever you go, look out for pickpockets.
If you're going to Spain or Portugal, this book is an excellent travel resource. But when you read history in a Rick Steves book keep in mind that he's trying to indoctrinate readers to his point of view.
Rating: 1
Summary: Big disappointment for highly touted book ...
Comment: This book would only be useful if I were travelling to Spain. And even the 3 days I spent there, not a single word was mentioned of Bilbao, Valladolid, and the northern Atlantic cities. Very dissappointing. The book reserves all of about 30 pages on Portugal, none of which provide nearly as insightful as the Lonely Planet or Michelin guides. My advice, save your money and buy something else.
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Title: Rick Steves' Spanish & Portuguese Phrase Book & Dictionary by Rick Steves ISBN: 1562614797 Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Rick Steves' Italy 2004 by Rick Steves ISBN: 1566915333 Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing Pub. Date: December, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Spain (Eyewitness Travel Guides) by DK Publishing ISBN: 0789493888 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Rick Steves' France 2004 by Rick Steves, Steve Smith ISBN: 1566916690 Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Lonely Planet Spain (Spain, 4th Ed) by Damien Simonis, Fiona Adams, Susan Forsyth, John Noble, Miles Roddis, Elizabeth Swan, Lonely Planet ISBN: 1740593375 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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