Brittany (Cadogan Guides)

Philippe Babour's Brittany is guide with an obsessive attention to detail and content. Of the six hundred or so pages, probably 50% to 60% are filled with history and lore. The book scores high marks as a companion guide to The Miclelin Green Guide or to the 60 or so pages on Brittany and Nantes within the Lonely Planet's guide to France. Barbour logically arranges his sections geographically, connects them together, and contrasts them. Both The Lonely Planet and Barbour have nice sections on housing-hotel areas and specific hotel recommendations, and Barbour does the best. The Lonely Planet is, unfortunately, focused on one-star places and below, but Barbour casts a wide net.Barbour's Brittany is a solid 4-star performer in the area of trip planning. However, it cannot stand-alone and be the only guidebook to Brittany that you will ever need. Different from Michelin's Green Guide, there are neither maplets with driving instructions of the areas nor photographs. It makes sense to get a visual glimpse of the area if you have never been there before, but Barbour paints only lavish word pictures that don't really prioritize one area in comparison to another. He has very strong opinions and is not shy conveying them to the reader. This generally presents a nice style and personality to the book. Occasionally, however, Barbour becomes mean-spirited and makes direct attacks against specific people and places. Discount that, and it is a fine book to plan your trip to Brittany.

The definitive travel book on Brittany. At 632 pages it is certainly the most comprehensive. While most travel books assume that tourists do little more than travel from city to city to see cathedrals and museums, Barbour's Brittany gives equal time to the countryside. He is opinionated and tells you where the most beautiful parts are Brittany are to be found and what to avoid. We planned our three-week trip to Brittany around his recommendations and were elated. Our landlord (we utilized the book's information to rent a gite) was amazed that we had been to places he considered to be the most beautiful spots when they require traveling along unpaved roads without signposts. We were delighted to find that the bargains he recommended were terrific. For example, we followed his advice and went to a Breton festival in the remote village of Spezet, which was outstanding. The bargain hotel in Spezet he recommended was excellent. He not only gives his opinionated and accurate recommendations, he provides actual prices as opposed to the vague pricing categories of most other guides. We followed his advice and avoided the congested touristy locales as much as possible. When we were unable to avoid them, it was painfully apparent why he was warning his readers away. If you're going to Brittany, buy this book. Considering the high cost of travel, it's foolish not to have at least one good guide book and this is the best by far of the four I bought.