Lonely Planet France

Written by a team of six authors (Nicola Williams, Oliver Berry, Steve Fallon, Catherine Le Nevez, Daniel Robinson, and Miles Roddis) with 23 combined years of living in France, the seventh edition of Lonely Planet's travel guide France is as high-quality as ever, packed with up-to-date research, 184 maps, and a handful of color photographs. From locations and descriptions of restaurants, hotels, and businesses, to a solid primer on adapting to French culture, to historical insights, transportation tips, recommended tours and trails, an extensive index, and even unique touches such as the URLs of France's most popular bloggers, this updated and expanded seventh edition of France is a "must-have" for anyone determined to make the most of their visit to this proud nation. Readers can even visit [...] for additional daily updates!

I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max! <br /> <br />Lonely Planet <br />Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless. <br /> <br />Frommer's <br />These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you. <br /> <br />Michelin <br />Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books. <br /> <br />Fodor's <br />Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what: <br />The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it. <br />SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide <br />PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit <br />UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out <br />CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information <br />Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide <br /> <br />MapGuide <br />MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city. <br /> <br />Time Out <br />The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short

I have used this guidebook on my first visit to France. It is a distinguished guide. This guidebook has better maps than any other guidebook I have used when travelling through Italy, Spain, and Holland. I explored several places listed in the book, and it helped make France an experience to remember. You won't need any other book for France if you get this one.

It's very simple. You could be dropped into France with this book and the clothes on your back and you'd be completely fine. This is the one indispensable book for travel in France. I spent almost a month running around France with this book, and it's the best. It will get you closer to the stuff that is not mentioned in *any* guidebook than any other travel guide.

Lonely Planet's "France: Travel Survival Kit" was essential to the success of our 21 day journey in France. My boyfriend and I did know where we were headed or what we wanted to do. Using this well organized, percise guide we found ourselves hikeing cliffs in Brittany and wondering backroads in Cote D'Azur.We were new to the country and traveling by train. The first 160 pages of the guide were packed with all the many essentials of travel -- trains, monetary system, telephone cards -- the little things that make a huge difference. Who wants to spend the first few hours in France trying to figure out how the phones works?We wanted to see France, not a heap of tourist attraction wizzing by us. Everywhere we went, this guide showed us the not so traveled places. Even in busy Paris, with help from our trusty guide, we visited flea markets and neighborhoods where tourists don't often venture. These were the places that gave us the real flavor of France. I loved my trip to France. I can honestly say, due to this guide I was able to relax and enjoy the visit more. We relied upon it for finding accomidations and entertainment. It never failed us. We love you, Lonely Planet