Lonely Planet Madrid

Over the summer, my family and I spent two weeks in Madrid and this guide was totally helpful. We were staying with a Spanish family, but they weren't always around to help us out with finding places to go and transportation. The Metro is so convenient and this guide was a total help in using the Metro because it had maps and at each location description is the stop you need for the Metro. There were also some day trips inside the book so you could venture out of Madrid. As we walked around the city and get hungry, we were able to look up restaurants in the book in the area we were. There also were cultural information such as tipping and local holidays, festivals, and markets. We found it easy to navigate through the city and visit all the places we wanted. This book was easy to use and full of information on cultural and touristic topics.

I bought this book recently (the new edition). I have read through it in planning my upcoming trip. Although I have yet to test the accuracy of the information in person, the book strikes me as practical. First, the book is paperback and fairly slender-- so not too bulky or heavy to actually carry around while you're traveling. The second thing that struck me is that it provides maps, including a metro line map. Although the maps may not be the most user friendly with their small print, they'll do fine for the trip planning stage of the trip (I usually get a good city map for navigation once I arrive to my destination city). The sections seem thorough, with an entire chapter on the history of the city. I was pleased with the day trip chapter as well, which lists many options for day trips, how you can get there, what you can do there, and how long it takes to travel there. As far as the accuracy issue, I have yet to find a guidebook that is completely accurate. That being the case, I view them as one source of information among many and do not rely exclusively on a single guidebook.

Looking at the dates, it seems like the reader reviews for this book are all for the old guide. The new version just came out, and I think it looks and reads a lot better, so maybe it's time to put up some new reader reviews.

I spent 5 days in Madrid last August and found this book to be a useful guide. it will lead you to a good time in madrid, which consists of going to the museums, a bull fight and eating a lot. also, i recommend going to one of the sherry bars mentioned in the book.

Not a bad book. I bought it because of its size but much of it was history on Madrid. I think it'd be better to buy the Spain book instead.