Michelin Green Guide: Spain

I used this book in 2005 to visit Madrid/Toledo/Segovia/Seville/Granada and Cordoba and then again in 2007 on a 10 day trip through Galicia. The book's main advantage is that towns/cities are in alphabetical order, so info is easy to find. However, I find the text lacking in sparkle--a bit too dull.........It was my #3 choice for information. (I also had the DK guide and the Rough Guide) The size and shape of this book make it easy to carry during the day, but most of the time, I carried the DK guide!!

Always been impressed with Michelin guides even though the newer versions are heavier on graphics and pictures than the older versions. This particular issue on Spain appears to hit all the high points and hopefully give enough of a background to have a good time when visiting.

I bought this book and thank goodness I didn't read the reviews first. First, I have to give it major points for being in a slim format, far and away preferable to other bulky travel guides. Slim however doesn't mean lacking in content. Primarily, this guide is about the sights. It gives you history, context , and culture to the things you will see. It also tells does a great job in explaining travel logistics. It also rates sights through a three-star rating system making it easier for you to prioritize things on a short trip. The main shortcomings are the non-existent discussion on how to get around using public transportation (this is Michelin after all) and the scandaluously limited lodging and eatery options. You must be good with maps for this guide to be fully useful to you because that's how sights are organized, and I don't mind that at all. I recommend getting this book in tandem with a guidebook that focuses in on budget travelling.

As expected from the Michelin Green Guides series, this one too is a wonderful travel companion. Accurate and up to date, covers all important milestones and goes past the shallow surface barely scratched by other travel guides. This Michelin Green Guides is the best available, if you're going to travel to Spain don't leave home without it.

If you use this guide for what it was intended (a sightseeing guide for people with relatively limited time in Spain), it is excellent. On my last trip to Spain I used it as my main tool for deciding what to see (the star ratings really help you to prioritize), but I didn't even consult it when deciding where to sleep or eat. My recommendation is to use this guide along with another one that is loaded with painfully detailed hotel, restaurant, and price information, but doesn't really help you decide what to see with your limited time (e.g. Lonely Planet).My only real complaint was that I thought that, generally speaking, the guide's star system for rating sights/attractions underrates Spanish attractions relative to those in other countries. For example, cities like Caceres, Ronda, and Cuenca would surely get 3-star ratings if they were located in France or especially the United States, instead of Spain. Overall, I guess I felt that the raters were relatively "harsh" when assigning stars to attractions in Spain, when I compare this guide to some of Michelin's other guides for other countries I have visited. The nice thing is that when you visit "two-star" sights in Spain, expecting to see what you would normally see in a Green Guide two-star sight elsewhere, you'll be pleasantly surprised!