Michelin Red Guide Europe (Main Cities)

An excellent travel companion to anyone considering a trip around Europe. Whether on a budget or not, this book will assist you in finding accommodation or restaurants that won't send your Bank Manager/Credit Card into "overload"...unless you want to spend that sort of cash!! I'd highly recommend it!

I've been to nearly all the European countries many times (some countries >30 times). 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 />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 />Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites. <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more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.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 />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 />Blue Guides <br />Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn. <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 public transportation system. 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 reviews of re

This Michelin special book of the larger cities of Europe has all the restaurant and hotel ratings from the individual country red books. It's a tremendous guide if you are visiting two or more countries and/or larger cities, such as London and Paris.We have used Michelin for many years and absolutely no one else is as reliable. Some think Michelin a bit slow to review and rave over new restaurants and slow to downgrade older restaurants. But in our experience they do an extremely good job, especially for France but also for other countries (U.K, Germany and Italy, in our experience).Terry Rooney, California