Rick Steves' Germany, Austria & Switzerland

We took this book along with us on trip to Germany and Austria and found it indispensable. Steve's hotel and sight-seeing information is well researched and accurate. Steve's books cater to the rail traveler, but traveling by car is just as easy and more economical if you have a family - not to mention that it allows you much more freedoom to explore. Make sure you have good detailed maps of the places you will be traveling to, as the maps Steve provides are hand drawn and not extremely detailed. We found that many American's use Steve's book to travel, so making friends by talking about Steve's book is a great conversation starter. Make sure you also ask about the discounts that hotels and services offer through Steve's book.

My husband and I used this book to plan our honeymoon and found it to be phenomenal. Steves does a great job of rating what you should see with the time you have. So it was great for planning our scant two weeks. He very candidly describes different places and explains what he likes about them or why he rates them low. This is helpful in deciding what you absolutly have to do since time is limited. Steves also has wonderful tips for drivers, where parking is located for example, and for accomodations. We loved all of our hotels and they were all well located and reasonably priced.This tour guide has two drawbacks. One are the crude maps. They are fine for getting a general lay out, but buying detailed maps is a must, especially for drivers. It also has no pictures. Since I'm a visual person I also bought the DK Guide to Germany. It lists EVERYTHING and has a picture of EVERYTHING. So, once I used Steves to decide what to do and where to stay I would find out what it looked like elswhere.We are planning a trip to England for next year, I'm certainly not going without his guide.

Rick Steves' travel guides have a cult following and for good reason. They are practical, opinionated, fun to read, and filled chock full of good economical advice on how to enjoy the essence of the place instead of spending your money on sterile luxury rooms and tourist trap extravaganzas.My wife and I lived in Germany for 3 and a half years and traveled extensively within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and I'll have to say that this Rick Steves' guide tries to tackle too much. In including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in one concise guide...sure it makes it easy to carry...but it also makes it easy to leave things out. I suppose if you only have two weeks to spend and a limited budget for these three countries this book would more than do justice to your trip planning...but you just might miss Baumburg's Rauchbier (beer that tastes like smoke bacon if you can imagine that), that cool antique store on the pass between Austria and Switzerland where you can buy a huge cow bell for little to nothing, and the wine store in Lucerne on the lake where you can buy the rarely exported Swiss vino. So maybe Rick Steves' discrimination is well and good especially in the case of liquid bacon beer but the rest of Baumburg is pretty phenomenal. If you are going to live in Germany get a more expansive and complete book on each country. It's not economical, but you have time to wait until the dollar is good against the Euro. If you are going there with a Euro rail pass just graduating from College, by all means my dear Wanderlust, don't leave without this book.

I used this book on a visit last September to the Berner Oberland and Lake Geneva area and found it indespensible but not perfect. If you want spectacular beauty, picturesque Swiss mountain villages, lots of cowbells, and efficient transportation, then the Berner Oberland is your heaven. Rick's book provides great maps, train schedules, and hiking recommendations (I particularly loved the valley walk with the cows). But, I agree with the reviewer below from Atlanta on comments about where to stay. Unless you want isolation, do not stay in tiny Gimmelwald. In addition to Grindelwald, I recommend Wengen, which was the most convenient town for me. My balcony view from the Wengener Hof hotel was breathtaking and reasonably priced (and easily reserved over the internet). Grindelwald is certainly a good alternative, and is the best for shopping. With regard to Lake Geneva, Rick is not a big fan, but I definitely recommend a visit. Lausanne is the most beautiful city, I took a great cruise of the Lake, Yvoire is a well preserved (and yes, touristy) small French town with great views of the Lake, and Chateau Chillon was very worthwhile. I didn't have time for Geneva, but hope to return some day. The tourist train from Interlaken to Montreaux was unforgettable, but avoid Montreaux except for the chateau. I highly recommend a Swiss rail pass - I bought one from Rick's site and it was a great convenience in both of my destinations.

We traveled to Germany and Switzerland with the "top three" travel guides recommended by our travel agent, plus Ric Steve's Germany. By the second day the other books were packd securely away, and Steve's book was our guide. All of his recommendations were accurate, and we almost felt as though we had the benifit of traveling with Rick. We suggest Rick's books, and give them as gifts to any of our friends traveling to Europe!!!!!!!!!