The Rough Guide to Germany

I first picked up the "Rough Guide to West Germany" in 1990, and have bought every update since. The key to remember is that the guide is written for the average tourist, not for someone that lives in Essen. Having said that, I have lived in Europe for 8 years, and find the guide indispensable. The beginning chapters provide you with all the essential information you need to plan the trip, including tourist office addresses, best prices for airlines, reminds you to purchase Eurail passes while still at home, etc. The guide itself is written in a slightly irreverent way, giving a wide berth to commercial tourist attractions in favor of historically significant areas. It lists accommodation (sp?) for all price classes, and even directs you to a good meal in individual cities. The guide stands as a good read, even if you aren't traveling. It gives you everything as advertised, and then some.

Really a quite excellent source of information covering off the beaten track, for the self-exploring traveler, advice, regarding accommodations and tourist sites. Recommendations I gleaned from this guide provided me with a truly memorable vacation in Southern Germany such as attending a dragon festival that had its origins in the 14th century Bavarian forest village of Furth-im-Wald. If you like your traveling independence, but only wish you had a friend who lived in the neighborhood who could makes some suggestions, you'll love this book.

I've lived, studied, and travelled a lot in Germany, and I've used three guidebooks: Let's Go (2003 edition), Lonely Planet (the two most recent editions), and this edition of the Rough Guide. The Rough Guide is the best of them hands down. For starters, it contains more text than the others: though I don't have the Let's Go on hand for comparison, the Rough Guide is almost 300 pages longer than the most recent Lonely Planet Germany, which comes in at about 800 pages. (Because of the thinner paper, however, it is almost exactly the same size as the LP.) The print is also denser and finer, so that the Rough Guide contains probably twice as much actual text as the LP. Legibility suffers a little, but it's a fair trade-off. More words, of course, isn't necessarily better. Where the The Rough Guide beats the others is in detail and quality of information. For example, where the other guides tell you that the Frauenkirche in Dresden was the most important Protestant church in northern Germany, was destroyed in the firebombing of March 1945, and is now being rebuilt, the Rough Guide tells you also that they are doing the most painstakingly accurate restoration ever - where possible each piece has been dug up from the pile of rubble that was left as a "memorial" after the war and put back where it originally was, and only 10% of the total masory is new. That information adds a lot to your appreciation of the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche. That's just one example. Consistenly, the Rough Guide is more detailed and more authoritative on art, architecture, music, wine, you name it. The LP is by no means bad (although the Let's Go, at least the 2003 edition, is a pretty mediocre effort), but I see no reason to carry any other guide when the Rough Guide is so clearly superior. UPDATE: I wanted to add to my original review and also address some points made by another reviewer: - The reviewer says the RG is a well written but a bit snobbish. You could call it that; I say that the RG is not afraid to come right out and say that a sight, restaurant, or entire town is a total tourist trap, or that a place just isn't worthwhile. That's their opinion, of course, but I've found that their opinions are often very well founded. Compare to the LP, which tries to be more balanced and is less opinionated. Given that most travelers have limited time and money, I think they are well-served by the RG's more opinionated approach. - The Holocaust memorial in Berlin (which is an artistic failure, in my opinion) was unveiled in the spring of 2005, a year after the RG was published and probably nearly two years after it was researched. RG can't be faulted for failing to include this sight. More generally, although there's much overlap between the two guides in what sights are included, RG includes some worthwhile ones which LP overlooks (the Deutsche Bahn Museum in Nuremberg being one good example). - One thing which travelers often prefer LP for is the inclusion

I don't understand the very negative reviews. The book may not be perfect, but there is no better German travel guide out there. Believe me, I've looked through bookstores and have not found anything close. I used an older edition (along with "Let's Go Germany") while living in Germany in '98 and use the updated one for frequent return trips. This book's strengths:1. It was written by a Brit a with a sense of humor, honesty, and a good grasp of German history. If a tourist spot is lame, he is open about it.2. It has good coverage of quaint, off-the-tourist-track towns which are not covered in other resources. These are the best places to visit because they tend to be attractive, less touristy, and inexpensive.3. I have found this book's hotel recommendations to be superior. The lists of accomodations are extensive and accurately described. Good recommendations for low/medium priced bed & breakfast type places.For the most part, I've been pleased with this book and recommend it over anything else currently on the market.

I first picked up the "Rough Guide to West Germany" in 1990, and have bought every update since. The key to remember is that the guide is written for the average tourist, not for someone that lives in Essen. Having said that, I have lived in Europe for 8 years, and find the guide indispensible. The beginning chapters provide you with all the essential information you need to plan the trip, including tourist office addresses, best prices for airlines, reminds you to purchase Eurail passes while still at home, etc. The guide itself is written in a slightly irreverant way, giving a wide berth to commercial tourist attractions in favor of historically significant areas. It lists accomodation (sp?) for all price classes, and even directs you to a good meal in individual cities. The guide stands as a good read, even if you aren't travelling. It gives you everything as advertised, and then some.