The Rough Guide to Prague

The book PRAGUE is absolutely amazing tourist guide that goes beyond the basic facts about the city. Especially, the rich history, architecture, art styles are captured in factually detailed and at the same time seen in modern point of view of the author. I am Czech myself living in US and gave this book to an American friend of mine...

This guide to PragueThe Rough Guide to Prague 7 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)is complete and helpful to preparing my trip to this city.

I bought this version, and a friend I met up with had the more condensed one. We used the smaller one most of the time. Something that sucked about these books was the fact that a few of the places seemed to be in the wrong spot on a couple maps. Nothing big, but sometimes a place would be across the street, or two places supposedly next door to each other would be across the road. A pretty good book, but the smaller one will likely be just as useful. The restaurant and pub reviews were good. If I were to do things over, I'd get another pocket-sized map as well, mark where I wanted to go, then leave this book in the hotel.

Like most people, I guess, I'd researched Prague, Czech Republic online, and via some travel articles I'd saved. I had heard of the Rough Guide series (just as I also skimmed through the "Hip Guides" online), and thought to give this a try, in addition to an updated Michelin guide of Europe. A great choice! The section near the beginning, featuring city highlights, offered beautiful photos, and was inspiring just as the captions were enticing. The book's organization into different "contextual" components can be a bit un-ergonomic at times, and other times was useful. There's more info than will probably be needed for a short stay, but still my walking tour guide was very impressed by my historical knowledge of the city and country, and much of the credit for that belongs to this book. While the Michelin Guide covered more cities (and countries), this guide is dense-packed with "everything you might want to know about Prague", and probably much more. Focusing specifically on the city of Prague, it covers not only the streets and customs, but larger historical context and suggestions for excursions outside the city. (e.g., to nearby Kutna Hora) Interestingly, I ran into a friend in Stockholm who expressed disappointment in the book she had with her -- Rough Guide to Sweden, and I suppose it's a bit like the case of Michelin -- covering so much territory it's bound to suffer in the detail it can provide on any one city when its covering an entire country or continent. The same may be true of the Rough Guides in that they excel in zooming in on a particular city, but may not be as completely satisfying in covering a given city when the book covers an entire country. I can't generalize, but I do know that for this city, at least, the Rough Guide was full of useful information, interesting background and context, and enticing photographs of some of the architectural highlights. I'd definitely recommend Rough Guide to Prague for anyone comtemplating a vacation in this very unique, beautiful, and historically rich city. It's a photographer's dream, as well as a city made for lovers of architecture, history, or Pilsener beer. This book and a quick sampling of photos and travel articles online, offers all you need to know to begin enjoying the treasures of Prague.

This book is packed chock-full of information, but its strength is also its weakness. The dense text is good for those who want detailed information, but is harder to flip through and to use for quick planning or decisions. Most useful for those who may be in Prague for a longer period and want in-depth information. The restaurant and accommodation listings are helpful.