The Rough Guide to France puts cheap eats, clubs and accommodation above comfort and style.

---

Product Description

Synopsis

The fourth edition of the Rough Guide to Costa Rica explores all corners of Costa Rica from its idyllic white-sand beaches and picturesque pueblos to verdant rainforests and steaming volcanoes. In-depth coverage of outdoor activitiies includes trekking through cloudforests, horseriding up Volcan Poas, snorkelling the coral reefs and whitewater-rafting down churning rivers.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80428 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Rough Guide to France follows its now well-established format that puts cheap eats, clubs and accommodation above comfort and style. That is its appeal for the student traveller intent on making the most of limited resources. The 2001 edition adds and updates a host of Web site addresses and includes euro price equivalents. Its 100 maps have improved measurably and its listing of map sources in England remains very helpful.

Yet the guide, despite its assurance that this is an "updated" seventh edition of the book, is a remarkably similar--and unfortunately sometimes outdated--version of much earlier guides in the France series that was launched in 1995. In this Rough Guide edition, for the most part, there are fewer restaurant listings and many of the recommendations remain the same as those touted five years ago. Those with a bit more change in their pocket might find better gastronomic satisfaction from Fodor's France or Cadogan Guide to France for upmarket touring.

On the plus side, the Rough Guide to France goes to great lengths to explain and encourage public transportation rather than driving. For cyclists, the list of routes, rentals and means of transporting bicycles across the Channel is one of the best for a broad-based guidebook. The camping section, too, has more depth than its competitors.

Take the name of the book as a guide: it's for those who want to rough it. --Kathleen Buckley

Times Literary Supplement, London, UK
Pithy and descriptive...undoubtedly the backpacker's bible, but invaluable for almost every independent traveller.

The Express, London, UK
Very easy to use, written in a friendly, accessible style...almost indispensable if you are travelling to France this summer, though a pretty useful guide to the major French cities even in less hectic years.

---

Customer Reviews

France is too big for one book
I'm a big fan of the Rough Guides for cities and own a few, including the one for Paris, and have found them to be excellent containing every bit of information I could possibly need.

This guide tries to squeeze the whole of France into a book the size of a city guide, which means it only has space to describe briefly a few major towns in each province.

For backpackers this may be adequate information, but is of limited use to someone trying to plan day trips. Maybe a guide to each of the provinces would have been better.

Best guide to cheap accomodatiopn and good food in France
Travelling in France is wonderful for the food and the cheapness of the hotels however many guides (such as Michelin Red Book) etc either cover a wide range of hotels and restaurants or only expensive ones. This book covers the affordable but good! having used it over the past two years I have stayed at some amazing little inns and eaten some superb food (and drunk some exceptional wine) at very reasonable cost. Dont expect it to show you a chateau, the hotels are usualy modest but clean with typical 'local' decor. The restaurants are generally local cuisine, not 4 star but very very good. Before I found this guide I used to take pot luck, ok if you can put up with the occasional awful place, this guide helps you avoid the problem.

Fantastic even for a student backpacker
I lived in France for a year and travelled a great deal with my rucksack, and this book was like my bible. There were so many times I would have got lost without the maps inside. The best thing is that you even know where the tourist office is before you arrive, and all of the information was spot on. I used this book especially in the South of France and in Corsica, and what I found especially useful was the 'classmark sysytem' of the price of hotels and youth hostels. We had most of it booked before we even arrived, which was such a godsend when we arrived there knackered! The ONLY problem was that it was quite heavy to carry around - but a small price to pay.... Don't go there without it!