Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28169 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 308 pages

Customer Reviews

A sound guide book for a beautiful city
I went to Barcelona recently, and in the planning of the trip I consulted four guide books:

Lonely Planet's Barcelona City Guide
Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Barcelona and Catalonia
Cadogan Guides Barcelona (Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls)
Time Out Barcelona

All of them were good. I took two with me: Lonely Planet and Eyewitness.
The reasons I chose those two:

LP specialises in listings, which seemed to be more up-to-date and comprehensive than either Time Out or Cadogan, It also had a good Excursions section which helped a couple of times when I travelled beyond the city. I also liked a couple of the walking routes they recommended. Information on matters such as public transport is comprehensive and detailed. I like the chapters on history, architecture and food as well.

I took Eyewitness because it unfailingly has a good quality map, which in my view is LP's downfall. Eyewitness always includes a Street Finder Index which LP does not, and LP often misses out on streets other than the major ones, which can be very frustrating, especially in a city like Barca where there are many alleyways. I never use Eyewitness for hotels - the information is scant and usually more expensive than my (more Lonely Planet) budget, but it has fantastic colour photos and cutaways of buildings, and illustrations which place buildings within their streetscapes. It's a nice book to read on the bus or train going somewhere.

Time Out's great strength was in helping to plan. It had a huge array of hotels, and if you were especially interested in nightlife, I would take Time Out. I was there primarily for a conference, and many of my evenings were organised. And I'm also night a great nightclubber, perhaps contrary to Barca lifestyle!! If you are - consider Time Out. Its maps were pretty good, but not comprehensive for the area I was staying in, beachside Barceloneta.

That is where the Cadogan guide excelled. Its maps were so good that I pulled them out of the book and took them with me. I would have taken the whole book, but for the weight in my suitcase! Its info about places and sights seemed accurate and comprehensive.

A thoroughly good value buy!
Every minute of my 4 days in Barcelona was used effectively due to planning my time using this book.

From which train line to get from the Airport, the precise 21 minute journey the book referred to, following the 'Moderinste' walk to view Gaudi to the tapas bar recommended for lunch, to the time of the water fountains - the entire book was first class.

If I had to find a criticism, it was that some of the restaurants recommended were closed - there again, I did go the first weekend in January, not an ideal time to visit anywhere!

Thoroughly good value buy for anyone visiting Barcelona!

Great travel companion!
Bought this book for my second trip to Barcelona, have since lent it to two friends who have also visited this fantastic city. Great tips about how to get about - alternatives to getting taxi from airport and using the tourist buses eg. the underground and the aerobus - will save you a good few Euro's. Also chapter on visiting places outside Barcelona was very useful for our trip to Montserrat. Maps at the back of the book are very useful and we found them detailed enough for us. Also includes some spanish phrases. I would definately recommend this book as I think it is so comprehensive that you won't need anything else and I am sure I will be using it again and again!