Lonely Planet Best of Budapest

This review is from: Lonely Planet Budapest (Travel Survival Kit) (Paperback)

In preparing for a trip to Hungary, I examined thoroughly the choices for Budapest. My favorite guidebook series has been Lonely Planet, and the Budapest Lonely Planet is fairly helpful. Although it doesn’t give as thorough a treatment on accomodations, the book gives a lot of travel hints and secret. I found its facts for the visitors to be the most helpful, and the maps (placed at the very back of the book) to be the easiest to use. The frommer book, on the other hand, put the maps close to the section of the book referring to it. The organization of LP makes it easiest to use in the field; they tend to have the best background, history and cultural information. LP was particularly good about including rules, regulations and things like closing times. ON the other hand, there are not many photos, and they don’t plan as many walking tours as the frommer book does. I didn’t find the written descriptions that engaging, although the cultural background seemed well done. The Frommer’s Budapest book (3rd edition) gave the best information about finding and choosing accomodations, but the book has no pictures and aside from a nice subway cover on the inside cover, the maps are hard to find and not very easy to use. Frommer’s gives excellent information about prices and shops and restaurants; it’s almost a guide to buying things rather than a tour book. I didn’t find it particularly thorough about travel information, customs, or those sorts of details. That is not entirely fair. They have a nice section in the front a kind of “best of” list for things in budapest. The nice thing about the book is that it recommends things to do if you have only one day, three days or a week. They also suggested some itineraries for walking tours. The Fodor’s Budapest pocket reference is drab and not full of much information. Don’t get it. The Eyewitness Travel Guide on Budapest by Tadeusz Olszanski is the most eye-catching and the least helpful. It contains lots of graphics and diagrams and maps, and not too much information. The multitude of pictures are helpful in describing architecture, geography and art. On the other hand, its information on accomodations is very limited. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a beautiful and interesting book; it just is not as helpful as the other three. And it is two years old. I’m not necessarily saying that this book is bad, merely that it may not help you very much on the excursion. The Budapest: A Critical Guide by Andras Torok, 4th edition is a less complete and more personal account of things to do in Budapest. The other books were like encyclopedias, but this book was just a few personal recommendations about things to do and places to stay. Also, the writing for this book seems to be better than the other books. If you already are a little familiar with Budapest, but just want to learn about new and undiscovered places, this might be an excellent book. It certainly covers most of the bases, but it just doesn’t try to list a huge number of accomodations or restaurants. I ended up buying the Frommer’s and a used copy of the Eyewitness travel guide.

4.0 out of 5 stars
helpful and portable
I hve always been a of Lonely planet, and this book is no exception. The size is easy to carry around and it is filled with great information.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Very useful
A great guide to the city for a first-timer. The walking tours were very useful in my exploration, and the recommendations were usually on point.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Literate Guide
I travel extensively and, after long experience, I find the Lonely Planet guides the best, so I now buy them automatically and am never disappointed.

3.0 out of 5 stars
Questionable Investment
This book has good general resources for the Metro, and general services, but I found the descriptions of sites to see a bit lacking.