Lonely Planet Country Guide France (Lonely Planet France) [ペーパーバック]

I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

Frommer's

These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.

Michelin

Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Fodor's

Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:

The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.

SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide

PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit

UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out

CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information

Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

MapGuide

MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.

Time Out

The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Blue Guides

Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

Let's Go

Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:

Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.

City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.

PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information

MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.

Lonely Planet's "France: Travel Survival Kit" was essential to the success of our 21 day journey in France. My boyfriend and I did know where we were headed or what we wanted to do. Using this well organized, percise guide we found ourselves hikeing cliffs in Brittany and wondering backroads in Cote D'Azur.

We were new to the country and traveling by train. The first 160 pages of the guide were packed with all the many essentials of travel -- trains, monetary system, telephone cards -- the little things that make a huge difference. Who wants to spend the first few hours in France trying to figure out how the phones works?

We wanted to see France, not a heap of tourist attraction wizzing by us. Everywhere we went, this guide showed us the not so traveled places. Even in busy Paris, with help from our trusty guide, we visited flea markets and neighborhoods where tourists don't often venture. These were the places that gave us the real flavor of France.

I loved my trip to France. I can honestly say, due to this guide I was able to relax and enjoy the visit more. We relied upon it for finding accomidations and entertainment. It never failed us. We love you, Lonely Planet

If you're traveling to different regions and cities within France via train, bus, or plane, I'd definitely recommend this book. It offers very useful getting-to and getting-away options. For instance, if you want to travel between Normandy and Etretat, it requires a rather complex series of transfers using buses and possibly some trains - there is no direct train route (as I assumed before reading up on it in this book). This book alerts you to issues and offers alternative solutions. (Benefit: avoid unexpected, time-consuming problems and enjoy your trip more).

Lonely Planet Guides are not pretty, but they are useful when traveling around a country. I usually leave them back in the hotel room for consultation as needed. I've also carried photo copies of portions of them when I've been certain that's all I'd need. I would not be as likely to carry one if I was sure I was only going to stay in one city. They make it easy to take a sidetrip on the spur of the moment --especially when you're on a budget and traveling sans computer and Internet connection. (They also list cybercafes.) And, finally, I've found a few intriguing tidbits and advice not offered elsewhere.

If only staying in Paris, and it's your first visit, I recommend also carrying the AAA Spiral Paris Guide and the National Geographic Paris DestinationMap as they are pocket-sized. If you have more to spend, I'd also research using other books ahead of time and make hotel reservations based on other books, e.g., Michelin Green Guides, Fodor's Guides, etc. If you're on a budget and back-packing, make reservations using this guide. (Important to make reservations in Paris.)