Eastern Europe

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This is my first time giving feedback - didn't know this was possible. I use these books extensively and absolutely love them - Rick is a travel genius! seems that while travelling I sometimes think of little things that might help, next time I'll make some notes - but don't get me wrong - these are the BEST books out there for European travel and I'm so thrilled to be able to use them. Keep up the good work!

J. Briggs in Seattle, WA USA 10/10/2009

Re-name it Central Europe

susan ford in senoia, GA USA 10/02/2009

My husband and I just returned from a fantastic 12-day trip to Romania. The only problem...the Rick Steves guidebooks don't yet cover this country. The Carpathian mountains are awe-inspiring and the towns and villages filled with "back door" charm. Please add this wonderful country to your Eastern Europe coverage for our next trip!

Jennifer Bergstrom in St Louis, MO USA 08/25/2009

this is a pretty useful book- lots of good ideas

Tim Bolinger in Plano, TX USA 07/14/2009

Add more information about Bosnia (Sarajevo) -- we really missed Rick Steves' advice while there!

Amy Tedoff in Colts Neck, NJ USA 07/12/2009

The only improvement could be the maps. This is the only area where Lonely Planet has an advantage over the Rick Steves books - their maps are more thorough and are consolidated so you don't have to flip between a map of sights, map of hotels and map of restaurants.

Jack Martin in Lawrence, KS USA 06/28/2009

The book was very informative and helpful. A must for travelling there. More could be included for places in poland.

Kerry Gaultois in Nanaimo , BC Canada 05/24/2009

All of these notes are for Prague: 1. The AVE in the secondary train station was friendly and patient. But it was hard to see their AVE sign. 2. Hotel Salvator has a Tb 3400 Kc / night (booked through AVE). It's very nice and it has a cheap Internet computer to use. We thought you should put it back in your book. 3. We recommend that people should buy a day pass for the Metro before going to Little Quarter or Castle Quarter. There was only one place that sells metro tickets in Little Quarter and it was closed. 4. We really recommend that you show how to walk from Little Quarter center to the castle. It's short and you don't need to take the tram and it's not obvious at first.

Mark McKnight in Austin, TX USA 05/06/2009

We are HUGE Rick Steves fans and have used his guidebooks exclusively since 2000. Our daughter is just ending a 10 day trip to Gdansk, Warsaw, and Krakow and we provided your Eastern Europe guidebook. Sadly, she was very disappointed in it and feels so much was left out and is now turned off by the mention of RS. She had a fabulous time only because she didn't "go by the book" or she would have missed so much. In particular, she felt directions were inacurate and took offense to "only history buffs" would be interested in seeing where the WW started. She relied on local free info which provided what she needed. So perhaps a bit of detail quality improvement is needed; I do realize this area is new to RS, when we went in 2000, we were on our own because there was no RS book. She is a seasoned traveler and does keep detailed travel journals; I will ask her to contribute some of the important missing info to this venue. Thanks for listening and we remain RS fans! (PS: we, too, are seasoned travelers now and even visited with Rick in Provence and were filmed on that DVD)

L.Kelly in Newbury, VT USA 04/04/2009

Nothing. It is being improved by doing just what you need to do. Asking us to provide update and feedback.

Lorraine Chatham in San Francisco, CA USA 01/08/2009

Hey, Rick, your tour of Eastern Europe includes the Island of Rab, yet you don't even include it in the book! I'm disappointed! Please tell us something about it! Same with Trojanovice!

[Editor's Note: We have 10 pages of text about the Island of Rab, including a town map, in our book "Rick Steves' Croatia and Slovenia."]

Jo-Anne in Windsor, On Canada 11/30/2008

RICK - not related but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - a guidebook for ISRAEL in "your style" is desperately needed.....please consider

deb in lake forest, il USA 11/23/2008

I really love the self-guided walks or tours (like through the Julian Alps)- I would include more of these.

Tracy in Austin, Te USA 09/15/2008

The book as it stands is OK, but it would be very helpful if you had expanded chapters on additional locations available online that could be purchased. For example, see my comments on the Tatras above. In addition, not having accomodation on Bratislava makes no sense. While I agree that you only need a day to see Bratislava, the best part of the experience is dinner/evening strolling through the old town. You would likely miss much of that in a day trip from Vienna.

[Editor's Note: We've takenyour advice and now both the "Rick Steves" Vienna" book and the "Rick Steves's Budapest" book have chapters on Bratislava that include sleeping and eating recommendations. Or look for the next edition of "Rick Steves's Eastern Europe" due in 2010.]

David Murray in Avon, IN USA 08/23/2008

Your latest "Eastern Europe" and "Prague" books don't have the year on the cover, the way your "Germany and Austria" book does. I had to hunt around for the copyright page in the bookstore to make sure I was buying the most updated version. Please put the year on the book covers, so we know we're not using an outdated book!

George Mole' in Bronx, NY USA 07/26/2008

In your Split section you could suggest avoiding Trogir, which locals promoted. It's a tourist trap, a NATO World Heritage site that is nothing but cafes, T-shirt shops and bad art. Time would be better spent elsewhere on this gorgeous coast.

You could specifically suggest taking the #12 or 12A bus from the north end of the Riva in Split to the end of the line at the tip of the Marjan Peninsula for a shady, family-friendly beach. It is an easy-to-get-to, free, comfortable, totally untouristy park. Very relaxing after the noise of the Riva.

Jim Martin in Ashland, OR USA 07/26/2008

I was very disappointed with your coverage of Slovakia. If you say you are writing a book about Eastern Europe, you should cover each country by at least publishing accommodations!!! It is almost as if you have never bothered to visit Slovakia.

[Editor's Note: Bratislava is covered in both our "Vienna" book and our "Budapest" book. We suggest purchasing one of those guidebooks if you are traveling to Slovakia's capital.]

Jessica in New York, NY USA 05/15/2008

I spend a lot of time trying to find back your hand-drawn maps in each chapter. Could you create a map section for each city rather than scattering the maps throughout the chapter?

Gail in Albany, OR USA 01/27/2008

Headers by City, Attraction, etc. and ability to sort by those headings. This would make the research considerably faster and more enjoyable.

Allan Hermansen in Delano, MN USA 12/13/2007

Hotels are expensive in these cities and so we opted to rent apartments in Budapest and Prague. We were delighted with the apartments as well as the services the renting companies provided including picking us up and taking us to the train station, storing our luggage when necessary, and providing us valuable information about their cities and the local area we were in. The locations were excellent, the apartments adequately stocked and included washing machines and we had a nice place to relax after long days of sightseeing. The cost was half of what a hotel would be and we had the feeling of actually living in the city for a few days. Check out www.budapestlets.com and www.apartments-in-prague.org. Highly recommended

Sondra in Portland, OR USA 11/06/2007

My wife and I just got back from 2 weeks in France: Paris, Languedoc and Provence. We lugged around your Paris and France gudebooks and used them for the walking tours and hotel recommendations. Our next trip will be to Croatia, Budapest and Prague.

I just bought a new Palm Tungsten, and I've discovered the ability to load eBooks on it. It would be VERY handy if you would make your guidebooks available as eBooks. I could load several onto my Palm, delete the pages I don't need, and have the infomation handy in a small package. Plus, the Palm comes with international adapters for the wall charger.

Thanks for your time.

Joe Gaffney in Rohnert Park, CA USA 10/10/2007

Would be helpful to include Berlin in your Eastern Europe book since those visiting Prague, etc. should logically include Berlin in their tour of Eastern Europe.

Rod Young in Bowie, MD USA 09/28/2007

Next stop is Romania. I hate to go solo without Rick's input. I am going to Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibui and the painted monasteries in Bucovina, and Bucarest. Before the masses from Prague arrive!

Jorge Lallemand in Miami Beach, FL USA 07/18/2007

We are veteran travelers and used three Rick Steve's Book this vacation. Eastern Europe, Germany and Amsterdam and Bruge. We had much trouble in Prague. The money exchange at the train stations tack on an unadvertised 10% transaction fee. The thugs at the taxi stands, are indeed thugs. They wouldn't take us to the city for less than 800 Kc--so. We took the metro. Unfortunately, it was still raining hard and we tried a cab from the metro for six blocks. Cabby wanted 300 Kc. I made him turn on the meter and he drove until the fare hit 278 Kc. Waiters would add 15% to the bill for their tip if we used a credit card. Rather than hassle, we started paying cash. And, the lodging in the inner city was $30 a night more expensive than any other inner city lodging--we also went to Berlin, Dresden, Bruges, Amsterdam, Nurenburg and Vienna. Prague reminded me alot of Mexico in their attitude toward tourists.

Linda Bailey in Santa Rosa, CA USA 07/08/2007

Add Hotel Victoria in Budapest: right on the Danube, great views, tram stop, subway stop 10 minutes away, great staff, www.victoria.hu.

Need more restaurant suggestions for Budapest. We found a great Italian place on Andrassy Blvd in and a wonderful bistro in the Castle section. Unfortunately I can't remember the names.

Mary Ann Rose in Westminster, CO USA 06/28/2007

Improve the selection of accommodation. Most of the places you recommend were over-priced.

Peter Marshall in London, UK 06/22/2007

Be sure to mention that your passport must not expire within 90 days of entering the country in the Central European countries. I hadn't read this requirement in any information but happened to spot it on your website written by another traveler. My local passport office (Eugene, Or.) didn't know about this requirement so I phoned the Czech Consulate in Los Angeles and they confirmed that the passport must not expire within 90 days of departure.

[Editor's Note: We now recommend that your passport not expire for at least six months after you arrive back home. This goes for any international trip.]

Sandra Larsen in Eugene, Or USA 06/17/2007

Color code the edges of the pages for the different countries covered for easier info finding.

Rick Manolio in Virginia Beach, VA USA 06/16/2007

Call it "Best of Central Europe" and include as much of eastern Austria and Vienna as space allows; this was an easy directional and cultural progression for me from Rome, Florence, Venice and Vienna before getting to Prague.

Chris Kerstetter in Renton, WA USA 04/20/2007

Put detailed color maps (like the one's in the front of the book), at the start of the chapter for each major city. A good map at the front of the chapter really helps me get a grip on the city.

Jared in Tacoma, WA USA 03/22/2007

Please, please include more "places to stay" listings that have quadruple rooms. Or at least mention which places with only doubles and triples can accomodate larger families (with extra beds or connecting rooms, etc.) We love your books, but we have spent hours looking for places that can accomodate a family of four in some of the areas you recommend.

Melinda Kirkland in Berlin, Germany 02/18/2007

I loved this book! My sister and I used the 2006 edition for Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. While we were in Prague, we came across a 2005 version which also included Berlin, our next stop. In future I think Berlin should be returned to the EAstern Europe guide book; it's not technically Eastern Europe anymore but it once was, and it is along the route of Eastern Europe going North-South, so I think it would be prudent to inlcude it.

Elizabeth Fulham in Alexandria, VA USA 02/01/2007

I read as much as I could about the Eastern Europe Guidebook, but strangely enough there was no mention of Romania. I think Rick should add it. While I would not presume to teach the master his craft, I think that if Rick stays out of Bucharest, he will find plenty of things to like both cultural and geographic. I should know a little, I was born there :). In the meantime, "numai bine"!

Andrei Dacu in Bethesda, MD USA 01/26/2007

Wondering if Rick is ever going to update the "Russia & The Baltics" edition last printed in '98? I used this edition when visiting the Baltics in '03 with general success. Would love to get an updated version, maybe just of the Baltics and Ukraine as I hope to visit again in the future.

S.P. Crumpler in Bryson City, NC USA 01/11/2007