Best of Europe 2010

Best ways to improve this book:

Tell readers to bring their GPS.

Fix the hand drawn maps! They're so confusing. I had no idea what street I was on. Most people I spoke with about your maps all agreed they were confusing and unusable. That's the running joke, "I love his book, he's got great unbiased opinions, but the hand drawn maps are completely retarded."

Lancelot in Alameda, CA USA 09/25/2009

Keep up the good work. Sincere thanks to Rick and his staff who made our trip to Italy a success! Kind regards.

Joy Decomarmond in Tampa, FL USA 07/02/2009

I am very disheartened at the Best of Europe 2008 guidebook. I bought it to prepare for a river trip from Berne to Antwerp this fall; out of 16 stops,the only site you list is Boppard and it gets only half a page. Reading the other sections showed much information, sometimes too much. It would be helpful to have tipping, handy phrases, and more sites listed. To me, the book is a bust. Perhaps you should compile and publish a book on River Cruises.

[Editor's Note: Sorry you were disappointed. We have a detailed chapter on crusing the Rhine in our "Rick Steves' Germany" guidebook, should you be taking another river trip in the future.]

Richard W. Schult in Norfolk, VA USA 06/08/2009

I just completed a 2-week long Europe trip using the excellent "Best of Europe 2009." I would have appreciated an appendix with a few key words in different languages (hello, goodbye, please, thank you). It would only take a page or two and would be enormously helpful.

Michele Smith in Burlington, MA USA 04/06/2009

The book really feeds the belief that a day or two is enough to visit most places. I guess I just don't like to breeze through, but prefer to really get a feel for a place.

Heather Cameron in Coldstream, BC Canada 06/13/2008

With the introduction of each new country, mention the typical customs for tips/gratuity. I know it differs from country to country so a brief rundown would help things run more smoothly.

Kris in R, NJ USA 05/22/2008

This book is great - we used it for our first trip to Europe in 2007 and are planning our next for this May. However, I noticed that in Best of Europe 2008 there are no "Survival Phrases" in the appendix as there were in the 2007 edition. These provided 2 pages of phrases in each of 4 different languages and came in so handy, especially as we were trying to immerse ourselves in the culture of the places we visited. Luckily I still have the torn out appendix from the 2007 edition to take with us this year, but please bring this incrediby useful resource back to future editions!

Lauren in Stamford, CT USA 03/09/2008

Just keep making them - for anyone travelling in Europe they are worth a fortune!! Thank you!

Wendy Fox in Saanichton, BC Canada 02/28/2008

add Greece

cindy in fox Island, wa USA 01/29/2008

I can't say anything to criticize, I think you are doing the readers a great service and I always carry your books with me, even to familiar places since there is always something new to discover.

Linda D. Chaffee in San Bernardino, CA USA 12/20/2007

- Advise people travelling to Paris that stores are closed Sunday - If the book could indicate if hairdryer is available at the recommended hotels

Karen Canada 10/29/2007

The chapter on the Lauterbrunnen valley needs better organization. I was on a Rick Steves tour and everyone read the chapter over and over trying to make sense of it and plan their day. The map showing lifts is useful (although incorrect; they replaced the rail line between Lauterbrunnen and Grutschalp with a gondola last year with a gondola).

What I suggest is providing a sample itinerary with add ons, perhaps presented in a table or as a list of options. For example one line would be how to spend 2 hours on the Murren side riding lifts. The next line would say if you want to add a hike then remove 1 ride and walk it. For a more challenging hike add in the Allmendhubel lift and hike down. And so on. Then someone could decide based on their energy level and the weather what they want to do.

Mike Thompson in Los Angeles, CA USA 10/08/2007

I'm a Rick Steves fan. The books are wonderful, the PBS shows are great too! This was my third vacation to Europe and I wouldn't travel any other way. When going to locations outside of Europe I use Lonely Planet but would love it if there were Rick Steves style guides for Asia etc.. as well.

Jess Williams in Honolulu, HI USA 09/17/2007

As another reader suggested, having a binder (lightweight!) or even a folder to take sections of the book with you out on day trips. (Carrying the entire book each day was too heavy.) The main book could have easy tearout pages with holes or even a clip to keep them together. We ended up tearing our "Best of Europe" book apart country by country and city by city as we traveled. Then the pages would come loose as we looked things up. It worked, but it was messy.

Laurie Arora in Grosse Pointe Park, MI USA 08/17/2007

Your book was super! I am sure it saved my daughter and me lots of both time and money!! Your helpful hints, like get to the Tower of London early (we were alone with the Crown Jewels!) and buy various Metro/Museum passes, were invaluable. I am recommending this book to everyone I talk to about our European trip. Thank you very much.

Brenda Paull in Mercer Island, WA USA 07/08/2007

Stay at the Hotel Kranenturm, get a room in the tower, and take a shower between 7-9am in the morning - then see if you would recommend it again!

Christy in Auburn Hills, MI USA 06/27/2007

Please add Greece to best of Europe

Vinay Malur in Queensbury, NY USA 06/18/2007

Please address tipping better in Greece and what to expect. We were charged cover charges sometimes, service charges other times and were not sure how to tip when we incurred these other charges. One time we received three small tickets stapled together for our total meal. No wonder I watched others leave a bit confused. Lonely planet which you recommend did not address this either. Otherwise, Athens, Greece is under-rated. They have really cleaned up the heart of the city, have an easy to use marvelous metro and friendly people. We hated to leave!

Leslie Kelly in Clayton, GA USA 05/19/2007

Include major airport cities like Frankfurt even in "best of" just so there is information available

Cindy Van in Beaumont Alberta, USA 05/09/2007

This is a suggestion for this section of the site. Some comments (lots) make no reference to the town or city. Organizing the comments by country or city would be helpful. Reading all the comments to get what you are looking for is very time consuming. Thanks!

HarLyn Mlynek in Colorado Springs, Co USA 05/06/2007

As mentioned above, the book should provide better details on reserving trains. Also, there could be better information on how to travel the Romantic Road and travel the Best of the Rhine. The book interested us in these activities, but we were confused about how to actually do them. It was very time-consuming to do this by train (and we didn't really see much of the Romantic Road by rail), so I would also suggest that the book make it clear that these activities are better done by car. We traveled for over 5 hours on 5 trains to get to Bacharach (from Rothenburg), so the hour-long river cruise was a disappointment given the extraordinary effort required to get there.

Melissa in Honolulu, HI USA 04/24/2007

-Love your "at-a-glance" tables, but it would be really helpful if you could add page numbers and prices.

-Could you have a separate chapter about scams? We fell victim to a scam that we read about LATER when traveling to a different city. It would be nice to have them all listed in one section, then, in each chapter on a particular city/area you could mention some popular scams to watch out for, but then refer the reader to the summary section in the book and/or website for a complete list.

-I'd like more guidance on phone cards. I took your advice and got a "Go Bananas" card in Germany but it was a ripoff. For about 5 Euros I only got to speak for a few minutes. Another card I bought in Greece seemed to last forever. I got about an hour and several calls to the US. I think there are many things to know--like how much the pay phone operator may be charging from a pay phone, and what about the destination, etc. It's very bewildering, and yet we need to know how best to handle making calls abroad.

-It would be nice if you'd mention the best of certain categories, which you sometimes do. For example, when reading about Berlin you said that if we were going to Amsterdam we should wait for the A'dam sex museum as it was better. It would've been nice to have that info when reading about the Carlsberg Brewery--we could've spent our time better and just waited for the Heineken experience, which was much better.

-If you do add info for road trippers, we found Park-n-Ride lots outside Amsterdam that we used. We parked all day and got credits for using the train into the City (trainstop was right there). It was fast, convenient, and felt safe since there was an attendant.

Cindy in Hall, CA USA 03/27/2007

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

We use all your books for European travel. Please publish an update to "Mona Winks" our old one is all but worn out. When visiting museums listed in the book we have people asking about it. Also we see many people carrying it.

[Editor's Note: While we have no plans to reissue "Mona Winks," you can find the same museum tours (greatly updated) in each of our city guides: Paris, London, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Florence, Prague, and Istanbul. You can also read an updated museum tour for Madrid's Prado on our website at http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/spain/prado.htm]

Richard Stanish in Tulsa, OK USA 01/13/2007