Travel to Czech Republic

Prague (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Format: Turtleback
Author: DK Publishing
ReleaseDate: 20 March, 2006
Publisher: DK Travel
Rating:

Buy the Fodor's book
If you are used to Fodor's stick with it. While this book is better to have than nothing, there are a few things that I did not like. Oftentimes, when we would bump into other tourists to ask directions, they would refer to their Fodor's Prague book, which also has pictures but seemed more comprehensive.

For example:

1. St. Nicholas church (a star attraction and must-see) is really close to Prague Castle and not mentioned in that general area.

2. The Jewish Quarter tour and the New City Tour makes them look like they are so far away from the Old City area and they are all adjacent. Why not see the Spanish Synogague when you see the Old Town area?

3. The restaurants and hotels are not rated like Fodor's rates them.

4. I always use Fodor's restaurant recommendations and it has NEVER gone wrong and they are built into the tours they recommend. Here, you have to just "hope" the restaurant is good and affordable.

I have always used Fodor's but thought I would use Eyewitness because of the pictures (making things easily identifyable). Now Fodor's has pictures and better tours/ratings, etc.

Hope this helps if you are comparing.

A very handy guide -- the only one we needed!
This book was the only one we needed to have a wonderful time there! This book was in my pocket at all times, and proved invaluable for finding landscapes, museums, etc. I recently took a 4 day trip to Prague (6 days, including travel time) and took this guide book along. Especially handy are the grid-styled maps which help you locate various points of interest. This is true of all DK guide books, but I found myself using the Prague guide more than any other guide book I have owned (and I own 10 or more for destinations all over Europe) The back flap was consistently tucked into the map section which we pulled out of my pocket and referred to frequently while walking around the city.

I would say the weakest link of the DK guides is its lack of "practical info" -- for example, we were completely lost when we got to the train station to try to head to Kutna Hora (about an hour outside of Prague); the trip would have been impossible if a friendly English-speaking Czech local hadn't been nearby and offered to help us out. In addition, the accommodations listings could be a little more extensive, so you may want to research more on the web or other guidebooks at a library for booking a place to stay before you go.

The restaurant guide, on the other hand, was surprisingly good -- the short descriptions managed to get us to places that were right up our alley (for affordable food and drinks in hip, interesting environments, I recommend Radost FX and Klub Arkitektu).

Having lived there this is the only guide I would recommend
The way it is divided up makes more sense than the rest. Having lived in the city of Prague twice this is the only book I will ever recommend. It gives great information about Prague and into the surrounding area. The recommendations for restaurants are top notch and the security advice it gives is great. Highly recommend if you are taking a trip to this wonderful city.

Related products:
click image or link for details on these Czech Republic travel books.

	Budapest (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
	Vienna (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
	Streetwise Prague (Streetwise)
	Germany (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
	Austria (Eyewitness Travel Guides)