DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Vienna Paperback – April 16, 2012

Paris has been my favourite city ever since my first visit there so it would be unlikely I thought that Vienna could be so good. But Vienna is wonderful too, in a very different way. What's similar is an ordered city centre with beautiful buildings and royal palaces. There's also the famous Spanish Riding School. We didn't have the chance to view that as you had to book and we had only 3 days for everything in Vienna. However, we did visit the adjoining palace and other beautiful buildings.Yet more of these anyone can see on TV - in the ballet sequences that are performed for the famous New Year's Day Concert with the Vienna Phil in the beautiful Golden Hall.The old city wall was taken down and is now a ring road but very different to the frenetic near-motorway that's the Peripherique round Paris. The Vienna ring road is just a road, wide in parts. Other fascinating places are of course the museums and the churches and the unusual St Stephen's Cathedral. Close to the ring road is the beautiful Mozart theatre - tours take place inside the theatre. From there we took two bus trips, one for a boat trip on the Danube and the other to the edge of the Vienna Woods.We stayed outside the centre in a pension that was once a convent and our bedroom was plain and simple but very large with a large vestibule. Nearby is the beautiful Schonbrun royal palace with extensive formal gardens and a little zoo, also a huge folly facing the back of the house below which they have summer concerts.Visiting the royal palaces and seeing the generalI value all my Eyewitness Guides - and Insight Guides too. I always buy whichever of these is available for places we visit, they are simply invaluable, and also I buy them for places I hope to visit someday, or even just because I'm interested even if I never expect to get there. Compact but detailed, splendid maps, drawings, photographs, history, where to stay, restaurants, you name it, and a very good index. I wouldn't go on any holiday, not even in Britain, without my Eyewitness or Insight Guide (or both).

DK is absolutely the best travel guide available.Reading it before your trip will make every site you visit feel like meeting an old friend.Rereading it on your return will prompt more memories than any photo you might chance to take or postcard you'll drop a euro on.Buy it secondhand if money is an issue.Give it to a friend who plans a similar journey; it will be viewed as a very thoughtful gift. But consider the gift a generous one and make sure you really like that friend.

The first thing I buy when I decide on where I am going to visit next is a DK Eyewitness Travel Guide. So far I have purchased and visited guides about Paris, London, Rome and Vienna (I can't decide where to go next!). The best part of the books are the brief history about the city which makes the sights so much more meaningful and memorable. The maps, suggested itineraries, attraction prices and cultural information has proven invaluable on my trips. I highly recommend purchasing a DK Eyewitness Travel Guide once you decide where you want to visit! :-)

Love the pictures and the layouts of the museums. Very happy with the way the book is layed out by area. Liked the suggestions for 1,2 3 or longer trips to Vienna. Very complete and lots to learn here.

I loved the combination of visuals and text, and found my visit to Vienna (Dec. 2012)enriched by the details I picked up about Viennese history, culture, and architecturebefore my trip. I used the Internet to check on details about opening times and so on,and found the maps superior to any I picked up locally. I was able to locate a museumwhich focused on my particular interest in folk art (which the Road Scholar leader did not knowabout) and spent my free afternoon there quite happily. Thanks to the star rating it got, I knew that although obscure it would be worth my time. I will hang onto the book as a souvenir and toreview before my next trip.

This is an acceptable book to read at home with lots of photos and illustrations. However, this is not a useful book for the road. It's heavy (for its size) and difficult to flip through. The maps are not easy to read and there are very limited practical information such as schedules, prices and transportation information. The writing is also extremely boring and uninspired. Am I suppose to be reading this while having afternoon tea??? Travel is suppose to be fun! I guess once a Rick Steve fan, always a Rick Steve fan. This is just not my type of travel book.

Travel guides have an impossible job, they have to tell tourists where the best places to go are and enough about those places to make things interesting and understandable. This travel guide does all that with a visual spin, so if you know you're primarily visual person, this is EXACTLY the kind of guide you need for your trip!

For a short visit to Vienna, this is your book...maps, info, do-it-yourself tours, shopping, hotels, etc.