Rick Steves' Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 2002

This was better than no map, but had little detail. We really needed something that had more information than this does.

This guide is crammed with information, all of which is extremely useful. However, it badly lacks diagrams, good maps and visual guides.

it is an older book for a guide

I ordered this to get information for an upcoming trip that my husband and I plan to take. Steves is very detailed in his information and I find it a useful book to have.

Rick Steves' travel guides have a cult following and for good reason. They are practical, opinionated, fun to read, and filled chock full of good economical advice on how to enjoy the essence of the place instead of spending your money on sterile luxury rooms and tourist trap extravaganzas.My wife and I lived in Germany for 3 and a half years and traveled extensively within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and I'll have to say that this Rick Steves' guide tries to tackle too much. In including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in one concise guide...sure it makes it easy to carry...but it also makes it easy to leave things out. I suppose if you only have two weeks to spend and a limited budget for these three countries this book would more than do justice to your trip planning...but you just might miss Baumburg's Rauchbier (beer that tastes like smoke bacon if you can imagine that), that cool antique store on the pass between Austria and Switzerland where you can buy a huge cow bell for little to nothing, and the wine store in Lucerne on the lake where you can buy the rarely exported Swiss vino. So maybe Rick Steves' discrimination is well and good especially in the case of liquid bacon beer but the rest of Baumburg is pretty phenomenal.If you are going to live in Germany get a more expansive and complete book on each country. It's not economical, but you have time to wait until the dollar is good against the Euro. If you are going there with a Euro rail pass just graduating from College, by all means my dear Wanderlust, don't leave without this book.

Rick Steve's takes his own approach to travelling. I used his book last summer travelling Air Mobility Command (MAC) to Kaiserslautern, rented a car and visited Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirche. I found that his book was generally good information, although his idea of a good hotel and mine (with my family w/2 older children in tow) were quite different. He treats Salzburg with a lot of useful information, backed up by the Salzburg Tourist Web Site. His warnings to book online for the Neuschwanstein + Hohenschwangau were great. Overall, the maps were not effective for actual travel, and train travel is too expensive for 4 people.I recommend this book as a planner, but it is of not much practical use once you're there, unless you failed to research an area first. A more comprehensive book would be a better planner, but most of them cannot, and do not cover the areas of your interest well enough for use. Rick Steve's book was small and easy to carry, as opposed to the "encyclopedias" that are also sold. Remember- he travels light, and enjoys the cramped spartan quarters of European travel. Also- spend the money and be comfortable in Salzburg. The quaint, and rustic inns on the Italian-like alleys were small, next to bars and red-light houses, and managed by unsympathetic Hausfraus.

If your doing these countries without touring agencies then this book is the best guide I have seen in a very long time. All the details of travel are contained within and Mr. Steves leaves nothing to chance in his in depth explaintations of your travel. We particularly enjoyed the insights of the different modes of transportation along with little tidbits of info on important yet not often thought of subjects such as how to get around once in country and advise on the different sites to see once arriving. We particularly liked his explaination of how to get to Murren, Switz and would use this as a good standard of which to judge the entire book. Thanks Rick for a very thorough and in depth guide to Germany, Switzerland and Austria of which we visited all three. You made our trip very enjoyable.

I ended up buying three of Steve's books. The first time I used one, the book just paid off by itself. That says a lot since his books are not [inexpensive] and even do not come with any pics.It skipped many famous but over-rated sites or cities. If you are a person who wants to see 'everything' but do not care about how much quality time you would spend in places, join a tourist group, this book is surely not for you.But if you are a novice but want to experience real local cultures and travel like a pro while not spending too much money , Steve's books are very difficult to beat.