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The Rough Guide to Germany 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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Reviews by readers

Best of three guides to Germany I've used

I've lived, studied, and travelled a lot in Germany, and I've used three guidebooks: Let's Go (2003 edition), Lonely Planet (the two most recent editions), and this edition of the Rough Guide. The Rough Guide is the best of them hands down. For starters, it contains more text than the others: though I don't have the Let's Go on hand for comparison, the Rough Guide is almost 300 pages longer than the most recent Lonely Planet Germany, which comes in at about 800 pages. (Because of the thinner paper, however, it is almost exactly the same size as the LP.) The print is also denser and finer, so that the Rough Guide contains probably twice as much actual text as the LP. Legibility suffers a little, but it's a fair trade-off.

More words, of course, isn't necessarily better. Where the The Rough Guide beats the others is in detail and quality of information. For example, where the other guides tell you that the Frauenkirche in Dresden was the most important Protestant church in northern Germany, was destroyed in the firebombing of March 1945, and is now being rebuilt, the Rough Guide tells you also that they are doing the most painstakingly accurate restoration ever - where possible each piece has been dug up from the pile of rubble that was left as a "memorial" after the war and put back where it originally was, and only 10% of the total masory is new. That information adds a lot to your appreciation of the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche. That's just one example. Consistenly, the Rough Guide is more detailed and more authoritative on art, architecture, music, wine, you name it. The LP is by no means bad (although the Let's Go, at least the 2003 edition, is a pretty mediocre effort), but I see no reason to carry any other guide when the Rough Guide is so clearly superior.

UPDATE: I wanted to add to my original review and also address some points made by another reviewer:

- The reviewer says the RG is a well written but a bit snobbish. You could call it that; I say that the RG is not afraid to come right out and say that a sight, restaurant, or entire town is a total tourist trap, or that a place just isn't worthwhile. That's their opinion, of course, but I've found that their opinions are often very well founded. Compare to the LP, which tries to be more balanced and is less opinionated. Given that most travelers have limited time and money, I think they are well-served by the RG's more opinionated approach.

- The Holocaust memorial in Berlin (which is an artistic failure, in my opinion) was unveiled in the spring of 2005, a year after the RG was published and probably nearly two years after it was researched. RG can't be faulted for failing to include this sight. More generally, although there's much overlap between the two guides in what sights are included, RG includes some worthwhile ones which LP overlooks (the Deutsche Bahn Museum in Nuremberg being one good example).

- One thing which travelers often prefer LP for is the inclusion of travel details such as EXACTLY where and when trains depart from, how often they run, how much they cost, or the EXACT prices of hotel accomodation. RG is not as specific and gives just general information (e.g. Berlin to Hamburg, x hours, x times daily) and approximate hotel prices (on a scale of 1 to 9, with ranges given for each). LP's details can be useful, but as often as not I've found that they were outdated or plain wrong. Train/bus services and prices change all the time, and it's very risky to rely on a guidebook which was, say, published a year or two ago and researched another year before that. In any case it's very easy to get all the details from the Deutsche Bahn's excellent website or at the station, so the space in the guidebook should really be reserved for something more useful. As an example, the LP tells you that the ICE train between Nuremberg and Dresden pulls into Zwickau into the center of town, away from the main station. As far as I've been able to tell this was never the case, and in any case since the flood of 2002 the line has not been operated with ICE trains. LP should have gotten this right for the 2004 edition, but it didn't. Better not to include such details at all.

good, but not wonderful

Good: Excellent writing, great pictures, and would recommend it for anyone who wants to know a little bit more about German culture and history. Alo liked the fact that it was in color.

Not Wonderful: A bit on the snobish side, not very user friendly, no immediate translations of german terms into english, the hotels are not broken up into categories, and one must do a lot of going back and forth between sections to find out particular german words and other codes. Moreover, it is geared for travelers from english speaking countries (Australia, NZ, Canada, US, UK and Ireland). Actually ommited some sights in Berlin like the new holocaust victims memorial.

Recommendations: if you want to learn more, buy this book. If you want to travel, buy Lonely planet, since it is much easier to use, has more information on sights, facilities, embassies and consulates from other non english speaking countries plus emergency medical services. Both books are good, though.

AW

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