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UK Holidays - Time Out Paris 6 (6th Edition)
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $48.60
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Time Out
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.43604839
EAN: 9780140270648
ISBN: 0140270647
Label: Time Out
Manufacturer: Time Out
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 1998-07-01
Publisher: Time Out
Studio: Time Out
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Editorial Reviews:
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This new edition of the Paris Guide, updated annually, has been exhaustively rewritten and researched by resident experts. Packed with up-to-the-minute information, the guide gathers all that the exquisite City of Lights has to offer, from museums to monuments, high-fashion boutiques to street markets, haute cuisine to bargain bistros, and more. Also included are full details of opening times, admission prices, and transportation to the wonderful array of Parisian destinations and activities. Here are the best places to stay, from grand hotels to budget hostels and detailed descriptions of Paris by quartier, both ancient and modern.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive: Good, Easy to Use: Not so Much
Comment: If you are a person who buys three guide books when you take a trip, you only need this ONE book and it should meet all your needs. It is compact and can fit into a backpack or bag fairly easily. It does a good job of covering the attractions of Paris while offering nice "back ground" information about each. Their resturant selections are mid-range to upper-range in price and have a pretty nice variety.
With that said, here is what I don't like about the book: It's a bit TOO comprehensive for my taste. Though I thoroughly enjoy "back ground" information, I'm not the type of traveler who purchases thick travel books in order to gain "back ground" information. Thus, it was a bit too much for me. However, it would be perfect for those who do. The print is also smaller then the average travel book making it a "tough read" at times. I also don't like how there is no rating system for sights, resturants or activities. Though I'm not one who NEEDS to be told what's important and what's not, it IS nice to have some sort of rating system when you're trying to see as much as possible of a city in a short period of time. The descriptions of sights, activities and food are given with little emotion - the way you would read a AAA book - basic information without too much personal opinoin. Consequently, you are forced to read the book "cover to cover" and do a lot of highlighting in order to find important information or you'll never find it again.
This book is a strong 3 stars and perhaps even a 4 stars for some. It's a valuable resource if you like a lot of information without too much commentary, but I think there are other books which are easier to read and more benefical. I enjoyed Loney Planet-Paris, which offered some background information along with personal recommendations. For the Budget minded traveler who likes a VERY easy travel book (it lacks a lot of background information, but gives PLENTY of personal recommendations and great resonable resturant choices), I suggest Frommer's Paris from $90 a Day. You can't buy it directly from Amazon, but you can buy a "new" one from one of their other sellers. I bought it for $5 and it included shipping! A great deal!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Way to Plan your trip to Paris
Comment: This book has been a great resource on what to see and do in Paris and an overview of the different arrondissements. A great city map is included. We used the Time Out NEW YORK book when we went to NY and that was so helpful. The pictures help you look for landmarks which is useful when you are not familiar with your surroundings. The book is highly accurate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great maps, disappointing index
Comment: This book has a very inadequate index, rendering the guidebook very frustrating to use, even though the book has so many listings of different things in Paris. I guess you just need to know how to look it up, often in the French language. So if you are looking up "St. Sulpice church", you have to look under "E" for Eglise St. Sulpice. Or "Egouts de Paris" instead of Sewers of Paris. To look up Luxembourg gardens you have to look up under "Jardins du Luxembourg". I'm only now figuring this out now that I'm home from my vacation! Cross referencing is sorely needed. I did use the street maps, street indexes, and metro map in the back though, and didn't have to buy a Paris Par Arrondissement guide.
I ended up liking the Eyewitness Travel Guide better. I like the little photos, and it talks in more depth about the major and semi-major sights.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You're going to LOVE FRANCE!
Comment: I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!
Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)
Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.
Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide
MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.
Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lost in Paris with a Time Out guide..
Comment: The Time Out Guide to Paris has to be just about the worst guide I have read.
The maps are worse than useless and are impossible to read. The guide book itself extreemly bulky and heavy to carry, and it is illogically ordered so that you can never find the information that you need.Not to mention the fact that the text is written almost incomprehensibly, as if a person of certain years is trying to write through the potential eyes of a 15 year old. It fails and makes the whole book unreadable and uninteresting.
The hotel suggestions are entirely useless, as they fail to mention that some areas of town are perhaps not such a good idea to stay in if you are on your own, female or with young children and the list is far from exhaustive.
I will stick to Rough Guides in future as I have yet to be let down by them, and I never feel that I am on my own in a strange city with one in my pocket. Not so with a Time Out however, as I have been lost so many times and missed out on so many interesting sites and events that I have been forced to buy a Rough Guide and a map of the city and the Metro.
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