Discover Austria Keep an eye out for marmots on the glorious Alpine trails Get behind the wheel for breath-taking hairpin bends and blue glaciers on Gossglockner Road Let your soul soar in the concert hall of Vienna Indulge in Salzburg's "Sound of Music" kitsch then regain your cool at the hippest riverside bars In This Guide: Two German-speaking authors, 100 days of in-country research New Walking chapter with 12 routes from challenging multi-day hikes to walks for families Content updated daily: visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveller suggestions
I'm a non-fiction and fiction writer whose work includes guidebooks in the Lonely Planet series, covering Germany, Russia, Austria, Poland and Hungary for various editions. I've also written short stories on travel and in 2008 travelled to Siberia to research and write 'Siberia, A Cultural History'. Much of it was written on the road in cheap, crumbling Soviet-style hotels.
(I write travel guides under the name Anthony Haywood. My other books, such as "Siberia, A Cultural History" and "Drifting on the Edge," are under the name A.J. Haywood.)
I was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, and grew up in the inner suburbs of Perth, one of the world's more isolated cities. I pulled anchor at 19 and spent two years divided between London, Aberystwyth in Wales, Berkeley in California, and the roads of southern Europe and North Africa, which I hitchhiked one memorable summer. I later studied literature in Perth and did a post-graduate Russian language course in Melbourne before moving to Germany in 1992, where I live today, on the border of France, Germany and Switzerland.
I still work on guidebooks. I also write and translate for various organizations and companies as a freelancer, and write fiction.
Useful! I appreciate the per state summaries- would be 5/5 if there were per state top sights. Especially because they have per state best restaurants and per state best hotels so seems like a missed opportunity
This is the one of my Lonely planet guides (2020 edition) that I enjoyed the less! If you plan to visit Vienna, this in definitely not for you. Very little info on the places you visit, just headlines, especially for the most important museums. And the space (pages) is spent on many many propositions for food/drink and stay! Leaving in 2022, I would prefer in my pocket a written targeted proposition for the places I visit, rather that the old school way of many eateries etc!
As usual, I did not get through the Lonely planet Austria - not Haywood's fault, it's just that every one of them I've used is too slick and too short on information for me. Now that I'm reading e-books it is far TOO interactive, n often the places it sends me are useless.
I know the world loves Lonely Planet, but it can stay lonely as far as I'm concerned - Rick Steves for his "backdoor" approach, and the Rough Guide, for its comprehensive nature and sharp, witty writing will do me just fine.
There is a huge amount of useless fluff in the book, such as endless lists of hotels and cafés in each city (Who cares? Can you not find them on your own?). But there is quite a bit of good information buried there, too - and Austria is a small country, so the authors can offer a pretty good coverage despite wasting so much space. I've spent a couple of months in Austria in 2013 and know I would have missed some really interesting bits without the book.
Okay, so I didn't read the whole book, but I did read a lot of it and it's the last day of my challenge and I'm short three books so I'm going to count this.
Felt it wasn't organized as well as other books have been but that may have been because I skipped around so much. In any case, Vienna is so beautiful that no guidebook can do it justice.
This was a much better book for me when I was living in Austria. I actually didn't like it as much when I was a tourist and wanted to know the top sights/restaurants. But, a really diverse coverage of Vienna, recreational activities, etc. It sold me on Lonely Planet.
Not much to say here. Like all the Lonely Planet books, it makes me desperately want to travel to the subject region. Hmm . . . maybe my the time I get my German serviceable again, I'll be at a place in life where I can make this happen . . .
A great guide to Austria - used for a week away in Salzburg and the guide was invaluable in pointing us to some good restaurants and sights. Also helped us plan a couple of day trips out of the city, saving us time and effort in identifying sights, restaurants and parking