The Rough Guide to Germany is the definitive handbook to this fascinating country. It features a full-colour introduction to Germany''s highlights, from the beer halls of Munich to the hiking trails of the Bavarian Alps. There is lively and detailed coverage given to the full range of attractions, from the spas of Baden-Baden and castles of Bavaria to the jazz clubs of Munich. For every city, town and village there ae discerning reviews of the best places to stay, eat and drink, in all price ranges. In the final ''Contexts'' chapter, incisive discussion is given to topics as diverse as the Oberammergau Passion Play and the occult figure of Johannes Faust.
Founded in 1982, Rough Guides Ltd is a British publisher of print and digital guide book, phrasebooks and inspirational travel reference books, and a provider of personalised trips. Since November 2017, Rough Guides has been owned by APA Publications UK Ltd, the parent company of Insight Guides. With the company's personalised trip service encompassing over eighty destinations, and 200 guidebooks covering 180 destinations, Rough Guides is a multi-faceted travel platform, with global sales of 100 million guidebooks since their inception.
The Rough Guide is my go-to travel book series, so I chose and read only this one book on Germany for my recent trip. The contents were great. There were a few smaller towns (Schwerin, for example) that were not covered, but the biggies (Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich) were all there and well represented.
I read this book in Kindle format, and unlike other travel books, I could navigate it pretty easily through the Table of Contents and from within the text where the publishers have inserted bookmaIrks. The maps (again like all travel books on the Kindle) were tiny and useless.
This book is informative, but I didn't feel that it had enough photos of the areas of discussion. I feel, for me, travel photography is an important part of a traveling plan -- you want to be able to see what is being discussed without having to pop out into Google to figure out what it is.
I've already written on Rough Guides, which in general I think is the overall best publisher of travel guides - just to re-cap, very few pics (so what? you're going to SEE the sites), MUCH information - always a good section on the history of the area, recommended books etc.
I use these in conjunction with Rick Steves and get as much if not more info that I need when I travel - and I travel in less than a week - I use Kindle books for my eyes, which are not the greatest - but they are also convenient for travel - paper weighs more than you can imagine, and takes up valuable packing space - I have about six books for this trip all on my "device" so it will help me to travel light.
One last thought - my only concern about Rough Guides is that they don't seem to be doing well in the overall market - I just hope they don't go under! I strongly recommend these guides.
An individual's assessment of a travel guide hinges largely on that person's approach to travel so what suits one person may not be helpful to another. For just a general view of a country's history, culture, and places of interest for me the Rough Guide series is the best place to start for getting an overview of what one might want to explore in a country.
Great guide with lots of detail about Germany, all its regions, accommodation, and all the possible activities one can engage in when in Germany. There are also some colour panels. The only bad thing about this book is that, having been printed in 2009, it is slowly becoming obsolete due to its nature as a travel guide.
Very detailed and interesting guide to somehow underrated country even if I'd love to find a little less about it's cities and architecture but more about nature wonders.