The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition

by Rough Guides

INTRODUCTION The collapse of the division between eastern and western Europe at the end of the 1980s, and the ever closer ties among the fifteen countries of the European Union, have contributed to a feeling that Europe is increasingly becoming a single entity. In part, this is a superficial analysis, but although true European unity still remains a distant dream, developments such as the introduction of the euro, the creation of the frontier-free Schengen Group and the opening of the Channel Tunnel have done much to bring it closer. The expected 2004 expansion of the EU (see box on p.vii) will no doubt contribute to the process. Conventionally, the geographical boundaries of Europe are the Ural Mountains in the east, the Atlantic Coast in the north and west, and the Mediterranean in the south. However, within these rough parameters Europe is massively diverse. The environment changes radically within very short distances, with bleak mountain ranges never far from broad, fertile plains, and deep, ancient forests close to scattered lake systems or river gorges. Politically and ethnically, too, it is an extraordinary Slavic peoples are scattered through central Europe from Poland in the north to Serbia and Bulgaria in the south; the Finnish and Estonian languages bear no resemblance to the tongues of their Baltic and Scandinavian neighbours, but more to that of Hungary, over 1000km south; meanwhile Romansch, akin to ancient Latin, is spoken in the valleys of southeastern Switzerland, while the Basques of the western Pyrenees have a language unrelated to any others known. These differences have become more political of late with the rise of nationalism that coincided with the fall of Communism, and borders are even now being redrawn, not always peacefully, and usually along lines of language, race or religion. This book is a little eccentric in its definition of Europe. We have excluded countries such as Albania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, which are too far off the beaten track to be on most people’s European "grand tour", while of the war-torn and strife-riven republics that have been carved out of the former Yugoslavia, only Slovenia and Croatia have been included as easily accessible and currently safe to visit. On the other hand, we cover countries such as Morocco and Turkey that are not strictly part of Europe, in the main because they are easy to reach on a European tour and are included by the InterRail pass. We also have chapters on Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, though these countries are not covered by the InterRail pass.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

1153 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Jake Stillwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read where I've been, skimmed much of the rest on June 6, 2021 for Rory.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rough Guide To Europe 2006 is a great book to pick up if you're not the most adventurous but more-so the average traveller looking for a great time in some of the best known or little known towns and cities. The guide provides an easy to read and discover map legend that will help you decide what route to choose whether you're using car, train, or other means of transportation to get around. However, I do enjoy the highly detailed country maps of Fodor's Europe more for getting around country to country.

The introduction itself gives you a nice opening to Europe even if you've been there previously. This shows you top five categories about some of the best places to go, where to eat, what events to check out and a host of other features. After reading through the introduction you'll find the Europe Itineraries - this section will give you good ideas about where to go if you plan to travel from place to place in different regions. The writers even go as far as to write out a Grand Tour featuring the top 12 cities to visit in order to really take in Europe at it's finest spots. Although, this is only for those that can afford such a trip. Each town and city is covered very well, some more detailed than others of course.

[Phyllis]

2005

[Jmolentin]

Used a rough guide in 2002 and 2003 for our travels in europe