The Rough Guide to First-Time Europe

by Rough Guides, Doug Lansky

You can get to Europe, even travel around it, without help. But without a little pre-trip planning, you’ll make mistakes – wasting both time and money. This book won’t tell you where to go, but it will give you the tools to custom design the best possible journey for your time frame and budget. There are some things, such as rail passes, volunteer projects or cooking courses, that need to be booked in advance. This book will explain which things to plan for, which are best done on the fly, and how to do it. It will also help you pack what you need, so you don’t end up carrying around items you never use and give budget tricks and skills so you can save £5 - £15 per day with minimal effort (which can add up to £900 on a two-month trip). Essentially, this book contains the sort of information you could probably figure out on your own after about four or five years on the road. Just seems a little easier to get it in an hour or two. Prepare for the adventure with The Rough Guide First-Time Europe.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2005

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

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good coverage of its subject matter.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful hints and some good links to websites for various parts of starting traveling. Does not offer a lot as far as specific things to do in specific countries.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

This guide was decent, but not great. A lot of the information I thought was common sense. The prices listed were only in euros--I wish they had also been listed in USD so that I could start converting between the two more easily.

Some of the info is already outdated, such as the section on cameras. The guide says the main decision to make is whether to bring film or digital, and the digital camera recommendation is basically a 4-mega pixel without zoom and a 1 GB memory card that costs 165 euros...what?!?! At first I thought this was the price for the camera + memory card, but then the price for a 512mb card was given (83 euros), so it must not have been.

I was really disappointed that nearly all of the information was given regarding the summer months. I'm traveling during the winter, and there was one or two sentences telling me to bring a hat, coat, mittens, scarf and boots. Wow. Thanks for that, I was planning on going in a tank top and short shorts. When the country profiles were given, almost all of them say "When not to go: November to February, when it's freezing/too cold/bitterly cold/dark and cold etc..." When I looked at the average temperatures, though, most were hovering around freezing. Sure, that's too cold, if you're walking around in your summer clothing!

Parts of the book were actually helpful. I liked the section on transportation--at least the trains. I found it helpful to know to get on a cart that says the name of the city you are going to. I don't want to get on the one behind and find out I'm still a half hour from where I wanted to be!

[xxx xxx · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this edition in store in 2011 when it was half price (£5 instead of £9.99). I was really amazed because of its quality: detailed information, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour and accuracy. I miss in most guides that when they mean Europe, they actually mean some sort of territories which aren't Europe traditionally such as Israel but avoiding Russia or Ukraine. I had to refund some of them. Doug's guide is actually what I expect it to be: a comprehensive and helpful guide to Europe which covers actually countries in Europe.
I liked information about job markets. I found it very accurate, though climate changed a bit in Europe since 2011 so weather information is out of date. Still, it's a great book to guide you in the Old World.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great overall view of how to travel in Europe and what to see. I did, however, realize that I was not the target audience of this book about the time it had a section on how to convince your parents to pay for your trip. Hmmm. I wonder if that still works for 30-somethings.
While I wasn't all that interested in the sections on how to find a hostel and how to keep your backpack safe, I did appreciate the comparison of rail vs bus tickets and the advice on different ways to travel around Europe.
All in all, an enjoyable read, even if it did make me long to have a year of my youth back to travel around.

[Meri Meri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few years ago I translated this book for the Niculescu Publishing House. I didn't really enjoy it all that much, it was rather redundant and tried to be realistic and targeted towards young people backpacking and "roughing it", but most of the websites and addresses were wrong, most of the "proposed activities" were not properly researched, plus precious few are available for Romanian tourists. If you ask me, it's a waste of money, because it's neither specific, nor general...it's sort of: So you wanna travel? Let me tell you what to pack..

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very helpful in preparing me for my two-week, four-country Europe trip. I had only been to London before, and that was with my family -- since I was going to be doing some traveling by myself, I wanted to feel very prepared. It gave some excellent tips on safety, packing, food, transportation, language barriers, and much more. I'm such a worry wart and I am always much better going into situations like this with lots of prior knowledge, and this book very well equipped me for this trip.

[Mallory Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

I reread this book in advance of a trip I'm taking next year. It's divided into two parts - the first provides planning tips and tricks while the second gives an overview of each country you could visit.

While I recognize that the book was published several years ago, most of the planning sections still seemed like common sense to me. I did enjoy the second half overview of each country, but if that's the info the reader is looking for, they'd be better served to buy a guide book dedicated to country profiles.

2.5 stars

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

The hip vernacular and section on breaking your travel plans to your parents make it pretty obvious that this guide is aimed at youngsters. But, it still contains some very good information for old fogies like me traveling abroad for the first time.

[Dom · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was planning that post-graduation backpacking trip that never happened. I ended up jumping the pond for other reasons and with trains and planes and rollerskates instead of on foot, still a joyous experience.

[Ietrio · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading quite a few travel guides lately, I stumbled upon this volume that is full of good advice. Not all good advice, but at least a good part of it. It might even be good for Europeans, not just people going there for the first time.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less irritating than its Rick Steves counterpart, but too slight to earn more stars. Definitely has some tips for first time travellers and the country breakdowns, though brief, certainly help to give a brief overview of what's there and cost.

[Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! It helped a lot at planning our first steps in European journeys. Precise and useful information for any traveller, even the experienced one will find some practical things in it.

[Lauren Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I liked this guide a lot as a student preparing to study abroad, it is definitely geared more toward people who are camping/not looking to stay in a hotel or spend much money.

[Bill Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok but a definite change from the original Louis Casabianca version which I loved
This is too snobbish and aimed at moneyed "poor" student travelers

[Allie Singer · Rating 4 out of 5]

DK

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awful writing, full of cliches. Could be 75% shorter if all the chummy chatter were taken out - the tips and useful insights would perhaps be adequate enough for a pamphlet.

[Benjamin Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm planning to study in Italy and this book was an amazing read for me

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoughtthis was a great prep for my trip, i recommend it!