Estonia: The Bradt Travel Guide

by Neil Taylor

Bradt’s Estonia remains the only English-language guidebook to this Baltic destination, and this sixth edition reveals more of the country than any previous guide. Readers now discover why Miss Estonia likes antique cars, where Eiffel built before Paris, and why Edward VII could not land in Tallinn to meet Tsar Nicholas II and had instead to spend three days in the harbor. Offering extensive coverage of Estonia’s complex cultural history and its artists, writers and musicians, alongside comprehensive practical information, Baltic expert Neil Taylor proves that there’s much more to Estonia than the cobbled streets and cafés of Tallinn.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published August 17, 2010

Reviews

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guess where I’m going go spend next week… And this time, unusually, I’m reading the guide beforehand, because there’s a lot of planning you need to do for successful touristing. This is the only full guide of Estonia I could find, and it’s a dense, knowledgeable, and ultimately useful travel guide to the country, with great chunks on history and a exhaustive, if somewhat repetitive, list of attractions and places to eat or dine. However, it’s almost ten year old, because the new version was not available or out of print or something, so there’s a lot of “this is bound to change in the near future”. The VABAMU, a new addition to the list of museums in Tallinn, is not even there.
A problem it’s got is that the maps are not great, and there’s no top ten list, or even top five. Probably not the original intention, but still, it would have been useful for, you know, the touristing thing. Carrying it along anyway, might give it more or less stars when I’m back.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good for background on Estonia before my trip, but I didn't really find myself consulting it for restaurants and sights once I got in country. I'm beginning to think these two purposes should be separated in travel books -- a really well-written background can be great to read ahead of time, but maybe something web-based (like Wikitravel) is the way to go for listings.

[Víctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel guides tend to be tedious, filled with not so relevant information and a hard read overall. After finishing this book, I can only recommend it. Lots of history and stories plus the occasional routes make it a perfect read before and while visiting Estonia.

[Yeongbae K · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dry narrative, note suitable to academic settings than general reading