Hostels European Cities: The Only Comprehensive, Unofficial, Opinionated Guide

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview of European Hostels.
Review: I bought Hostels European cities when I was planning a multi-country trip. I was going to be stopping only in large cities, and found that only one of the cities I was looking for was not listed in the book (Cologne). I found that it was a very comprehensive guide, and really helped me alot. Now that I've changed my trip to just Germany, I'm planning on buying the Hostels German Cities. I love their format, and really appriciate the information in the book. One should keep in mind, of course, that Hostels European cities is only about 400 pages. It covers 18 countries. Of COURSE they're not going to have every city. They'll have a few major cities from each country, because this is a EUROPEAN guide. If you want more specifics, buy a more specific book. If you want an over view of one or two major cities per country, then its a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview of European Hostels.
Review: I bought Hostels European cities when I was planning a multi-country trip. I was going to be stopping only in large cities, and found that only one of the cities I was looking for was not listed in the book (Cologne). I found that it was a very comprehensive guide, and really helped me alot. Now that I've changed my trip to just Germany, I'm planning on buying the Hostels German Cities. I love their format, and really appriciate the information in the book. One should keep in mind, of course, that Hostels European cities is only about 400 pages. It covers 18 countries. Of COURSE they're not going to have every city. They'll have a few major cities from each country, because this is a EUROPEAN guide. If you want more specifics, buy a more specific book. If you want an over view of one or two major cities per country, then its a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Great for the backpacker!
Review: I'm in Europe now and I've been living off of this book and Geneva Nights. Hostels European Cities fits a much needed mold for young travels looking for something beyond the mundane museum junk.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic!
Review: This book helped me in my travels around Europe this year so much that I can hardly express my thanks. They gave great inside information, and helped me to save some much needed money, while still allowing me to have one of the best times of my life. A wonderful book, I'd recomend it for anyone who will be traveling in Europe and doing the hostelling thing. :)

Rating:
Summary: Colossal waste of money...
Review: This book is an absolute SHAM!!! I was expecting to find a full complete listing of all the hostels throughout the continent, but I found this book to be short, incomplete, and mostly worthless. I was hoping to spend a lot of time in Spain, but this book omitted hostels in San Sebastian, Grenada, Valencia, Pamplona, etc. This book only lists the four major cities in Italy. What about CinqueTerra, Lucca, Siena, Lake Como, etc?? There are no other hostels in Italy? Let alone the city omissions, what good is owning a "Hostel" book if it only gives you 25% of all the available hostels in a single city?? I threw out the book 4 days into my 5 week trip, if that gives you an idea of my utter disappointment. Stick w/ the major guidebooks - they are INFINITELY better than this waste of paper. This book preys on the naivite of first time travelers... and I fell - hook, line and sinker.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money and packing space
Review: We brought Lonely Planet and this book along to help book a few days ahead as we traveled through 6 European countries. The book wasted time and space writing about places not to stay (just leave them out!). The selection really was too small to be useful. Your best bet is to look at hotelworld.com or some other online source that has up-to-date price and availability information. Do not waste your money and valuable packings space!