Rating: 
Summary: Restaurant suggestions alone worth the cost of the book
Review: Just returned from Paris where the Lonely Planet guide once again proved the value of the series. I have used their guides in Italy, Spain and Mexico. They have consistently proved to have the most detailed information and are marked by their slightly-off-the-beaten-path restaurant advice; if you want to eat where and what the locals eat at excellent prices and with marvelous service, BUY THIS BOOK. I am still remembering the tartare du poissons and the lapin aux pruneaux--and with wine and dessert less than $25 per person.I was traveling with a friend who had purchased a guidebook from another well-known series. She soon announced that , "Your guidebook gives better directions and has more accurate information."
Rating:
Summary: A useful guide to Paris
Review: Like most Lonely Planet publications, this one tells you everything you need to know about the target locale, in this case Paris. It is a bit matter-of-fact in some areas where I would like to see more enthusiasm from the author, for example, about the lovely Montorgueil area, recently gentrified, and quite charming. But, in general, I would consider this a fairly reliable guide.
Rating: 
Summary: fair, heavy emphasis on "budget" travelers' needs
Review: Lonely Planet is my default guidebook wherever I travel (usually on business). That being said, this one was a letdown, particularly the hotel section. Paris is a notoriously difficult city to find a hotel (suited for business travelers), high-priced palaces and dumpy dives abound, but clean and modern hotels with updated amenities (individual thermostats, real double beds, computer ports, non-smoking rooms) in Arrondissement 1, 8 or 17 (near Arc du Triomphe) are not easy to find. This book doesn't help, pointing out Crillon, but missing Sofitel la Faubourg (directly across the street).
Rating: 
Summary: Great for History not for as a guide
Review: This book is very small, very dry and not easy to follow. I read a few pages and returned the book. There are many other great guidebooks to help a traveler on their first visit to Paris.
Rating:
Summary: Lost in Paris.
Review: This is an excellent guide for those travelers who don't mind getting lost in Paris. I took two travel guides with me on my recent Christmas-to-New-Year's trip to Paris, and for several reasons this Lonely Planet guide did not measure up to the other guide (Rick Steves' Paris 2005). Although the Lonely Planet guide enabled me to find last minute, affordable hotel accomodations in the otherwise expensive Latin Quarter, while in Paris, it continually frustrated me in my attempts to locate attractions such as the Louvre, Orsay, Picasso, and Rodin museums and the Pere Lachaise Cemetery (where Proust, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, and Colette, among others, are buried). Although the Musee Rodin is described on page 111 of the guide, for instance, to actually locate that museum in Paris, one must refer not only to the map on pages 389-91, but also to the accompanying indexes as well. This is not an easy way to locate an attraction in a labyrinth of Parisian streets and neighborhoods.
Despite its shortcomings, LP's guide provides an excellent orientation of the city's culture, architecture, and history, and features several worthwhile walking tours through the Marais, Left and Right Bank, and central districts of Paris. Paris is the ultimate European travel destination, and first-time visitors will need more than this guide to explore the city's bohemian cafés, its fascinating streets and neighborhoods, and its many, great art museums.
G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: Indispensible!
Review: This is one of my favorite Lonely Planet guides. It is clear and well-presented, and contains just enough information on Paris and some nearby attractions, without going overboard with detail. The restaurant recommendations are particularly good.
Rating:
Summary: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy
Review: This is the letter I sent to Lonely Planet...I hope it helps! I have taken my time about emailing you with my comments - because of how frustrated I was with your book (LP Paris)- I didn't want to waste any more of my time emailing! I bought a Paris only book because I wanted a detailed book on Paris - I have travelled there quite a bit before, so I wanted some help to see and enjoy some out of the way aspects of the city. After seeing many people with the Green Guide(s), I purchased it. However, I hated its alphabetical organization - and its maps were dreadful. So I paid more than 20 euros for the LP Paris guide. I was sorely disapointed. I cannot comment on restaurants or hotels because I was staying with friends. I did notice quite a few very nice vegetarian restaurants that were not in the guide. I did enjoy using the maps - they were helpful. However...(in no particular order)...
1. The listings of internet cafes is really lame. Your reviewer lists only the MOST expensive ones and misses many cheaper ones relatively nearby - or not. Yes, they may come and go (the EasyInternet is long closed, by the way) but still the list is inadequate.
2. The Musee Rodin - first of all I had a hard time finding it in the index - Auguste Rodin, fine. The reviewer fails to mention the excellent audioguide. See next.
3. Musee de la Magic and Curiosite (whatever), this place is crap. The curiosity side is junk - lame optical illusions and dusty old wind up toys. The magic is about 10 minutes worth, well done, but the admission is around 7 or 8 euros. A rip off. The audioguide is one of the worst ever. Technically it doesn't work and the pronunciation and grammar are next to useless. This was about 4 or 5 euros. I am certain that your reviewer did not go to this place. This is what a guide is supposed to be about - letting me know the scoop and saving me some money! This is Paris, not Pyongyang - the reviewer(s) should get it right, it isn't like this is some new place to go! Wear out some shoe leather!
4. Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie - hello Steve! This is closed! It was planned for some time.
5.Fontainebleu - you mention the SNCF combination ticket (good) but don't say where it can be purchased - only one booth 2 floors below the Gare de Lyon. I spent almost 45 minutes looking all around for it - along with some nice German tourists. Go the extra mile Mr. Fallon, actually get out there and help! See next! 6. Probably the most lame and infuriating...the 183 bus to Orly-Sud. Hey why not mention that there are, in fact, TWO 183s - one that actually goes to the airport and one that only goes as far as the Maire. I found out the hard way, losing almost an hour getting onto the right 183 after merrily skipping onto the 183 waiting at the metro stop (enjoying my "good" luck). By the way I know you didn't actually take this bus, either (shoe leather, shoe leather) because, had you done so, you couldn't have failed to notice the block of slightly rundown apartments designed by Le Corbusier which the bus runs right by! I barely made my plane. Again, travel guides are supposed to be written from real experience, not from some internet search or a phone call to the Tourist Agency. Boooo!
7. This criticism is not unique to this book - I am simply tired of carrying around extra pages - 7 pages of LP advertisements, but even more annoying, the at least 30 pages of the standard LP guidance (10% of this book) to wit: a section on litter, business hours, drinking and driving (duh), "air travel glossary", HIV/AIDS organisations (important yes, but why is it in a travel guide?)...so much of this is just re-hashed from LP guide to LP guide.
8. Finally, the maps are well drawn, but the indexes associated with them are absurd. They assume you know WHERE the place is, so you can find the number!! NO, I don't know where it is (yes, that is why I am using the map!), so I want to LOOK IT UP, ALPHABETICALLY! Listing numerically only helps if e.g. you are near #161 and are curious to know what else is around in the area, but even then you must pick them out of the index because they are further broken down (eating,drinking, the ever helpful "other"), and not strictly number order.
9. Along with the not just in this guide part, I find it really rapacious of you to mention your "Ekno" phone card. It is SO EXPENSIVE!! Can you be any more biased? I bought a Delta Multimedia card for 15 euros, available at pretty much any tobacco shop, and got 400 minutes of calling to the US!! This was from a private phone - from a public phone it was worth 100 minutes. Your Lame-O Ekno is 49 cents a minute!! Please!
OK that is most of it! I am very disapointed in this guide. It should be super, FILLED with information based on actual experience - and it is clear that it is not. I think Lonely Planet is just resting on its laurels with this one. Everyone knows where to go in Paris, it is the details that would make a book worth buying. Too often, this book doesn't have them.
Rating:
Summary: Best Paris guide book
Review: Used this guidebook on my second visit to Paris. This guidebook has better maps than any other guidebooks I have used when travelling through Italy, France, and Holland. I tried several of the restaurants listed in the book, explored some of the more obscure attractions listed, and it helped make my Paris experience wonderful. You won't need any other books on Paris if you get this one.
|
