Lonely Planet Western Europe

I have taken several extensive (3+months) trips to Europe and, having used most of the major European travel guides in the past, I have always been impressed with the relative superiority of LP. I think what most unhappy reviews of these travel guides miss is that these books are all tailored to a very specific market, i.e. "Let's Go" is not for anyone over the age of 30 who wants a serious, non-party oriented European trip; Rick Steves' targets middle-aged and older travelers who need hand-holding because they have little or no experience planning and executing trips abroad; Fodor's is for older adults for whom money is not a real concern; and Lonely Planet is for budget-conscious backpackers of most ages who are looking to spend the least money possible and don't mind roughing it a bit to see the sights. Therefore, you are not going to find the best restaraunts/ hotels in LP, you are going to find the cheapest reasonable local resources that often have an unusual or quirky twist.

From my experience, the LP directions on traveling to/from places, finding train stations, airports, etc. are the most useful thing about the book and well worth the price. However, they don't publish train timetables and don't pretend to give that kind of info because it often changes. You can look that up online. That said, there are some flaws in the books as far as clarity in descriptions for a few point-to-point connections, which can be bit confusing. The book can only cover so much, though. All in all, I've had few hitches in using these guides and highly recommend them to other travelers.

For the price it's worth it. I only miss some full color maps.

This guidebook covers the countries of western Europe. However, it seems that Lonely Planet tried to cover too much in this guidebook, so most of the descriptions of sights are barely more than a few sentences and a phone number. It's better to think of this as a giant checklist of places you could visit while in Europe, but don't rely on this for any amount of information. If you're looking for travel and sightseeing information, it's better to get the individual country books for the countries that you are going to travel to. To tell the truth, I bought this because I'm planning a multi-country trip in Europe, so I was hoping that this would contain exstensive information about getting between countries by train, but I was really disappointed to find that the information on this was severely lacking. If you your looking for something like that, Thomas Cook's Europe by rail books are better. Save your money and buy something else.

In planning our trip to England, France and Spain, this book has been tremendously useful. There are endless resources (thankfully, online resources too) which have proven helpful. The maps are also important and valuable tools.
I recommend this series of books for those embarking on a European vacation.

Recientemente hice mi primer viaje a 8 ciudades europeas (Londres, Bruselas, Berna, Roma, Florencia, Barcelona, Madrid y Paris) usando este libro, usando sus recomendaciones en hoteles, museos y otras atracciones, lo único que deberían mejorar son los mapas, pero se complementa bien con los mapas que regalan en las agencias de información turística. Muy buen libro, muy actualizado.