Barcelona & Catalonia (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

1 Second place this time
Usually the Eyewitness series guide for whatever city is an unbeatable guidebook, however this one comes up a little short. It has all the great photos, as always the maps are excellent, the pictures/descriptions of the foods & architecture are very good. It is the same successful formula they use in their series of guidebooks but here they could have expanded some where they condensed. There is nothing in the book about bullfighting, or flamenco; there are 2 pages on Romanesque architecture, 2 pages on Modernism architecture, nothing on Gothic even though Barcelona has one of the most complete Gothic neighborhoods in all of Europe. The first 40 pages are history and introduction, food, flora, art etc.: Only 49 pages on the city sights, 20 pages on the rest of Catalonia. It is as if they rushed to compact everything as they might with somewhere much larger, like New York City. The book could have relaxed and breathed a bit more. The town of Tarragona with its great cathedral and fantastic Roman ruins only gets two columns of ink. There are only 6 pages of detailed maps in the back, Parc Guell is not even on the map.
If you are going to BCN you should get this book, match it up with National Geographic Traveler Barcelona and the Time Out Guide

2 Dorling Eyewitness Guide to Barcelona
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Great Travel Guide, Beautiful Coffee Table Book!

Summary:
Every Dorling Kindersley Guide has been a great and interesting book... and delightful to have and use, even if you are not traveling to that location, but are only interested in learning more!

The Guides are well organized in a logical and easy to follow manner. They are beautifully illustrated, well developed with accurate information (it is unusual for hotel and restaurant information to be that accurate), have enough history to help the reader understand the people and cultural background, and have a lot of useful travel information and useable maps in the appendixes.

The really great attraction to this book is several fold; it is:
............Very complete
............Easy to read
............Beautifully and artistically completed
............Good shopping, safety and other tips
............Gorgeous photographs too numerous to list.

Specifics:
The guides are organized as follows:

How to use this guide
Introduction to Historical and Geographical information
Geographical Regions
............Introduction Barcelona and Catalonia
........................Intro to Barcelona / Catalonia
........................Portrait of Catalonia
........................Catalonia Through the Year (events, holidays)
........................History of Catalonia

............Barcelona Area by Area, each section includes:
........................Introduction to street by street area

........................Detailed pictorials of area buildings
........................Architectural drawings, pictures, cut-aways of buildings
........................Specific stops, historical monuments, churches, buildings, etc.

........................Barcelona At a Glance
........................Old Town
........................Eixample
........................Monjuic
........................Further Afield

............Catalonia Area by Area
........................Llieda, Andorra, Girona, Barcelona Province, Tarragona

Travelers Needs - includes full list with rankings and notes
............Hotels
............Restaurants, cafes, bars
............Shopping
............Entertainment
............Outdoor activities

Survival Information
............Practical
........................Tourist info., Etiquete, Personal Security and Health
........................Currencies, Telephones, misc info.
............Travel Information (Getting to Barcelona )

............Street Maps (Getting Around Barcelona )

............General Index
............Catalan Phrase Book
............Barcelona Metro and Train Routes (Maps)

Discussion:
The book begins with "Introducing Barcelona", including a complete map, a review, the city's history, and Barcelona thought the Year - including events, etc.

Areas with an "At a glance" overview, then has subsections of specific blocks, or forums, then specific locations, churches, historical monuments, bridges, galleries, etc.

Architectural reviews include various views, and cutaways; given greater understanding and better perspective. They are all attractive, if not works of art - honestly.

The travelers' Info. offers good and valid info. on prices, currencies, customs, important words, etc. I have used the reviews on hotel's restaurants and nightclubs, in most European cities, and Dorling has yet to disappoint me. I have found they were useful and accurate, and helpful with my touring and site decisions.

The books are so well thought-out that it has multiple maps, with various lookup tables, and the book's flaps are designed to be used as bookmarks for map pages.

Traveling to Barcelona Specifically:
Do it! I have never been disappointed with Barcelona, its people, its food, or anything at all. It is definitely one of the better European cities to visit, or spend time in. Also, just south of Barcelona is a little town called "Sitges" which is an absolute Mediterranean gem! Gorgeous, friendly, beautiful beaches, and very comfortable to simple visit and relax in!

Conclusion:
Each book in this series is a great help, and beautiful collectible resource. As the President, CEO of an International Meeting Planning Corporation we have many resources and techniques to learn about places we have meetings / groups at as well as the cities and sights. But, as a traveler, this book really is top notch and I would recommend it to anyone going on a personal trip, or wanting to learn about a city, or location. We have used some of these books to augment our research to investigate cities for our groups.

3 not up to the usual D-K standard
This guide is not up to the usual D-K standard. I like to take pictures for photo.net when I travel and it is very helpful to have the little sample photos of destinations so that one can decide whether or not to invest the time.

But D-K Barcelona is very skimpy on details and also on tourist attractions and facilities as soon as you venture out of the Old City.

For authoritative restaurant and hotel recommendations, go with Michelin Red. For architecture and art history, get the Blue Guide. For nightlife, try the TimeOut guide. Overall, people say that the Rough Guide is very good.

Whatever guidebook you choose, watch your belongings in Barcelona. Pickpocketing is an industry there, esp. in the Old City and on La Rambla. Women should not carry purses. Men should keep money in a money belt or zippered inner jacket pocket. Limit yourself to one camera that you can keep in your hands at all times.

4 Great for Barcelona, not so much for rest of Catalonia
This is a great book for any newcomer to the beautiful city of Barcelona. The images pull you in, and the background history on the Barcelona area is well done. My only gripe is that the "rest of Catalonia" section is quite small for all that's out there! If you're spending a few days in Barcelona, this is the book to buy. If you plan to spend most of your time in the surrounding region, or in the Balearic islands, I'd skip it.

5 Great Photographs and Historical Synopsis
The cover says it all: "The guide that shows you what others only tell you." Each page is illustrated with breathtaking shots of Churches, Mountains, Beaches, City streets, or great works of art. Another remarkable feature of this guide is the detailed history given to each town or monument or region listed. It's a little shy on maps, however, because although there are detailed guides of certain sections of the city of Barcelona showing buildings, streets, and recommended walking cultural iteneraries, there is no good map of the entire city on one leaf. It also leaves a bit to be desired in the "rest of catalonia" category. For example, only a short vignette is given for the fine Roman city of Taragonna. Overall, I'd recommend this guide to anyone planning to visit Barcelona.