Christopher Rice | Melanie Rice
1 Just a Great Book
For background information I have travelled to Moscow (in a cold October) and I own 20 Eyewitness books. I confess up front. I love these books. I really like the Paris book, Rome, and the one for Prague, and Stockholm, and South Africa, and .... You get all the detailed material similar to other great travel books plus you get great visuals.
On a cold day back here in the USA (or Canada) or elsewhere, have a glass of wine and sit in a nice chair or in the garden on a warm day and read this book. For a moment you will be back in traveling. The photos are that good. These are the best all round travel books and are very good for cities.
As I said, the photos and descriptions and the cutaway drawings are excellent and more than make up for any lack of small detail. But there is lots of detail here. The book includes the history of the city and many details on the art, art galleries, parks, culture, historical figures, cutaway views of historical buildings, and many other things of interest. The history is summarized at the beginning of the book with historical time lines and cross referenced to the culture and political figures. A solid effort - lots of stuff to see and absorb.
It has the other things too such as maps, accommodations, transportation, and the rest.
You will be (very much) pleasantly surprised with the depth and quality of this book and it makes a nice souvenir to refresh your memory when you get home. Again just great colors and photos.
Jack in Toronto
2 A good book, replaced by a newer edition.
Greetings,
This book has been replaced by a newer edition (published at a cheaper price!). Look up 0789497263. It is still a great guide for your journey of Discovering Russia.
3 Extremely useful for getting around
I would like to second the other reviewers about the practicality of this guide. I've been to Moscow twice and know a little Russian. The maps and pictures in this book work really well. I was going to the Tretyakov art gallery for the first time. I came out of the metro stop found the well drawn landmarks and the street names and was able to find the gallery without taking a single wrong turn.
The other guidebooks have more scholarly information, but this one seems better for basic getting around. Although I highly recommend learning at least a little Russian; its not that hard. The Pimsleur method is my favorite for getting started on your own. You can learn the cyrillic alphabet very quickly. I also like the Rosetta Stone programs. Both of these are far more expensive than average - but their quality shows.
4 Pictures helped when you can't read russian!
Went to Moscow in December 2002 for 2 weeks for a funeral with my mother (I'm a hardened traveler in my 30s). I speak very little russian and read even less (i.e. none). I also took the Rough Guide book on Moscow. Didn't use the Rough guide after the 2nd day, stuck to the Eyewitness guide. Why? Because if you can't read russian your screwed - the cyrillic alphabet is like reading arabic; if you want to toodle around on the subway or walk the streets - nothing makes sense and it all looks the same. Pictures and maps (with the actual and phonetic spellings on them) are how you're going to make it work. Rough guide has no pictures - Eyewitness boatloads! I explored Moscow on my own - with no guide, no translator and no dictionary - only my eyewitness guide. I didn't get lost and I saw everything that I wanted to see. I didn't care that Eyewitness Moscow was published in 1998 - churches, museums and other places of interest do not move - prices change frequently anyway. It also cuts out a lot of the crap that other guides spend too much time on. This is a guide for seeing, doing and exploring. If you want a hotel guide, get a travel agent.
5 Great guide and source of background information
I travelled to Moscow in November 2002 and found this guide to be of great assistance in planning what I wanted to see, getting background information and in follow-up reading and reference after I returned. One use after I returned was in matching my photos to the pictures in the guide to label them and this worked extremely well. The pictures are beautiful, and the background information is extensive and helpful in understanding what you are going to see.
The one drawback is that the 1998 publication date makes this book not very useful in information on new hotels, restaurants or prices.
Compare guidebooks and I think you will see that this one is by far the best for detail, pictures and general information.
Highly recommended.
6 Better than a taking a tour
This is one of the best travel guides I have ever used. It gave more information than the private guides I hired. It includes some of the little known, "personal facts" as well as information on food, transportation and gifts to bring home. I highly recommend this book. It was so good, I bought the ones for my next two trips as soon as I got back from Moscow!
7 Ideal for a short visit or for travel planning
If I was taking just one guide, 'Eyewitness Travel Guide to Moscow' would be my first choice. Although it is starting to age (published in 1998) it is a good visual and historic guide to Moscow, with enough color photographs to both inspire and guide you.
As other reviewers have noted, this book is ideal to use to review with a tour guide the sights and areas that you want to see because of its diagrams, pictures and suggested itineraries.
The history and art sections are reasonably good for a guide book.
The restaurant and hotel suggestions are a bit stale, and the pricing is out of date (although the range of pricing is still reasonably accurate).
8 decent
the maps weren't very helpful, and it was definitely not aimed at students with low budgets. nice pictures and good metro stations to visit, along with other good suggestions about interesting places to visit makes it worthwhile, but get a better map if possible.
9 Best prep book of Moscow for hosted trips
I have travelled to Moscow several times and bought this book for my nervous parents who are soon coming along with me for the first time. What I like about this book is that it preps you for what to expect in Moscow without having to do extensive research. The pictures are really helpful, and I found the portrayals to be very accurate (pre-Kosovo). However, I did buy the book with the thought that I will be able to help my folks along. If you have a guide or host to help you with your trip, than this book is ideal.
10 The best Travel Guide Series on the market
Incredibly helpful - the best Moscow travel guide available. My advise to anyone who wants to go to Moscow: go in the Spring and take this book with you.
