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Pros:
* Mr. Steves provides excellent help in prioritizing your time in Spain and Portugal. I find this activity to be the hardest when planning a trip. How many days in Barcelona, how many in Madrid, etc?
* An incredibly valuable feature of the book, in my opinion, is that Mr. Steves provides a one-page listing of the primary sites in each city, ranking each site from zero to three stars based on how important it is to see each site. While I may not agree on his prioritization, the page makes for a quick checklist while you're walking or waiting for public transportation.
* Mr. Steves is particularly good at recommending out-of-the-way lodging and restaurants that you might not otherwise find in a given place.
* Mr. Steves' book is also very good for budget travelers, providing lodging and dining in every class of service.
Cons:
* As mentioned in several other reviews, the book is laden with historical factual errors. I won't go into that here.
* In a cutesy manner, many of the maps are handwritten and the street names are omitted. Specifically, if you try to drive around Sevilla using only this book, you will live to regret it.
* Much if not most of the visitor information (hours and days of availability) for tourist sites is wrong. I strongly suggest doing what we did: arriving in a particular town the night before you wish to visit its sites, walking around to see the real hours displayed, then planning your itinerary over dinner.
Some other thoughts, not particularly specific to his book but useful for your trip:
* PORK: Spain is completely obsessed with pork. More or less every menu item has pork on it. Even if it says vegetarian and you ask if it's vegetarian and they assure you it's vegetarian, the odds are pretty high that it'll have a six ounce hunk-o-bacon in it. If you are committed not to eat pork for any reason, seriously consider whether it's worth having to cookies out of a bag for the duration of your trip.
* There are department stores called Corte Ingles scattered around every city in Spain. They have grocery stores and everything else you might need. Knowing where they are is very useful on a long trip.
Best of luck!
Lydia
But the leopard hasn't changed his spots. The architect of Ronda's impressive bridge did not fall off of the bridge to his death while inspecting his work. Spain For Dummies sets the record straight. The discussion of the Spanish Civil War omits the information that Stalin supported and eventually took over the Republican side. Since Steves mentions that Hitler and Mussolini supported the Nationalists, there's no reason for leaving out Stalin's role except that the author doesn't want readers to know. (Perhaps Rick Steves doesn't want readers to know how radical he is; at his web site he suggests that America brought on the terrorist attacks and sympathizes with a suicide bomber.)
Mr. Steves lacks the confidence to summarize history in a straightforward manner and let readers decide for themselves; he never passes up a chance to indoctrinate. For reliable history of the Spanish Civil War see the definitive account by Hugh Thomas, Paul Johnson's summary in Modern Times, or George Orwell's classic, Homage To Catalonia. If you browse through Amazon or your local bookstore you can find many fine books on various aspects of Spanish history.
Fortunately history is only a small part of the book. There is good practical information on hotels, restaurants, sites, local transportation, and travel strategies. For example, Madrid's Hotel Gonzalo is an excellent value near the Prado. If you're in Andalusia budget some time to visit one of the Pueblos Blancos villages, such as Ronda. Tours only make short stops here, but they're worth several days. Wherever you go, look out for pickpockets.
If you're going to Spain or Portugal, this book is an excellent travel resource. But when you read history in a Rick Steves book keep in mind that he's trying to indoctrinate readers to his point of view.
Some errors represent a failure to keep the book up-to-date. For example, the stop for Bus 89 from Barajas airport to downtown Madrid has changed. The bus is a good deal, so check with information before hunting for the stop. Contrary to the book's appendix, the Socialists do not control Spain's national government. The Popular Party has been in power since 2000.
Other inaccuracies reflect gullibility, or an attempt to indoctrinate. The architect of Ronda's impressive bridge did not fall off of the bridge to his death while inspecting his work. This is a false rumor. Franco did not know in advance of the saturation bombing of Guernica. Both sides of Spain's Civil War committed atrocities. The truth is bad enough; no need to swallow propaganda.
The worst error is the claim that Spain's court resisted Columbus because it didn't believe that the world was round. This is what historian Daniel Boorstin called a "vulgar legend." By the 15th century educated Europeans knew that the world was a sphere. The Spanish court resisted Columbus's proposals because they thought he underestimated the size of the world and the length of the voyage. They were far closer to the truth than Columbus was; if Columbus had not stumbled across a New World his voyage would have perished at sea. My tour guide in Grenada got this right; so should a travel writer.
This is particularly egregious because Rick Steves probably knows better. A post on his web site pointed out this error in the 2002 book. Indifference to facts does a disservice to both history and readers. History needs to be based on facts, not gross errors. Readers have a reasonable expectation that an author knows his history.
If you're planning a trip to Iberia and take its history with a lot of salt, this book is worth purchasing. I'd give this book 3.5 stars if I could, but will give it a gentlemen's 4. Hopefully next year's edition will correct the errors.
If you have never been to Spain or Portugal before, I would highly recommend this book. If, however, you have been to Spain before or plan to spend several days in just a few cities, you should consider another travel guide that contains more detail.
You can observe a lot just by watching.
-- Yogi Berra
If you have to think twice about it, you're wrong.
