Louis CasaBianca
1 Required for First Time Travelers to Europe...
If you have never been to Europe and are thinking of traveling there independently (or, perhaps even with a tour, although tour guides tend to dislike "educated" tourists...) you NEED this book! I only wish I had such a book to guide me when I began traveling many years ago.
As the book itself states, it is NOT a guidebook for sites to see, lodging, specific costs, etc. What it DOES do (and rather well...) is outline the skills and tools you need to travel successfully--and not just in Europe, as the skills Mr. Casablanca relates are applicable in any travel situation.
Being a well-traveled person myself, anytime someone asks me how I "do it", or if I hear of someone planning a trip to Europe for the first time, I ask them if they have read this book. If not, I tell them it is REQUIRED reading if you want your independent trip to go smoothly. Many of the tips and ideas laid-out in the book I had to learn by experience--not always a joyful thing when traveling. While I value experience in travel, if you can save yourself a few headaches, why not??
As I mentioned eariler, the skills outlined in this book are fully transferable across continents and local regions. The book gives you practical ways of dealing with almost any situation you will encounter--anywhere in the world. The information given is well-researched, easy to follow, and never goes out of style...it's always useful.
2 Great book for your trip to Europe
What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular... The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides.
If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels.. the guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels.
I would definitely read this book before going to Europe.
3 I felt it was possible, I could do it!
This was a fantastic read. It's packed with practical advice, true, but the real strength of this book is the author's encouraging spirit. His love for Europe, his passion to share this love is infectious. He makes you feel like you can really do it!
4 Excellent for those planning an extended 1st trip to Europe
I was extremly excited to get this book and read it from cover to cover fairly quickly. Louis gives quite a bit of great, practical information that the first time travel might not think about. The only place I found it lacking was for those of us who can't flit off to Europe for the summer. I would have enjoyed more information for the older working traveler on their first trip to Europe. All in all the book is still an excellent reference that I will be using to help me plan my 1 week trip to Paris (at least I think it will be Paris!) although the one page on a two week trip sounds so wonderful I'm trying to figure out a way to extend my trip!!
The best advice in this book was "Don't worry, just GO!"
5 All aspects of preparing for a trip are covered
Now in a completely updated fourth edition, Louis CasaBianca's First-Time Europe continues to be a premiere, "user friendly" travel guide for the novice traveler to Europe. All aspects of preparing for a trip are covered including getting a passport, securing economical air transportation, selecting rail passes, what to pack, and planning ahead of time on where to go and what to see. While in Europe, readers will have access to invaluable, practical information on best value accommodations, navigating the sights, and traveling from city to city. The informative text is enhanced with eight pages of color maps and all the major rail routes. First-Time Europe is replete with money-saving tips, as well as advice for staying health, keeping out of trouble, staying in touch, itinerary suggestions, and more! If you are planning your first trip to Europe (or a second, third, or fourth!), begin by browsing through Louis CasaBianca's First-Time Europe!
6 a MUST for travelers!!!!!
This book is a must for travelers of all ages, first-timers, and old-timers!!! I will be making a trip to Europe this summer, and this book has covered everything, what to do and what not to do, and also has several funny and serious first-hand accounts of things that the author had gone through from his travels to Europe. THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE!!!!!!!!
7 Best Introductory Book of Them All !!!
While planning my first time trip to Europe, I bought several guidebooks: Frommer's Europe, Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door, Lonley Planet's Europe While all of these are excellent guides, this one is the best if you are planning your first trip abroad or even to learn new things and gain a better perspective of budget travel. After you read this book, you must read Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door. Rick's book is equally as good with a little more depth and a different perspective. Side note - buy your rail tickets from Rick Steve.(ricksteve.com) He sends you one of his books at no cost and sends a video on how to use your rail tickets. His website is the best for travel to Europe that I have found so far. Anyway, buy this book - it will save you hundreds in Europe or abroad and totally prepare you for your trip!!!
8 Perfect for Student Travelers
As a prospective AFS exchange student to Europe, I found this book to be of more help than any other. Student travelers don't have many books as resources; "First Time Europe," while not geared exclusively toward students, has a wealth of information that is useful to us. What to pack, what to expect, places to stay, attitudes...they are all contained here. This is highly recommended to any student, or others who are on a tight budget and want the most for their money. Written with a perfect balance of anecdotes and practical information, the book is interesting as well as informative. Buy it, buy it, buy it!
9 A useful general guide to travelling in Europe.
I travelled abroad for my first time this past year. It was, in fact, the first time I had left the USA at all (despite my parents living in Michigan, I have never even been to Canada). The first book I bought to prepare for the trip was First-Time Europe : A Rough Guide Special. This was after I had already gotten through about a third of it in the bookstore. As this indicates it is a very readable book, much more than I generally expect most travel guides to be.
Of course, I should emphasize that it is not, in fact, a `country-specific' guide book. It doesn't tell you what to see or where to go in any particular country. It is designed as a general guide, a companion to such a guide book, basically covering the sort of information that something like Let's Go Europe tries to fit in its first chapter: pre-departure preparations, what to expect, how not to get your luggage stolen, etc.
This is not to downplay the value of First-Time Europe at all. It covers a lot more than the general introduction of a travel guide. And more importantly, at least for me, it is designed for readability. A country-specific guidebook is usually more like an almanac, designed for maximum information in the least amount of space. They are great if you know what you are looking for (i.e. the phone numbers of youth hostels in Berlin). Yet important reminders and notes that stuck with me from the passages of First-Time Europe are often reduced to single sentences in other guidebooks. And with my style of reading and retention, that means I'll often miss them. In fact there is even a great anecdote illustrating this in the book, where the author, Louis Casablanca, recounts the effort he spent trying to get directions to a hostel, before noticing the directions were in his guidebook the whole time.
So could I have gotten by without reading it? I'm sure I could have, especially since the first part of my trip was a `Study Abroad' experience, so I had someone to hold my hand in the beginning. And honestly, a good deal of the information in the book could probably be found elsewhere. I'll stop short of calling invaluable. However I'm still glad I bought it. Even if all the information isn't new, it is presented in a much clearer way than other books. Reading a country-specific guide book before going was generally a frustrating experience for me - they are much more useful once you are all ready there (and have made a couple mistakes). First Time Europe is a much more satisfying read. No, I can't tell you exactly how many potential blunders it actually eliminated. Yet just in the number of perceived worries it answered, and my corresponding growth in confidence about going to Europe, it was well worth the read.
