Customer Reviews

Venice and the Veneto (DK Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable trip to Venice, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The presentation was consistently excellent, and made navigation through the city's many winding streets easy. My only criticism would be the limited number of hotels and restaurants listed, though this is only a minor problem in such a superbly well-researched book. I'll certainly be using Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness travel guides for my next holiday!

I'm usually a big fan of the Eyewitness series but this chunky guide has a few problems. I used it to find some information on the Peggy Guggenheim gallery and despite stating that it was one of Venice's most visited attractions, it devoted less than a page to it. The much shorter Top Ten guide on Venice (also published by Dorling Kindersley) gives it two pages and names it as one of the city's essential sights.

Also, the use of hand-drawn maps is not ideal. In particular one of the Dolomites succeeds in being childish rather than charming and doesn't provide the clarity offered by a computer-produced image needed by visitors to the region.

Overall I think the Top Ten guide offers better value and more balanced coverage, despite being much shorter.

The best guide to Venezia and the Veneto. The pages about the Grand Canale deserve an award for its beauty and first quality information.

very helpful if you are looking for a comprehensive guide to Venice. Spot on with it's information and giving an excellent overview of the City. Although Venice is an easy City to get around in and find your way, you might loose yourself in the many little streets. And then you want a reliable guide that gets you back on track. Gives great information about the usual tourist sites, but also invites you to make you own discoveries and lets you chose your tailor-made holiday. The only thing I would add is a guide to the best "Gelaterias" of the City! ;-) Wouldn't want to go on a holiday without my DK!

The British firm of Dorling Kindersley is famous for its visual encyclopedic guides, and this title from the Eyewitness series lives up to the reputation of its predecessors. The book is packed with photographs, three-dimensional renderings, historical tidbits, and travel advice. It makes a slight sacrifice of depth to breadth by including chapters on the Veneto Plain, Verona and Lake Gardia, and the Dolomites. - Durant Imboden, Venice for Visitors, [...]

I am a fan of these publications - they make it very easy to plan a journey, as well as providing a great starting point to find out more about the history of a city/area. This book proved very useful in preparing for a visit to Venice in February 07, and I would not have been without it. Of particular use are the aerial maps, which make locating oneself much easier when lost! The articles, although necessarily short, offer a glimpse into the glories that can be found - rather than reading the book, get your tickets out there, and let the book be your guide rather than your only source of knowledge.

This typically excellent DK publication is a colorful and beautifully illustrated volume. The information is presented in a concise and well ordered manner and was a joy to use during my last trip to the Veneto. The recommended restaurants and hotels were well selected and the 3D drawings of city areas and famous buildings were extremely useful during sightseeing. Overall a highly recommended travel guide.

A great travel guide - easy to use, informative, well laid out. This DK guide offers plenty of background and history as well as practical tips for making the most of your visit.

A good read for during the flight, but also handy to have in your pocket as you wander around.

I have used many of the Eyewitness range guide books, which is always my first choice, but this one on Venice is somewhat a let down. There are only a few restaurants and hotel recommended, and they are definitely NOT the best ones!

Of the few recommended restaurants, I chose a starred one which is supposedly 'especially recommended'. Claimed to be a local and tourist favourite and specialist for seafood, it turned out to be the most dodgy restaurant I have ever been in my life!!! Burried in a pitch black ally, reusing the whole bread basket, poor food (our neighbour tables had less than half of their meals) which comes to your table in 2 mins after your order. We had a seafood rice with no seafood in it, and black squid covered with a bowlful of ink with a big hard chunk of polenta! .. And no... it wasn't a cheap eat either!

Surely no tourists would go to this kind of place if they are not fooled by a guide book, and this makes you think why did the author recommended it in the first place?

The price guide could have also been better. The more expensive range maybe more worth trying than the the mid range restaurants (given the high prices in Venice, the difference can be only 10% to 20%, but offer 10 times better food, service, and surroundings)

However, you do get the standard goodies of Eyewitness, like a very easy to use format, colouful and details illustrations, detailed street map with index which is the most helpful.

But I do recommend you to do your own research for your food and stay!

There is just no comparison between what this book offers (visual) compared to simply reading the information supplied in other books. It provides a wealth of information on the history and the architecture of especially Venice. The information on the Grand Canal is outstanding! The Basilica and Doge's Palace can be enjoyed to the full with this book at hand.

Only one piece of critisism - the book is lacking in giving information for the low budget traveller. Cheaper alternative accommodation such as campsites, pensiones and bungalow type accommodation would be of great value. Hints on how to go about and where to look for bargains should perhaps also be included.

Overall a book that will make anyone's holiday a great experience!