The Rough Guide to Andalucia - Edition 5

click here for more details, find new or used items	Geoff Garvey, Mark Ellingham Our price £8.99 (£12.99) New from £7.00 Used from £7.63 Pages: 712 (Paperback) ISBN: 1843535874 Pub: Rough Guides Ltd Pub date: 2006-04-27 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5037

Reader Reviews:

A very one-dimensional rough guide! (6/7 people found this helpful)

I can only comment on the section on Almeria region, an area which I have been to a number of times and which I am starting to explore more. I bought this guide to help me find out more and was pleased with the level of information on history, architecture, etc. However I was disappointed with the way the author dismisses so many places because they do not meet what appear to be his lofty criteria of 'old and untouched Spain'. Spain is rapidly changing and development is reaching into even remote areas. This should be accepted and dealt with more maturely.

The target demographic appears to be 'culture vultures' and backpakers. I have been on backpacking holidays but now, as someone on a family holiday, based in a coastal resort but also wanting interesting places to visit, I am interested in more than an endless list of hostel addresses and telephone numbers or how expensive or inexpensive individual selected restaurants are. I would prefer more general information on the towns, villages, parks, etc rather than what sometimes seems like a telephone directory. The book appears to cater little for parents who want information on child friendly excursions, etc. Not everyone wants a 6km walk to a nice beach in August when it is perfectly possible to get there by a less extreme route.

Would be better if it was more inclusive.

A very rough guide indeed - consistently poor in most respects (2/5 people found this helpful)

Am only able to comment on the sections for Cadiz and Seville. Maps are somehow inaccurate for both towns (in particular, location of bars/restaurants). Reviews of hotels bear little resemblance to reality. Most of all the restaurant reviews seem to have been written by someone who has never visited the place. This one guide has now coloured my view of the whole Rough Guide series.

Head and shoulders above the competition (36/36 people found this helpful)

The latest edition (2006) of the Rough Guide to Andalucia is, quite simply, superb. It is attractively packaged, with some stunning colour photographs, and the layout is clear and logical, essential for a book containing over 700 pages.

Besides having copious information on the usual Andalucian highlights, there is a wealth of detail for those who enjoy getting off the beaten track, both in cities and the less frequented towns, villages and rural areas. I'm a frequent visitor to Andalucia and I was astonished to find information on out-of-the-way places that I know and that receive very few foreign visitors. This really is a book for those who enjoy exploring as well as visiting the big highlights.

There are guided walks around city neighbourhoods with notes on architectural highlights and historical background. I also enjoyed the countryside walks, invaluable for those who don't want to buy (or carry the additional weight of) specialised walking guides.

The "Contexts" section at the back of the book is extremely useful and informative, containing chapters on history, flamenco, wildlife and recommended supplementary reading.

Street maps of cities like Seville are notoriously difficult to produce in guidebooks because of the complexity of the labyrinthine neighbourhoods. However, the Rough Guide makes a pretty good job of it. In any case, the guide points readers to the tourist offices where larger, more detailed street maps are available for free.

Given the multiplicity of bus companies operating in Andalucia (and the rest of Spain), the guide wisely provides summaries of bus routes, frequency and journey duration. To try to do more would be confusing and would, in any case, be quickly out-of-date. Accommodation is simply price-banded; this is a good idea as accommodation in many places in Andalucia fluctuates widely according to season.

All in all, an essential for those intending to visit this region of Spain.

A very good guide, practically and historically (15/19 people found this helpful)

I found this book very useful with very good info on the main sites and excellent practical info (eg cost of taxis between airport and hotels).

The only disadvantage was that it is slightly out of date.

4th Edition already out of date by September 2003 (31/37 people found this helpful)

This is the 6th Rough Guide, to various countries, that I've used on a vacation.

The (positive) sarcasm evident in the other books helped me to decide which specific visit to make, especially when time was at a premium. This helpful tool is not overly evident in the 4th edition.

Too many factual problems in a new guide occured (Example Granada . . . .page 533....Bar Ferroviaria closes and does not open, as reported in the book, at 2 pm ......on Plaza Pescedaria, no's 8 and 14 were recommended. One was overly popular, difficult to approach the entrance and the other is now a building site.

The city maps are 'logically' oriented and not "north" (as in most other guides, including the Rough which I've used) making quick use of the map difficult and comparison with other maps virtually impossible.

Insufficient attention is made regarding entry to the main cities:

We wasted valuable time getting to the Alhambra in Granada there is a ring road not well indicated in the guide.

The parking lot (for Gibraltar) in La Linea is a great 'find' but the guide should indicate that it may be reached by following 'Gibraltar' signs, no need to drive all the way through the alleys of La Linea.

The Sevill maps (pages 274/5 and 278) are not easily oriented to each other. In addition, arrival by road is too 'sudden', the 'old city' arrives without any pre-warning of landmarks, making navigation in moving traffic extremely difficult.

Similar comments can be made about Malaga and Almeria, in both cases, appropriate parking near the Alcazars exist, but the Guide did not help us find parking.

I can not comment on the other major cities, as we did not visit them.

As a general rule, the Andalucian inter city roads are very well signposted, but those in the towns and cities, not. I would therefore expect my guide to over compensate for this and give me better data, at least, to reach the first where excellent city/town maps are usually available.

Overall, I like the 'personal' approach of Rough Guides, still evident in the Andalucian 4th edition, but less so than in other guides.

There are many 'tips' which make it a worthy guide.

There is a great deal of logic in the placing of sites. In addition, if my route strays from that logic, the index is detailed enough to redirect me.

Will I buy another Rogh Guide? Only if the maps are north oriented. Too much valuable holiday time was taken from me entering the cities.