Lonely Planet Europe's Best Trips 1 (Road Trips Guide)

I am sure the book is great, but I found it hilarous that on the map they switched Austiria and Switzerland!

So you want to see Europe but don't know where to start. This book is packed with great ideas on road trips, many of which can be completed by rail or bus. Some take as little as 2-3 days with others taking a full 21 days. If you want to see Western Europe but don't know where you want to go, this guide will give you a taste of touring you can do. For that it gets 4 stars.However, this is not designed to meander through more than one country. The "link your trip" tips are mainly there to link with other trips within the *same* country and for me, this is a huge oversight for a something that touts itself as a general Europe guidebook. The hub airports, which offer the most variety of airlines (and cheapest fares) are Madrid Spain, London England, Paris France, Rome Italy, Frankfurt Germany and Amsterdam Netherlands. I would expect a general Western Europe guide to help me set up legs between London and Frankfurt or Madrid and Rome, so I can fly into one country and out from another. This guide completely fails in highlighting trips that would allow me to do this.I'll give you an example: Fly into London and tour southern England (1st part of trip #17) then take the chunnel high speed train into France and see the Beaches of D day (trip #9 ) and Paris (first stop on trip #8). There is nothing for the trip east into Belgum or Germany, but the guide pick up again in Dusseldorf Germany (trip #34), then south into Austria to do the 2nd half of Grossglockner road (trip #39) and west to Switzerland to see the alps (almost all of trip #37). From here head south into Italy and do the lake region (trip #2) followed by heritage wonders (trip #5) or grand tour (trip #1) to end in Rome Italy and fly home.For beach lovers, start in Madrid and head south (nothing in the guide for this) and do the Medirerranean meander (trip #27) then into France for the Pyreness mountains (trip #11) and head east on the back half of Atlantic to Med (trip #10) or the Rivera crossing (trip #12). If you have time and it's not too redundant, add do the Italian Riviera (trip #7) then into Turin for the grand tour (trip #1) and fly out of Rome.A scenario traveling across Europe should be reversible so you can beat the crowds or keep good weather. Just a note, both my scenarios take 21 days, so save up your vacation time!I had to cobble together my example so it's got some holes and doubles back a bit because this guide wasn't designed for multi country touring in mind. I'm sure if I buy the other Loney Planet Best Trips (of the specific country) I could put together something more elegant but I'd rather save my money to see Europe, not buy guidebooks!My guess is this guidebook is the highlights from the other Lonely Planet Best Trips for specific countries, so if you were planning to see more than one country, this book isn't going to do that for you. The trips don't loop around very much and assume you will find you own way to and fro, so it's hard to connect them into a build your own adventure. However, with internet resources or your local library you could fill in the gaps of the trips in this guide to make your own grand tour of Europe.Belgum & The Netherlands are completely ignored, as are the city states of Monaco, San Marino and Luxembourg. Regions covered (number of trips):Scotland, Wales, England (7)Ireland (5)Portugal (2)Spain (5)France (7)Italy, Sicily (7)Switzerland (2)Austria (2)Germany (3)

Purchased as a gift, not sure I'd recommend, purely on the image attached, showing Switzerland and Austria, doing a bit of geographical 'switzeroo'. I'm used to a high standard from the Lonely Planet series, but apparently, even they are being hit by 'austria-rety' measures in the editorial department.

This books fab for people who haven't done any road trips around Europe. It's an easy read and gives some top tips for each destination. The only thing that could make it better is if it was a ring binder so you could keep the pages open when you're trying to do extra research. The maps sometimes cross over onto the next page so you lose a bit of it in the centre fold.

Great book with some amazing trips. The only problem I found was that I bought the book for some inspiration; but 99% of the trips I have already done or specifically decided not to do. Good as validation of my own planning of trips in Europe.

....a good starter for ten but not extensive

The product is brilliant, absolutely fab book but it has arrived with damaged corners. I look after my books extremely well so I am disappointed for it to arrived with damaged corners. Can't return as it is a gift for someone and I won't have time for a replacement to come out. Not impressed.