Eyewitness Vienna

by Stephen Brook

Book Overview

A cornucopia of culture, Vienna puts art, music and theatre at centre stage. Whether you want to explore the stunning gardens of Sch nbrunn Palace, gaze at Gustav Klimt's masterpieces at the Belvedere... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756661013
• ISBN13: 9780756661014
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Vienna is great but recived book copy not as the version I ordered , cover page not same, inside cov

request send me replacement or refund partially , due to broken

Great City, Great Guide

Vienna is a fascinating place to visit and this is a great book to use. For once I did not find the subdivisions as useful in this book. Vienna can be a very confusing city to get around until you get the hang of it and sometimes the street maps in the book cut off in odd places. Despite that the recommendations of things to see and do and the smaller maps were top notch. I saw almost everything this book recommends within one jam packed three day weekend. Highly recommend.

Excellent reference material to plan your Viennese vacation

There are two kinds of travel guides, and both are useful: those guides that help you to plan your trip, and those to carry in your shirt pocket when the shoes hit the pavement. This Eyewitness Travel Guide is one of the best, if not the best, guidebook to use for planning your Vienna trip before you go. There is a tremendous amount of material, so the book uses small fonts and thin glossy paper; still, it has quite a bit of heft and may not be convenient to carry in your shirt pocket (and if you think this is thick, you should see the China guidebook). But I read about a lot of attractions here that I couldn't find in other reputable publications, and found more details in DK. If you want a quick guide to the sights while you are out and about the town, you may want to consider the compact DK Top Ten Guidebook. The two books have a great deal of overlap, but there's some information that was unique to the top ten guide.

The Starting Place For Every Trip

My work has provided me with the opportunity to travel a good bit. I am the type of person who wants to get a working background for my destinations, both in terms of history and geographic layout. Because I work, I don't have a great deal of time to spend reading and studying different, often lengthy, travel guides before or during my trips. Because these guides are concise, beautifully illustrated, relatively compact, and impeccably organized, I cannot recommend highly enough the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides! The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide is THE guide I buy for every destination. Not only do I get a quick history and background of the destination, but I also will be provided with a visual guide to everything. The visual detail is really what sets the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides apart. The street maps of common destination points are drawn in dimensional detail so you will visually recognize when you "get there." This is particularly helpful when you don't speak the native language. The regional maps are colorful and concise. However, the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide really shows its stuff with the drawings associated with attractions such as museums. Their presentation of museum layouts allow the traveler who is short on time to quickly see the best of the museum within the time the traveler has to spend. Each DK Eyewitness Travel Guide has a good summary section in the back with practical information about where to eat, where to sleep, what to do, and how to get around. While I may supplement the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide with others for a more detailed travel guide, the other guide is only more to read, not more to see. Buy the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide first for any destination. Remember, no guide is perfect, and things change after printing. Sometimes paintings are stolen, loaned out, or being restored. Sometimes streetwork is being performed or buildings are being renovated. No other guide I know of updates information any faster than DK. Check the internet if you must get up-to-the minute information.

A bird's eye view of Vienna

As helpful and user-friendly as one has come to expect from DK Guides, this book on Vienna will help you track down key buildings such as the Hundertwasser Haus, the best coffeehouses such as the Cafe Sperl, and some interesting out-of-the-way places such as the Werkbundsiedlung that will make your trip more enjoyable. It also maps out the underground metro system and gives you an outline of the extensive trolley bus service. Of course, these guides are always subject to changes when it comes to hotels, restaurants, theaters and museum times, so one should check out the DK website for the latest updates. The maps key you into the districts of Vienna with beautiful illustrations, such as impressive cut-away sections of Stephansdom and other major buildings, along with photos of the buildings and quarters which comprise this great city. The guide also fills you in on the important dates and history of the city down through the ages to clue you into the meaning of the sites. It does lack a good overall map of the city, but these are easily available in Vienna. Best of all, you have a very nice way to recap your trip when you get home.

The best book on Vienna, period.

I can only second everything the other reviewer said about this book. It is so easy to use and so thoroughly cross referenced that we simply could not put it away while we were in Vienna. We finally gave up and just carried it around for instant referral at all times. My wife had lived in Vienna for a year as a college student, but she was amazed at the wealth of interesting and important information that we gleaned from this book. Its format is extremely visual rather than verbal, which really works for me. We are going back to Vienna next year and we will have our copy of the Eyewitness book close at hand at all times.