Lonely Planet France (Country Guide)

My mom and I recently took a two week trip to France. While researching for our trip, my mom primarily consulted a Rick Steves France travel guide, and I downloaded the Lonely Planet France guide for my Kindle. We were both rather disappointed by the Rick Steves guide but found the Lonely Planet book very helpful!Prior to the trip, I found the guide very useful in making preliminary plans and decisions, and I liked how the guide was organized. The book's introductory material includes useful starting point information, like suggested itineraries, general information about the country, and a list of top 15 experiences. There is also a "Regions at a Glance" section. Taken together, the front end material was very helpful in narrowing down the plethora places to visit. Following the introductory material, the guide expands on each region in detail, with individual cities broken down into recommended sights, accommodations, food, activities, shopping, etc. The end of the book provides brief overviews on various topics on French history and culture, as well as basic travel tips.During our trip, my mom and I used the guide on my Kindle primarily for restaurant recommendations. The first Lonely Planet recommendation we tried was an ice cream counter in Nice called Fennocchio. The ice cream was fantastic, and there were so many intriguing flavors to try that we just had to come back for a sweet snack again the next day! After our success at Fennocchio, we tried a hole-in-the-wall sandwich counter in Arles called Fad'Ola. We enjoyed the sandwiches there so much that we delayed our departure from Arles by a few hours just so we could eat lunch there again the following day! Other fantastic restaurant recommendations from the guide included a delicious dinner at Le Gaboulet in Arles as well as dinner at Fou de Fafa in Avignon, which was our favorite meal of the trip.Besides food, we made some other great travel decisions based on information in this book. In Paris, we had a pleasant stay at the Hotel France Albion, which was recommended by the guide. The book also brought to our attention the Gorges du Verdon (the 'Grand Canyon of Europe'), and the tour we ended up booking there was one of the highlights of our trip.Since we had so much success with the Lonely Planet France guidebook, I purchased Lonely Planet Austria to plan my next trip. I hope the recommendations in that guidebook impress me just as much as my mom and I were impressed by our experiences in France!

I liked the ability to check out the maps and locations away from Paris. There is a lack of compact travel guides and Lonely Planet fills that niche, as well as "top ten" things to do, sights, etc. I typically buy these from Lonely Planet. However, the Great Britain guide I purchased is huge! (But it covers Scotland, London, the off shore Islands, Wales, etc)

This was a very useful travel guide with TONS of information organized very well. It is fairly heavy, but it probably helps to either take photos or remove the pages you need. We used some of there recommendations and were very pleased.

Information is good, but hard to find, with confusing indices and difficult navigation within sections. Maps are complete, but not in the sections and don't have good way to find sites referenced in the texts. Good for advance planning. Not as good for taking with you on the trip since finding immediate information is harder than it needs to be.

Muy completo

I bought this for my mom who I take to Paris from time to time and she really likes it.

The travel guide is excellent (5 stars) but the kindle version for Android is poor especially regarding maps (1 star).Get a printed copy of the book. Do not buy the electronic version.

Great for budget travel around France for 3 weeks. All I needed and nothing more.

A bit like the Hitch Hikers Guide, so much information; so few pages ! Easily the worst lonely planet I have bought over 40 years. The usual attention to detail and sound advice are all there, but because of the sheer size of the country it fails miserably on everything but large towns. We are driving down the Atlantic coast then cutting across to the Med. NONE of the little seaside towns we wanted information on are there. Nantes, wonderful; La Tranche Sur la Mer, not there! We have resorted to hiring a portable Wi-Fi and using a computer to consult "Trip Advisor" for information. Really....don't bother with this one.

Good guide books as always from lonely planet. My only criticism (everytime) is that i think it can be a little snooty towards places were i can imagine the region Author turning up in the rain, moody and with a headache and already deciding they hate the place.however that said, it never fails to make our adventures much more informed.

great

Great!

Useful guide to France