Subject: Re: The best travel guidebooks |
Dear Lucy and Ziners,
We toured the Cote d`Azur, Provence and some of the southwest of France this past Sept/Oct. and had brought Rick Steves guide book with us. It was perfect: Light, informative, concise,and reliable, therefore easily carried in our hands (for those of us who do not tour with a purse or carry all). It is reviewed every year so is really up to date. He also has very good tips on where to stay for the budget minded to the more luxurious accommodations and has a good mix from hotels to bed and breakfasts plus of course history, culture, what to see and do etc. An aside: We thoroughly enjoyed France and would go back in a heartbeat, but a word of caution. Now this can happen anywhere and has not soured us on Nice but we were a bit shaken. Within 5 minutes of leaving the airport in our rental car we were the victims of an attempted robbery (and assault?). We were circling the airport in order to find a gas station and suddenly this youth jumped in front of our car, driver side and made believe he was picking something off the road, his partner in crime ran across the boulevard and attempted to open the passenger door. He pulled so hard I thought the handle was going to remain in his hand. Thank goodness the door was locked. Within seconds they were gone. At the end of the trip we did visit Nice and needless to say we left our rental car in Vence and took the bus to Nice (and to Monaco the following day) and no purse dangling fromm this lady's shoulder. This was the only bad event in the whole trip. Caution is the order of the day. Gisèle and Gerry from Ottawa, Canada |