This is the greatest book gives you an upclose look at reptiles with out haveing to hold them. Every mom's dream book, my childern and I love it.

My one year old daughter has loved this book since she was a young baby. She loves looking at the realistic pictures of animals while I make the appropriate animal noises. It's durable, bright colored, and still a favorite.

This is the first time we have used an Eyewitness Guide and were pleased with the information, maps and suggested walking tours. The book is quite detailed and opinionated about hotels.

After reading some reviews, I bought two guides (just in case), since DK Eyewitness Guide was labled as "expensive". But I wound up using only DK Guide. It has everything you need. The information is easily accessible. The maps are great. Just perfect for a quick reference. You'll find yourself refering to it again and again while walking the streets of Amsterdam (I just couldn't deal with reading long pages of information (probably very useful) in Frommer's Guide).

The selection of restaurans was great. Every restaurant rated in this book that we went to was a hit.

I lived in Amsterdam for 1 1/2 years. I did not buy this book until after I returned to the states. It is amzing and very excellent. There are things in this book that I never knew about while living there. It has wonderful pictures and detailed information on EVERYTHING you need to know to enjoy this historic city. Such as walking tours, markets, museums, Architecture, Restaurants, hotels, plus history about Amsterdam, and much more. With all of this, there is informaion on transportation (tram numbers opening times, etc). The book also covers over 10 cities outside of Amsterdam, which is also helpful. If you are planning a trip to Europe and are stopping in A'dam, this is a must.

This is an amazingly useful atlas of all the countries of the world broken down into various key areas. It is now being published under the title The Financial Times World Reference Atlas. After looking for an updated version of this title for years I came across it on Amazon.co.uk site and it is also available from the US site. Hope this info helps others who have been seeking a recent updated edition also.

DK's World Atlas goes far beyond the usual call of duty for atlases. It also gives a realistic look at all of the countries in the world. I have had this book for about a year now. Each time I open it I discover something new. I have been interested in atlases most of my life, so I have seen quite a number of them. This one stands head and shoulders above the rest, and I will be first in line to buy the new version. I recomend this atlas for anyone. It is a valuable reference, especially for high school and college students. Indeed a wealth of information whose value outweighs its price.

Well sorted, and nice book. All th information is well placed with full biodata of country. Plus a well established world Atlas of the world

OK . . . I'm actually a travel book addict, and I bought four different (yes, I know it's excessive) guides for my recent trip to Venice. The DK guide was my favorite. It is completely engrossing, with actual pictures of the food, the palazza, many of the art works, etc. It's a perfect guide for a 'high points' look at the most touristed sights: the Basilica, the Doge's Palace, etc. My favorite feature turned out to be "A View of the Grand Canal." I actually sat with the guide open in my lap on the vaporetto ride from Piazalle Roma to my stop near the Salute and could watch as every important church and palace on the canal passed by. It was so much fun! And the guide is absolutely gorgeous! Even after my trip, I have enjoyed just flipping through the guide to take a look at some of the beautiful photos and drawings. It's a great souvenir in that it has photos of many things you are not permitted to photograph: the insides of churches, museums, etc.

So why only four stars? Well, the guide is actually a little light on more practical information, such as where you can get a good meal for a decent price. It's full of all the expected tourist recommendations (e.g., Harry's Bar), without telling you about how to navigate a good baccari like a Venetian (although I did think the pages which included descriptions AND photos of typical Venetian dishes was excellent). If you have a budget of a few hundred dollars a day to plop down on food, that may be ok. The rest of us will need some help. And while it may be an unfair criticism, the guide gives all its information in lire. Unless you want to carry around a currency converter to figure out the Euro equivalent, I'd supplement this guide with another. In fairness though, I'd like to give it 4.5 stars. It is really an excellent book.

The first time I went to Italy I only had this travel book with me. In fact, I don't think you need any other book when you visit this beautiful city. It's got pictures, maps, description, history, and guide for where to stay, eat, shop - depending on your budget. I spent four days and three nights sightseeing by myself in Venice - and it was great and exciting!! The guide was very helpful in helping navigate through the city's winding streets. Then again, there are signs posted everywhere on how to get to the main sites. The street names were also well posted. In fact, I used Eyewitness' map in the back of this book to plan my trip and visits to sites. It's a very durable book and will hold up in your normal wear 'n' tear during your travels. I went back the second time and only relied on this book. There's no need for any other guide.!!

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Summary:
Every Dorling Kindersley Guide has been a great and interesting book... and delightful to have and use, even if you are not traveling to that location, but are only interested in learning more!

The Guides are well organized in a logical and easy to follow manner. They are beautifully illustrated, well developed with accurate information (it is unusual for hotel and restaurant information to be that accurate), have enough history to help the reader understand the people and cultural background, and have a lot of useful travel information and useable maps in the appendixes.

The really great attraction to this book is several fold; it is:
............Very complete
............Easy to read
............Beautifully and artistically completed
............Good shopping, safety and other tips
............Gorgeous photographs too numerous to list.

Specifics:
The guides are organized as follows:

How to use this guide
Introduction to Historical and Geographical information
Geographical Regions
............Introduction Venice
........................Intro to Venice
........................Portrait of Venice
........................Through the Year (events, holidays)
........................History
............Venice Area by Area, each section includes:
........................Introduction to street by street area
........................Detailed pictorials of area buildings
........................Architectural drawings, pictures, cut-aways of buildings
........................Specific stops, historical monuments, churches, buildings, etc.
............Veneto Area by Area (same format as above)

Travelers Needs - includes full list with rankings and notes
............Hotels
............Restaurants, bars, cafes
............Shops / Markets
............Entertainment

Survival Information
............Practical
........................Tourist info., Etiquete, Personal Security and Health

........................Currencies, Telephones, misc info.
............Travel Information
........................Planes, trains and automobiles, signs
............Street Maps

............General Index
............Phrase Book

Discussion:
The book begins with "Introducing Venice", including a complete map, a review, the city's history, and Venice thought the Year - including events, etc.

Areas with an "At a glance" overview, then has subsections of specific blocks, or forums, then specific locations, churches, historical monuments, bridges, galleries, etc.

Architectural reviews include various views, and cutaways; given greater understanding and better perspective. They are all attractive, if not works of art - honestly.

The travelers' Info. offers good and valid info. on prices, currencies, customs, important words, etc. I used the reviews on hotel's restaurants and nightclubs, etc. and found they were useful and accurate, and helpful with my touring and site decisions

The books are so well thought-out that it has multiple maps, with various lookup tables, and the book's flaps are designed to be used as bookmarks for map pages.

Conclusion:
Each book in this series is a great help, and beautiful collectible resource. As the President, CEO of an International Meeting Planning Corporation we have many resources and techniques to learn about places we have meetings / groups at as well as the cities and sights. But, as a traveler, this book really is top notch and I would recommend it to anyone going on a personal trip, or wanting to learn about a city, or location. We have used some of these books to augment our research to investigate cities for our groups.

On the plus side, the Eyewitness guide is easy to read and gives you a more accurate idea of what to expect at the various attractions across Ireland, and has a decent section on Northern Ireland, which is often noticeably lacking in many other guides. However, it is VERY limited in terms of its listings of lodgings, restaurants and pubs. I bought the guide while living in my husband's native Northern Ireland on the recommendation of a friend, but found I had to continually refer to other guide books to find hotels, B&B and restaurants that normal people (those of us with incomes under $100,000/year) can afford. Also, the listing of hotels, etc., at the back of the book is rather frustrating, as you have to flip back and forth many times to determine if there's an accommodation, etc. near where you want to travel. Basically, it's a good companion guide, but not very effective on its own.

This guidebook is great for its pictures and detailed diagrams of major sites, neighborhoods, and buildings. The book is absolutely filled with brilliant photos that help visitors (especially first time visitors like myself) see what the sites look like. It also has photos of practical things such as roadsigns, the euro currency in all denominations, police cars, telephones, and even food. This might seem silly, but it's very helpful to know how to use their telephones and to learn which coins are which before going over there. It has a limited list of places to stay and doesn't go into detail about how to get to all the sites they cover. This is why I think this shouldn't be the only guide you buy if you're planning a trip to Ireland. It is definately one of the ones to buy, however. Another note: if you're like myself, and plan to travel light to Ireland, keep in mind that this book is rather heavy because of the thick, glossy pages - they're great for the pictures, but they'll weigh down your bag. Hope this helps!

Here's the drill: You're planning the trip, know you NEED a book - you head to the Travel Section of your favorite bookstore and begin the long process of paging through every one in stock. "Gee," you say. "They all seem good." Well, maybe it's just me... For our trip, we settled on 3 books just to cover the bases & ETG's Ireland was by far the best. The color coded indexing was especially helpful - each section has illustrated map w/icons resembling the major points of interest in the area, along w/major hwy's. This is followed by the down and dirty information for all the sites. The back of the book has all the practical info you need; rail, bus, taxi service, ticket info, customs, religious, etc. The indexing at the back is also helpful.
Bottom Line: This book went with us everywhere and we saw lots of other tourist toting too. It's colorful, informative, and will be a savior when planning your day trips...go for it and enjoy Ireland!

The only flaw with this series and it's minor is that there is little information on hostels. However, all the other information in this series of travel guides is wonderful.

As everyone else said. It's all you need. I am planning a European trip this summer. I spent hours and hours in book stores looking for the perfect travel book. This is it. I got one for Prague, Budapest, and London as well. The fifth city I'm going to - Berlin- comes out in May and I'm so glad I'll have a set.

I simply went to the library and bought Let's Go Europe for hostel information. Now that I know where I am staying in each city- I will bring these guides with me.

They are perfect. They break the cities down area by area showing many great sites in each area...including things I haven't found elsewhere. For example, the "Figarohaus" in Vienna. Being a huge Mozart fan- I want to see all the Mozart sites I can. The "Figarohaus" is where Mozart lived for three years in Vienna and where he composed my absolute favorite opera, The Marriage of Figaro- hence the name.

It's little things like that that can make your trip great as opposed to average.

Get it and no other...except Let's Go Europe which provides the missing hostel info. When I get to Europe...Let's Go will not be with me- only these guides will.

Eyewitness travel guides are invaluable when traveling to a city for the first time. Eyewitness VIENNA is no exception. I collect travel books and nothing compares to being able to visualize what your reading about. This book offers cultural and historical background along with all the all the pictures. It's virtually impossible to get lost in Vienna with this book. The maps throughout and the city map at the back are the best I've seen.

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.

I used this to plan my recreational activities but not hotel reservations on my vacation to France and found it to be very helpful. I especially appreciated the historical tidbits on different areas. My complaint is that the hotel recommendations are severely limited and the ones that were recommended were quite pricey...not what I would recommend for a traveller on a budget. The other complaint I have is that the book is heavy and for someone who is doing much walking, especially in Paris, this is too much to lug around. It's small but weighs a little over two pounds.

This book is certainly comprehensive, and was a fine companion through many parts of France, some not receiving very much coverage in some other guidebooks. The glossy paper and high quality colour reproductions are the usual Eyewitness standard.

I have used a variety of guidebooks in France - let's Go, The Rough Guide, Baedeker's, michelin, and this combines the best of them all.

To contrast one place, two books: Chartres. The Baedeker's includes a photo of the cathedral, and a smallish diagram showing the main structures internally and descriptions of the Royal Doorway and stained glass. There is some brief locational and historical material about the city of Chartres and mentions the well-regarded Museum of Fine Arts. Eyewitness, by contrast, gives the address, phone no and opening times of the museum (might or might not be helpful, depending on accuracy!) as well as its main attractions, as well as some brief info about Chartres. Then follow two double pages on the cathedral - one containing a 3-D type photo with cut-away, discussing all the important features (with some pictured), and a double-page spread on the stained glasses, including a colour diagram and key to all the windows. Eyewitness wins hands down. It is the same story with the general Michelin Guide to France, which also tends to be quite dry. Nevertheless, the regional Michelin guides are good if you are going to spend a lengthy time in one region. The cutaways, diagrams and maps in Eyewitness make it really special.

Eyewitness also includes great information about aspects of French culture and history, listings on where to stay and eat. If you want budget accommodation, it's a good idea to carry a Let's Go , Rough Guide or Lonely Planet type guide as well. The Practical information section is really a treat in Eyewitness guides, and this one does not disappoint : pictures of money, a pic of a standard French electrical plug even, how to operate one of the automatic, self-cleaning toilets (don't allow children under 10 to use them alone!), using phone card telephone, or a coin-operated one, and really useful for the driving tourist, typical road signs etc.

It' easy to rave about Eyewitness, with good cause. I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed with it (as long as you aren't using it as a prime source for accommodation, unless you have money to spare).

.
Summary:
Every Dorling Kindersley Guide has been a great and interesting book... and delightful to have and use, even if you are not traveling to that location, but are only interested in learning more!

The Guides are well organized in a logical and easy to follow manner. They are beautifully illustrated, well developed with accurate information (it is unusual for hotel and restaurant information to be that accurate), have enough history to help the reader understand the people and cultural background, and have a lot of useful travel information and useable maps in the appendixes.

But, the really great attraction to this book is several fold; it is:
............Very complete
............Easy to read
............Beautifully and artistically completed
............Good shopping, safety and other tips
............Gorgeous photographs too numerous to list.

Summary Negative:

The country books are too general to really satisfy all your needs in any given location. So, if your entire trip is spent in Champagne, or Brittany, for example, you will also want to get the specific guide for that city (but, the Paris Section is fairly good)

Guide Specifics:

The guides are organized as follows:

How to use this guide
Introduction to France
............Intro. to France
............Portrait of France
............France Through the Year
............History of France

Paris and Ile de France, Area by Area
............Intro. Paris and Ile de France

............River View of Paris
............Ile de La Cite, Marais, Beaubourg
............Tuileries and Opera
............Champs-Elysees, Invalides
............The Left Bank
............Farther Afield
............Shops and Markets
............Entertainment in Paris
............Paris Street Finder
............Ile de France

France by Region
............Northeast France
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Western France
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Central France and the Alps
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Southwest France
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............South France
........................Specific Cities / Towns

Travelers Needs
............Hotels
............Restaurants
Survival Information
............Practical Info.
........................Police, safety, buses, trains, etc.
............Travel Info.
........................Maps, tours, currency, etc.
............General Index
............Phrase Book

Discussion:
The book begins with "A Portrait of France", including a complete map, a review of France, it's history, and France thought the Year - including events, etc., and France's History (very interesting).

The Paris section is very good supports this book for those on a general tour of France (see Negatives below). But, one should get the alternative "Eyewitness Guide to Paris" if you wish better information on that city.

Region with an "At a glance" overview, then has subsections of Cities / Towns, then specific locations, churches, historical monuments, bridges, galleries, etc.

Architectural reviews include various views, and cutaways; given greater understanding and better perspective. They are all attractive, if not works of art - honestly.

The travelers' Info. offers good and valid info. on prices, currencies, customs, important words, etc. I used the reviews on resorts, hotel's restaurants and nightclubs, etc. and found they were useful and accurate, and helpful with my touring and site decisions

The books are so well thought out that it has multiple maps, with various lookup tables, and the book's flaps are designed to be used as bookmarks for map pages.

Negative:
The country-wide guides are by definition more general than the specific city guides. So, if you are going to Brittany, get a specific "Brittany" guide for better local specifics. If you decide to get the "France" guide for your 3, or 4 city tour of France, understand that this guide may be a little to general for all your local travel needs.

Conclusion:
As the President, CEO of an International Meeting Planning Corporation we have many resources and techniques to learn about places we have meetings / groups at as well as the cities and sights. But, as a traveler, this book really is top notch and I would recommend it to anyone going on a personal trip, or wanting to learn about a city, or location.

but in some themes leaves you a bit desoriented. This book is not realy intended for beginers, but is good enough as a camera-case reference guide. The ilustrations are nice, but I expected more brilliant works, and a some more pages dedicated to B/W pictures, not only mentioning it as a kind of film in the chapters dedicated to basic equipment and materials.
Anyway, it can be very helpful to find some hints about color composition.

I recently bought a Canon Rebel 2000 and need a small simple book with guidelines on taking better pictures in a variety of different situations. This book is WONDERFUL!!! Gives many "real life" examples and shows sample pictures of everything the author talks about. A must for anyone wanting to take better pictures.

This book is small enough to fit in your pocket or camera bag. Yet, it's full of useful tips accompanied by demonstrative full color photographs. Personally, I find it to be a great reference. On vacations, I always bring it along as plane reading material so that my skills are refreshed for travel photography. It's a must have for any amateur photographer.

Before I picked up this simple little Tome, I knew absolutely nothing about bonsai. I was studying eastern cultures and thought to myself, "Hey, I'm bored. I'll bet that this could be an interesting side diversion." I did a quick search on Amazon, and decided this book looked the most concise. It is very reasonably priced, who can't spare a meager $5 to decide if a new activity interests you? The book is very clear and has many helpful full color pictures. I believe that all topics essential to Bonsai are covered: potting, trimming, shaping, wiring, feeding, watering. It even explains the basics of more advanced bonsai techniques: growing the roots onto rock, intricate hanging patterns. A complete list of equipment if provided for the 'real' bonsai gardener, but I made due with tools that I had lying around the house. After 15 minutes with the book, you've probably absorbed the majority of the information, and you can get started. I think the total cost to get me started was something like: $5 Book, $4 Juniper, $3 Pot. So I'm out $12.00 and a few hours of time before I decide if I enjoy this hobby or not. My cheap little bonsai is six months old now, and it looks just as nice as any picture I can find in the book. So unless you are planning on making bonsai your life's work, 101 Essential Tips is probably the only book you will ever need.

If you like Bonsai, or received one as a gift, this is the book to get. Filled with 101 (literally) facts and tips, it is concise, streamlined and offers excellent pictures.

All critical areas are covered in the book: potting, trimming, shaping, wiring, feeding, watering (the most important perhaps!). If you want to take a crack at an advanced level of Bonsai care, it even guides and discusses growing the roots onto rock, and hanging patterns. There's also a few great tips that clears up the confusion about what sort of tools you *really* need.

This is a MUST to add to your Bonsai book collection.

I am just starting out in this hobby. I went to the bookstore and looked at many books before picking this one out. Most were priced at twenty dollars or more and I just didn't want to spend that much for something I was just getting into. I checked out several books from the library and read them, including another larger book by the same author. After reading them, I looked through this one and felt that most of the really important info in the larger books was in this one as well with less words and pictures. I am really happy with this book. The photos are clear and informative, and the information is just what I need to get started. Sometimes when starting out, it is better not to get too bogged down in details or you will never dive in. I think this book is just the thing to get a beginner started without making the whole bonsai thing seem out of reach and demanding. Eventually, I can see I will want a guide with more info on individual plants and their care, but this will get me started, and at a great price.