Rick Steves' new Vienna, Salzburg, and Tirol guidebook

Just got back from Vienna and Salzburg. I don't know about car rental prices because I would not even consider it unless I had a group of 4 or 5. I have been to Salzburg 4 times. Once renting a car and the rest using trains and buses. Parking there is a pain and you spend so much time and expense doing it that you may waste valuable time not being able to see what you are wanting to see. The buses and trains there are very good, cheap and easy to navigate. Our train to Salzburg from Vienna was no transfer 2 hours and I forget the price right now but it was very reasonable. The food prices in both Vienna and Salzburg were much cheaper than 50 dollars per person and we ate at very good restaurants. The hotels have great breakfasts which are usually included in the price. We then would have a snack from the store for lunch and dinner at a nice restaurant for around 25-30 dollars each. We don't drink wine so that may make a difference if you do. My round trip airline ticket purchased in Feb for travel in June was 1350 each. The Mozart dinner concert in Salzburg was expensive but was worth every dollar spent. Have a great trip. Hope this helps.

I am sure that the weekly car rental prices are not up to date. Airfares also have risen significantly since he wrote this edition. This was published when Covid restrictions were still in place and therefore plenty of people were afraid to travel.

Took me about 14 weeks to get my passport renewal.

For more information, we already discussed this at length on Emily's thread.

My daily meal expenses are 50E or less. How much do you spend?

Do you think it should take less time to renew a passport? There have been a number of threads this spring/summer from people who were more than 6 weeks out waiting for their renewal to come.

Adrienne, I appreciate the feedback you are providing.

FWIW, my expenses are all in keeping with Rick's books. My daily meal expenses run around $40-50. My last two round trip flights to Europe have both been in the $900 to $1000 range. My car rental for 17 days (about 2 1/2 weeks) was around $900. And from everything I've been reading on the passport threads, passport renewals are ranging from 6 weeks and on.

I've made some edits in this thread to try and keep the discussion a bit more focused.

And as it relates to moderation of this forum, we have no problem with addressing inaccuracies in our guidebooks. Things always change from the time of research to the time of publication, and it's helpful for others to know what sort of things may have already changed. Also, it may be more productive and can help prevent the need for moderation if more specifics are provided to lend context. Broader statements tend to invite disagreement which can lead to arguments. Sharing your own experience is best. E.g. What seems off about an average of $50 for meals in a day? Do you picnic, eat out for every meal, or something in between while abroad? Is the flight range too high or too low, what time of year are you flying, and are you flying e.g. direct from JFK or via multiple transfers from Tucson? Those are just examples.

Thanks, everyone.

Mardee, earlier you posted a comment that seems to have been removed, but this is what you wrote:

"Carrie, that's fine - I just thought that she had covered her comments about her perceived inaccuracies very thoroughly in Emily's thread, so I was curious why she started a new one, only to post the same types of comments.

FWIW, my expenses are all in keeping with Rick's book. My daily meal expenses run around $40-50. My last two round trip flights to Europe (Germany and Scotland) have both been in the $900 to $1000 range. My car rental for 17 days (about 2 1/2 weeks) was around $900. And from everything I've been reading on the passport threads, passport renewals are ranging from 6 weeks and on."

To clarify, my post was started on June 22. Emily's post was started on June 23. Therefore, my post predated Emily's post.

When will travel authors start a choice of paper or digital online edition which could be revised when a change occurs. I agree the cost of books are going thru the roof and the information should be close. Is this question only discussed by the we crowd. What did that reply mean?