Additional Tour book worth it?

In my opinion, No. You will be there on a tour, you have only limited free time, so if the guide book covers the one or two things you want to see, that is about the best you could expect. The other things in the guides either don't apply (Hotels) or more guides will not help.

If you keep the guides in digital form, (Kindle) and you don't mind the cost, then why not, but I would not haul multiple paper books with me.

You could also see if your library has those individual books and you can flip through them to see if there's information you want or to decide if you want to buy them.

Thank you, Paul and Mary.

I appreciate you both taking the time to answer my question. I was wrestling with it and my mind can now rest. :)

Rick Steves also answers this question in the "Is This the Right Book for Me?" section of the Eastern Europe Guidebook product page.

This is the comment regarding Prague, with similar ones for Vienna and Budapest:

"Should I get Rick's Prague guidebook (or Prague Pocket guide) in addition to this Eastern Europe book?

"If you're spending only a few days in Prague, Rick Steves Eastern Europe is all you're likely to need.

"If, however, you're spending four days or more in Prague, or at least a week in the Czech Republic as a whole, the extra information in Rick Steves Prague can be worthwhile."

I would not buy guidebooks. Use the internet instead. These are the websites I use to gather initial info planning our trip: www.ricksteves.com, www.frommers.com, www.fodors.com. I also use the forums on those sites. www. viator.com and www.tripadvisor.com has good info on tours. The one I liked the best was www.timeout.com which has lists of the best hotels, restaurants and tours. We don't bring any books on our trips but use www.timeout.com to check out day to day activities we can add as well as recommended restaurants.

Hope this helps.

P.S. we are going on the same trip in May.

Thank you CWSocial and Katie.

Katie, thank you for the links. I used timeout years ago when I lived in NYC. I never thought to use them in Prague, Budapest or Vienna!

I have been using YouTube a lot to try to learn the transportation systems in the three cities.

May was my first choice for 2025 but the trip came about in 2024 spur of the moment when I found a good fare playing around with google flights. :)

Guidebooks are good in general but I would also advise checking online the opening and closing hours of any museum or site you plan to visit including days that the sites might be closed.

Are you going on a RS tour or are you traveling on your own? Sounds to me like you are traveling on our own. If so, I might purchase a different guidebook, not RS. Such as Lonely Planet or Michelin Green Guide or Rough Guides, as examples. In my experience with RS guidebooks, Rick always omits some destinations, sites, etc. So I like using 1 or 2 other guidebooks in addition to RS to get other perspectives. I like using guidebooks because the information is in an organized, orderly fashion. I do get ideas from travel blogs, too, but I like the organization of guidebooks.

Thanks, Mary. I got caught up short in Venice by not doing that and I appreciate your reminder.
I used RS’s guidebook to write down days—but it was published in 2020! Thank you for your post. I will recheck everything.

I'd just add that the publication date for the next version of the Eastern Europe guide is due out December 2023, which will have more current prices and information than the one you have now. The publication update info is included for every guide under the "product details" tab on the guide's sales page on this site, see e.g.: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/eastern-europe-guidebook

I'd also suggest borrowing the individual guides from the library, or checking them out at an old fashioned book store. Also you can usually see the table of contents and a sample of the book in the Amazon kindle store (there are images and TOC for the updated 2023 Central Europe guide there now, because it is available for preorder https://www.amazon.com/Rick-Steves-Central-Europe-Republic-dp-164171557X/dp/164171557X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk)

I would suggest buying or borrowing guidebooks from a different company - Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Fodor's, whatever - they will give you a different perspective.

A sightseeing tip: If you have the time when you are in Prague, be sure to visit the Vysehrad district. This is where Prague was born. We love this area! There is a beautiful cemetery where famous Czechs are buried; the beautiful St. Peter & St. Paul Church; and the remains of a fortress walls. Vysehrad is on a hill and overlooks Prague and the Vltava River.

Use the guidebooks for recommendations for restaurants and things to do etc but use their website to confirm the address which will be under Contact/Kontakty. Speaking for Prague, you'll find that listed places are still here but have moved locations since the pandemic. I suspect this will be the same for the other cities. The guidebooks may not get updated in time and this will be an issue if you are using older versions.

I've no knowledge of those 3 cities but will say that if you do buy the individual books or the latest edition when it comes out, I'd go with the Kindle version so you can read it on the Kindle app on your phone. This was useful to me in Verona on an RS tour. The guide didn't know where the public restrooms were and suggested people go to a restaurant for lunch and use the facilities. I didn't want a restaurant meal and local toilets were not showing on googlemaps. I did have the Italy guide book on Kindle, pulled it up and on Rick's map of Verona...yea!! He had the public facilities marked. They were pretty nice and easy to find. NORMALLY I do not think much of his maps as they are so general but this time it saved me! (And I think he now orients them the way God wanted with North at the top, lol!).

I have also been using YouTube for our trip to get a sense of the cities we were visiting in May. Lately I have been watching the videos to determine what everyone was wearing in those cities to determine what I should pack. The videos showed that women were wearing cross-body purses or stylish back packs, jeans tennis shoes or boots. Scarves and rain jackets were also popular. No doubt dress in layers.

Wow! Thank you so much, in no particular order, Fred, Pam, Jason, KMkwou(I couldn’t read my writing) CL, Estimated Prophet, and Katie!

I did what you recommended and found an old Lonely Planets book on Hoopla. I was amazed at the different information provided than the RS book, for instance Tram#s. That put me online and I now know which Tram line is “mine”. I don’t have its exact stop location, but I have the courtyard and with google maps I know the route from the hotel to the courtyard.

I also went on-line and verified times and days for entrance, but will do that again as my trip isn’t until next September.

I will look for Rough Guides at the public library. Always good to have a recommendation.

I will also look at adding the hrad ( I forget the spelling) to my itinerary. I’m staying in Lesser Town/Mala Strana so it’s on my side of town.

I apologize for my late thank you. I got so caught up in my Lonely Planet, Googling, and You Tubing, that I forgot my manners. Your replies were much appreciated and really helped me out.

Rick's guides are very limited. He reviews his favorite places and doesn't mention others. You have to take the Rick Steve's" part of the "Rick Steve's Europe" title very literally.

I find a quick glance at the major sites/sights he mentions to be worthwhile if a city is new to me, but I have never found the guides valuable for developing a full itinerary suited to my preferences. I also read his reviews skeptically, having found his opinions and certainly his priorities frequently different from mine. That's OK - I define my own Europe which is not always RS's.

Ordtraveler,

I found his Italy books to be more helpful than this Eastern Europe book as he had detailed instructions on how to read your train ticket, read the arrival and departure boards and how to use the validation machines for public transportation. I guess by covering so many countries he couldn’t do that as in-depth in this book. I’m no longer a novice so i can google extensively. I even found a mistake in his Prague section where he has mixed up the Prague words for North and South.

I realized he had not covered Vysehrad at all in his book. I had to go to Lonely Planet for the that!

I do find I like the layout of his books the best. I’m not sure what it is. And, I am so glad he provides this website so I could ask and get the recommendations I got.

aasbill, I certainly agree with your approach to research! As for layout, I like the quick overviews in the RS guides that highlight the major points of interest. Beyond that, I often find him too "wordy", but that's his style. The books' popularity suggests others enjoy it.

Not everyone realizes that Rick didn't intend his books to be all inclusive. The Germany guide, for example, ignores Schleswig-Holstein. I don't know if it's included now, but 10 or so years ago, my travel companion refused to visit St Denis in the Paris 'burbs because RS didn't mention it. Her loss, but what a sad thought that RS had the final word on her trip!

I'm going to agree with many of the other posters and don't limit yourself to just what RS says. He does a good job but he only includes what he finds interesting. There may be things to see and do in those cities that he doesn't even menion....or gets wrong.

aasbill, I am happy to hear that Lonely Planet has information on Vysehrad.

We first visited Prague in 2003 when our daughter was studying there for a semester. She took us to visit Vysehrad because that is where her classes were held. Otherwise, we would not have known about it. We visited on a second visit, too. One of our favorite places in Prague. And both times we visited it wasn't crowded. Not sure if it's become more well known now.

Frank II & kmkwoo,
Thanks for the info.
Now I am really excited to explore Vysehrad!

The good thing about old places is they don’t change. Their hours might, the admission practices might, their prices will, but the buildings unless something tragic happens will remain, so my old Lonely Planet on hoopla and some googling will do me well.
I noticed that Lonely Planet had the metro stop and I wasn’t going to use the Metro.

More googling ahead to learn my route :)

Sent you a PM with a link for Vyšehrad Cemetery which explains the cemetery layout, sections, grave numbering etc

sort of late to be saying this, but get the Eyewitness Travel Top 10 for Budapest. You will appreciate it when you are out walking around the city.

Thank you, Mr. E.
I’m not leaving until Sept 2024, so your comment is not too late at all! I will look for this guide. I used a similar one for Rome, IIRC.