Snapshot Guides

Thanks for the info. I will be visiting Barcelona, Granada, Sevilla, and Madrid, so Rick's book with work for my needs. Opting for the entire 2010 book will save me a few dollars. As a related question, would any of the other eBooks (LP, Rough Guides, etc) be a good addition to the RS guide or do you normally just rely on the Wi-Fi for internet resources? This would be while I am in Spain, not the planning stages.

I don't think I would bother with purchasing any additional ebooks. I check out a lot of sources ahead of time, but once there I just check the internet if I need hours of operation or something. Every guidebook will cover the major areas, and they mostly have the same information with maybe a slightly different slant on what they each consider important. You might just look at the library and see what other guides say about a particular area, but my guess is that they aren't a lot different when you are talking about major cities.

My experience in Italy is that the Snapshot guides to the Cinque Terre and Hilltowns of Tuscany were the same content as the larger Italy book. However Italy was not available for the Kindle before we went in October (it is now), so I bought the snapshot guides, Venice, Rome guides, and tore a few pages out of my hardcopy Italy 2010 to cover Milano. One thing I experienced with the Kindle versions: the maps are not very easy to use as they do not show up as entire pages, usually split into 4ths. I copied a few to tuck into my travel folio to reference in touring sites like St. Peter's, Frari Church, etc., but next time I will copy a few more (neighborhoods), meaning i'll have to buy the paper copy, too. Might be better on an iPad.

If you look at the descriptions on this web page in the Travel Store, they appear to be word for word. For example, the Dubrovnik Snapshot description says: Rick Steves' Snapshot: Dubrovnik contains all the complete chapters on Dubrovnik (and nearby sights in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro) taken from the latest edition of Rick's Croatia & Slovenia guidebook -- and leaves out the chapters covering the northern destinations. So if all you want is what's in the south, Rick's compact Snapshot Guide delivers everything you'll need to know -- for half the price and a fraction of the bulk.

You might want to look at a copy of the RS Spain book before purchasing it. I bought one before my first trip to Spain, and when I got it home I found that it didn't say one word about any of the areas of Spain I was going to be in (central northern)! If you are going to be in the areas that RS prefers, I think I would just go with the whole book, depending on the cost difference. Size isn't going to matter to you if it's on an iPod Touch. In any event, you don't need both the whole book and the Snapshot guides.

If you are interested in history, there is one guide series that you can't go wrong with and it's the Michelin Green Guides. These guides are terrific. They are a great resource. I think that Rick is publishing the Snapshot guides so that if you're just going to Scotland, for example, you can buy the Snapshot Scotland and not have to buy the UK ETB. It's called segmenting your market. ; ) Pam

I bought the Snapshot Barcelona book because I am only going to Barcelona while in Spain. It says it is taken from the Spain book. I had no need for the entire book.