Question about RS Berlin & RS Germany books

Not the Berlin one, but it was still very helpful last fall in other ways. I doubt if any of the books have information about Covid. The situation and rules have changed repeatedly in the last two years, and will continue to. My guess is that the next round of books, being researched now, will have some general Covid-related information and point to websites for updated info as people plan their travels.

My guess is that the next round of books, being researched now,

next month:

Rick Steves is hyped. That’s not so unusual: Infectious joy is surely one key to Steves’s success as America’s kindly vacation guru. Still, when he leaves next month on a 40-day trip to update his European guidebooks — a ritual he used to perform each spring — it will be the first such journey since covid-19 erased his travel calendar, which explains his current level of euphoria. “Just to get back in the saddle has got me so filled with adventure, with energy,” he said. “I can hardly wait.”

also -

“It got to the point where there was too much information,” he said, noting that proliferating sources made it harder to know what was reliable. Researching a trip online can be a Mad Max infinity loop of unvetted user-generated reviews and self-appointed experts. Trading free trips for sunny features is common practice in the world of travel influencers, with little transparency about who is footing the bill for a given blog post or YouTube video.
While earlier travelers just needed some basic info, Steves said, guidebooks’ main value proposition might now be an escape hatch from that digital overwhelm. “Part of my job is to curate all the options — the glut of information — with a consistent set of values,”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/03/04/guidebooks-travel-writing-future/

There are no current guidebooks that can adequately give advice about COVID rules and so on. Your best bet is to use them for general information and then keep yourself updated online.

Having said that, RS does offer updates to each guidebook since obviously things do change. Here are the Germany updates - to find others, just search for "Updates" and the others will pop up. But it is important to not rely solely on guidebooks - not just for COVID info but for price changes, closures, hours and so on.

What I've been doing for my Germany trip is reading through several guidebooks (RS, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides), then updating information myself by going online. It's a bit cumbersome but ultimately safer.

The Covid situation is fluid and fast changing. I travelled to Germany at the end of November/beginning of December 2021, and Covid restrictions were changing on a daily basis, and differed among States in Germany. I found that visiting the web site and actual Tourist Information (TI) office in each city upon arrival, provided the latest regulations and how to comply with them. For example, in Nuremberg you had to have a negative Covid test within one day to enter a museum, in Berlin and Hamburg, you just needed proof of vaccination; Nuremberg cancelled their Christmas markets, Frankfurt held their markets, with some requiring proof of vaccination and others not.

Maybe the best advice a book can provide on travelling in a pandemic, is providing the website and location of the local TI, so one knows where to get the most up-to-date information. This was my experience.

Thanks everyone. Things are certainly fluid so it makes sense to look online.

Hi everyone , My husband Ed and I (ages 80+) I have been using R.S. travel books for close to 30 years. We do not leave the country without them! We are currently planning for Berlin and only have "Berlin Second Edition" published December 2018. It has been very helpful. but many of the local tour guides listed in the book are no longer in business. Having trouble finding tour guide whose uses a van as we cannot do long extensive walking tours anymore.
Anyone have current info they can share. Thanks

Having trouble finding tour guide whose uses a van

Granny - try searching for replies to previous questions similar to yours.

This guy, Jeremy Minsberg, is recommended several times: http://www.theberlinexpert.com/
If he doesn't do van tours, he probably can recommend someone who does.

Granny Nanny--

Germany highly regulates guides and drivers. My understanding is that a guide who drives must also have a commercial driver's license, as well as vehicle insurance that covers commercial use of the vehicle. So, it's pretty rare to have a guide who also drives. You will likely need to hire a guide and a driver.

The guide I highly, highly recommend for Berlin: Robert Sommer. Super interesting guy and great guide. He was the 15-year-old son of a fairly high ranking East German bureaucrat when the Berlin Wall fell. As a young adult, he was a punk rocker and squatter who fought Neo Nazis in the street. He went to university and earned a PhD in history with a thesis about prostitution in concentration camps. He contributed to the Ravensbrück concentration camp exhibit. He is married to a former member of Germany's Parliament. And... he gives tours! http://thetrueberliner.com/

He has a relationship with the good driver Jürgen who drives a van and who defected to West Germany from East Germany back during DDR days but now lives in the former East Germany again.

Hiring both is a bit of an expensive proposition, but a good experience.