Rick Steves Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels 2003 
Product Description: - Rick Steves doesn t just list where to travel in Europe, he leads travelers through the Back Door, and reveals how to give every journey an extra, more authentic dimension. He shows travelers how to delve into European culture, make friends with the locals, and experience each region s natural wonders -- economically and hassle free. Rick Steves Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels 2003 is packed with opinionated advice on visiting top sights, such as Amsterdam s Van Gogh Museum, Bruges 14th-century belfry, and La Grand Place in Brussels. This book provides a healthy dose of Back Door intimacy with visits to local markets, community theaters, and family-run chocolate shops. Also included is a broad array of dining and lodging options, from cheery cafeterias and backpackers dorms to trendy cafes and elegant inns, self-guided walking tours that mix the famous and not-so-famous, practicalities, such as when to go, planning your time, estimated costs, red tape and taxes, and banking hours. This new edition has the most current information available in any European guidebook, based on research conducted during the summer before publication. It s Rick Steves again, that one-man Euro-dynamo. -- Chicago Tribune
Customer Ratings: - detailed and accurate. We carried the Frommers and the Rick Steves, but found the Rick Steves to contain more detailed, personal knowledge, was easy to follow, and his maps were clear and useful. It felt like he was standing beside us, anticipating our questions and concerns, giving us tips, etc. We have always used Frommers or Fodors and have been satisfied with both, but we are now Rick Steve s converts.
He also gives lots of historical background which we found interesting and helpful. We found ourselves, after a while, using only the Rick Steves book.
( An interesting sidebar: The Frommers book, when discussing the Anne Frank House, such an important and much visited site in Amsterdam, the author failed to even mention the basic fact that the Frank family was Jewish and that Anne and her family were persecuted because they were Jews. )
- Insider info for your trip. My fiancee and I used this book on our trip to Amsterdam and Bruge and it paid for itself in transportation savings. Whether by alerting us to the use of stippenkart for the trams or the easiest way to use public transportation to get to the main train station so we didn t have to use a taxi (again) and pay an obscene fee, we were in the know and grateful to be so. I already had a good idea of what I wanted to see in Amsterdam, but reading through the book gave me great ideas for some other unusual things to see (tour an actual private houseboat in the canals and the pipe museum, the low down on the coffe shops). Yeah, you ll look like a typical tourist dweeb carting this thing around everywhere, but the cultural notes and extra goodies you ll see from doing so are well worth it. Great example: one day we stumbled on the Red Light District on our own and wandered around and checked things out. Later we studied the map and details the author had laid out for the Red Light District Walk and thought Woo-ee! We missed the good stuff! We went back and saw some great things we would have otherwise missed.
- Rick Steves AnsterdamBruges and Brussels. This book is amazing and gives an indepth review of what to see. It also is completely revised from the earlier editions. I prefer Steves books to any other travel books on Europe.
- Great for the limited scope it covers. Rick and team do their consistently good job in helping with travel in the 3 cities covered. However, if you want to see anything else in Belgium you will need to purchase an additional travel book. I hope that in the future they will decide to include Antwerp, Gent and other areas. It seems they could at least indicate how to do other areas as day-trips from the major cities since the train system makes it easy to get there.
- Rick Steves Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels. An accurate and clear description of effective and well illustrated travel information getting through Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels,whether novice or experienced traveler. Excellent presentation of museums and collateral side trips to nearby cities. Succinct historical and current information. A practical common sense guide that mirrors the entire series of travel books Steves has published.
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Rick Steves Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels 2003 (ID: 1566914531)
