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Guidebooks for a Rhine cruise


need2travel1
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Can anyone recommend a good guidebook for a cruise on the Rhine?  We are on Uniworld's Castles on the Rhine itinerary (very excited).  We always use the Rick Steves guidebooks but since this itinerary encompasses  several different countries I'd have to buy about 3 different books just for a small blurb about each area.  Any/all suggestions welcome!  Thanks!

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35 minutes ago, Mikecs said:

'Eyewitness' guide books for IMO are best for Europe giving very detailed information and easy to follow maps if you want to go 'Off Piste'.

I do prefer the Eyewitness guide books. I always get confused on what "bind" to buy though. One day I will order one that is paperback and another that is flexibound.

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2 hours ago, Coral said:

Sounds illegal?

 

As long as the person scanning and using them isn't re-selling the material, I don't see the problem.

 

Roz

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I like the Dorling Kindersley guides as well. Here is the catch with all the standard guides for land tours and the Rhine maps. They are Basel to Rotterdam. I was wondering, have past cruisers got booklets on the ship? We received a nice one covering all our stops.

 

If you are happy with a map - perhaps to begin with - of the Rhine, go for Schöning Verlag map of the course of the river. They are printed in Germany and come in different languages. Amazon should have it. Under 10 euros. The author is Andrew Cowin. There is supposed to be a map Basel to Amsterdam but I cannot get more info on it.

 

I like the idea of just copying from Rick Steve's book. Sounds very practical.

 

notamermaid

 

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23 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Find someone who has cruised with Scenic as you get a guide book in your cabin for each cruise you do.. CA

I think AMA does it too. (I know they did for my Mekong cruise.)

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You don't need out of date (as soon as they are published) guide books.

 

Just take Notamermaid along as your PPG (Private Personal Guide), she knows more about "her" river than many armchair guidebook writers.

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23 minutes ago, G.M.T. said:

You don't need out of date (as soon as they are published) guide books.

 

Just take Notamermaid along as your PPG (Private Personal Guide), she knows more about "her" river than many armchair guidebook writers.

Blush...

 

But to be honest and I know G.M.T. is only half serious anyway, I have never been to either Basel or Amsterdam.

 

Taking me as a guide would be a bit like getting onto a ship with the captain of Blackadder 2, Edmund hires Redbeard Rum to sail to the Cape of Good Hope. Blackadder only wants to go to France - sailing further is too dangerous. Well, they get on the ship and find out that Rum does not even know the way to France, he only ever takes people round the Isle of Wight till they are giddy. 😀

 

Later, things turn out far worse than planned, admittedly, Rum is a bit madder than me.

 

Guide books have indeed a tendency to be outdated fairly quickly... For very specific planning the tourism websites of the towns you will visit are a great source.

 

Other than that, as suggested by past cruisers, the booklet you are sent by the river cruise company.

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

 

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3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Guide books have indeed a tendency to be outdated fairly quickly... For very specific planning the tourism websites of the towns you will visit are a great source.

 

notamermaid

 

I don't think that guidebooks are useless.  Unlike the tourism websites, they curate for you. I use guidebooks to give me the highlights, and then follow up with the websites to confirm the hours, or any closures.

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10 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I don't think that guidebooks are useless.  Unlike the tourism websites, they curate for you. I use guidebooks to give me the highlights, and then follow up with the websites to confirm the hours, or any closures.

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that, I really meant the emphasis on the word date, i.e. opening times and similar things. I used a guide book only yesterday and after checking locally, found out that the opening times had changed. The map I suggested is definitely not updated every year and re-published, but serves its purpose as a general overview very well.

 

notamermaid

 

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AMA, Viking and Emerald certainly send you a guide book of the places you will be stopping at  with your final itinerary generally 3-4 weeks prior to sailing so you can peruse things that may particularly interest you. If this is a first sailing on any particular river generally the program is so packed  you generally don't have time to do your own thing, But if you have a Pre or Post stopover for a few days then I would recommend the DK Eyewitness guides.

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4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that, I really meant the emphasis on the word date, i.e. opening times and similar things. I used a guide book only yesterday and after checking locally, found out that the opening times had changed. The map I suggested is definitely not updated every year and re-published, but serves its purpose as a general overview very well.

 

The guidebooks the ships send aren't updated very often, but I don't remember seeing the kind of details that go out of date.  Rick Steves, OTOH, has a section of his website with updates to each of his guidebooks that even allows you to keep using older editions for some time.

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6 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

The guidebooks the ships send aren't updated very often, but I don't remember seeing the kind of details that go out of date.  Rick Steves, OTOH, has a section of his website with updates to each of his guidebooks that even allows you to keep using older editions for some time.

I have had a look at the updates on his website (Germany section). They put a lot of effort into it.

 

So Rick Steves has never done a "Best of Rhine river cruising" book? With river cruising being so popular among his fellow countrymen these days it seems hard to believe.

 

notamermaid

 

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1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

I have had a look at the updates on his website (Germany section). They put a lot of effort into it.

 

So Rick Steves has never done a "Best of Rhine river cruising" book? With river cruising being so popular among his fellow countrymen these days it seems hard to believe.

 

notamermaid

 

Rick Steves only recently started his cruise guides (Mediterranean and Scandinavia & Northern Europe). That was already a departure from his style of travel. River cruising, particularly with included excursions is even more of a departure. He might do it in future, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

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I wish I was more tech savvy.  I do my research on the web then make a 3x5 card for each day. Sometimes it takes 2 cards if we have lot planned.  I include costs, open/close times, suggestions on places to eat and souvenirs to look for, bus and tram #’s, etc.  I do have offline maps loaded for major cities. While not high tech the cards are pocket sized and keep us on track.

 

The DH is not into details but he’ll ask “what are we doing today? “. I hand him the card and he gets a quick idea of what’s on the agenda. ( I do discuss prior to the trip once with him to make sure he likes the plan and give him choices at that time).  After that brief discussion he’s content to let me do the planning.

 

The great thing about river cruising is I don’t have to plan each day....just a few ideas on some stops where we’ll have more free time and our days pre and post.

 

back to op...I used to buy guidebooks too.  But information is free on line and more current now. Top 10 pocket guides have great maps and info on the top 10 things to do in major cities around the world with details so that’s what I’d buy if I was not using my phone or web searches. It also list restaurants, hotels etc.  I looked for a river cruise guide book but all I found were pre planning books ( comparing lines etc ) with very little on what you’re actually going to go and what to see.

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We get all of our guidebooks from the library now. We still have a big shelf full of ones that we've bought in the past. They are hopelessly out of date now. But they look nice in our travel room at home!

 

Chris also makes index cards so that she has a place to keep all of her information, very similar to what cruiselvr04 describes above. The only difference is that I am the transportation planner, so she doesn't have to worry about bus and tram numbers. I do all of that.

 

We start with guidebooks then do the rest of our research online. So the index cards are a good summary of all the different information sources. She organizes them by area though, not by day. And she keeps them for future reference. I bought her a nice box with dividers, so that she can store all of her cards for the "next time" we visit these places. Some of those cards have been on quite a few trips with us!

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Thanks Everyone!  I'll check out the books recommended above & also try printing out some things online.  I love the "old fashioned" guidebooks though.  I usually rip out the pages for the places we'll be visiting so I don't have to carry the whole book & then use them in the photo album I put together when we get home.   Yup, "old fashioned" on that too-and I'm only 48:)

Now, on with the search...

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