Let's Go 2007 Spain & Portugal (Let's Go Spain and Portugal) | 
 enlarge | Author: Let's Go Inc.
Publisher: Let's Go Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $22.99
Buy Used: $0.80
You Save: $22.19 (97%)
New (4) Used (22) from $0.80
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 611303
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 800
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0312360894
Dewey Decimal Number: 914
EAN: 9780312360894
ASIN: 0312360894
Publication Date: November 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Ships within 24-hours, Monday-Friday. Your satisfaction guaranteed.
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Product Description
Packed with travel information, including more listings, deals, and insider tips: - CANDID LISTINGS of hundreds of places to eat, sleep, drink, and dance
- RELIABLE MAPS to the hot nightlife of Ibiza and the classic cathedrals of Leon
- TIPS on singing fado like a Lisboan and dancing flamenco like an Andalusian
- HIDDEN TREASURES, from off-the-wall art installations to wild small-town festivals
- GREAT ADVENTURES, from surfing in Lagos to scaling mountains in Roncesvalles
- A SPANISH PHRASEBOOK and a handy guide to tapas
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| Customer Reviews:
 Usable, but in no way competitive with the two major independent guidebook lines November 9, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Like many independent budget travelers, I have usually depended on Lonely Planet guidebooks for advice. But with that company's decision to focus more on a middle-class demographic and leave backpackers behind, I have been exploring other guidebook lines. In preparing for a transit through Spain in the course of hitchhiking from Germany to Senegal, I checked out the 2007 Spain guidebook by Cambridge, MA outfit Let's Go. I was very disappointed.
Some flaws of the guidebook are likely found throughout the Let's Go line. What first offends the reader are the advertisements spread all throughout the book. While looking for travel guidance, one must avoid sales pitches for mobile phones, ISIC cards, and hostel-booking websites. The publisher claims that placement of advertisements is done by a separate agency, and the writers do not endorse or get kickbacks from these companies, but it makes the whole production look amateur and unreliable.
I was hoping that Let's Go might show travelers the new, cheaper ways to travel that have come with the rise of certain Internet communities. Indeed, Let's Go is the only guidebook that mentions hospitality clubs. But here, they inexplicably recommend a hospitablity club that is moribund, GlobalFreeloaders, instead of suggesting the easy combination of HospitalityClub and Couchsurfing. Hitchhiking is getting easier than ever thanks to Internet compendia of tips on places to stand and signs to hold, but Let's Go doesn't mention any of that. In fact, the section on Hitchhiking is several paragraphs of "It's dangerous, don't do it", which at least in the European Union, of which Spain is a part, is irresponsible hyperbole. Lonely Planet, at least, gives a standard boilerplate "We don't recommend hitchhiking" before giving some general local guidance.
The travel direction that Let's Go give seems concerned mainly with boozing instead of any real contact with local culture. Throughout hostels, those impersonal spaces where one only encounters other foreigners, are listed as ideal places to stay in a given community. The company claims that their charter allows them only to employ current Harvard students, which means that the writers are not the sort of "travel as lifestyle" gurus I would prefer to get guidance from, but rather people who undoubtedly visited these places for short-term relaxation.
In terms of matters specific to Spain, I found that the information here is nowhere near as detailed as in the 2007 guidebooks by Lonely Planet and the Rough Guides. Both include information on how to enter Morocco from Algeciras, for example, while the Let's Go does not. While the Canary Islands are covered, Spain's possessions in North Africa are not. All in all, get the Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide. Both of those lines are no longer focusing only on the budget travel, but are still more useful for a sincere and curious traveler than Let's Go.
 Backpacking Son January 28, 2007
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
Our son last summer toured Europe. He took 3 tour books along on his backpacking vacation. He discarded 2 of the other tour books and only kept-- Let's Go tour books. This summer he will be going to England and Spain and the only book he wanted was this tour book. By the way he is 32 years old and an engineer and wishes to try other countries but again only with Let's Go. REMEMBER Make sure the book is the year that you go.
Enjoy!
GOOD CHOICE January 18, 2007
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is the second Let's go buy, it's perfect to use in trips around the world...many traditionals and alternative tips, don't forget yours....
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