I bought this guide to help with some mad dashing I had to cram in for a couple of days in southern Spain. It has a lot of routes, some of which are overlaid, so you pretty much have to review all of the surrounding travel routes to be sure you have the best plan of attack. It needs at the least an overview map of all routes to expedite such a search. Then, what I found was it was usually the cities NEXT to the ones the guides recommended that were a lot better. Like Cesares? Jeez, drive to Gaucin instead! A million times the charm there, plus, if you bought a guide for driving, you like to drive so you'll love the hairpin turns and infinitely better scenery. Gaudix? Big parking mess, and the sites were mostly been there/done that. But about a mile away is the absolutely charming village of Purallema (might have spelled that wrong), with its own "Barrio Troglidista," a huge enclave of homes built into the sides of the hills--and this town also has many boffo pottery stores with much better prices than I saw anywhere else. Then, I also followed a beach town route southwest of Granada, and the guide certainly did not prepare me for traffic and parking that was absolutely ridiculous (and this was in Fenruary). I might also comment that at point the guide instructs you to see various sites in larger cities, such as the Alhambra in Granada. Believe me, nothing in this guide will prepare you in the slightest for a drive through Granada looking for the Alhambra. You want to do that, run it on Google or Mapquest before you even leave your house. Last, the guide did not warn me that the southern coast road just west of Almeria was probably worse than taking a drive through Gary, Indiana.
I did this crash course in Spain driving because I want to go back to Spain for a long family driving vacation. In the areas I toured I think I now do have somewhat an idea of what I'd like to redo more thoroughly, but believe me, it's not because of this guide--it's almost in spite of it. I'd say look at this in a bookstore and mark interesting places on a map you've brought, and then be sure not to buy it.
