Lonely Planet Spain 8th Ed.: 8th Edition [Paperback]

I used to rely heavily on Lonely Planet and Brandt travel guides. They represented travel destinations written about by folks who had been there not too long ago, and who traveled on a budget similar to your own. The guides weren't things of beauty, but they had good information. The new Lonely Planet books look a whole lot better and have lots of color images, but this Spain guide has failings that would have been unacceptable in the old guides. The maps, text, and index do not match up completely, names are differently spelled and organized in the three different locations making it that much harder to find what you're looking for. The information looks good, but the organization is decidedly lacking. Maybe if you read it all ahead of time, scan and print the bits you're interested in, and cross-check everything online it would work, but if you plan to travel with this heavy tome in hand, you'll find it hard to locate the info you need in real-time.

This huge 896-page tome is a great resource for planning an extensive trip to and through Spain, for long-term visitors to the country, or for expatriates who live in Spain and want a detailed tourism reference that covers all parts of the country.

While Lonely Planet Country Guides have really set a standard in travel literature, I don't think this book is for everyone because it contains a ton of information that most casual travelers will never need or use. Those planning a short trip to catch the sights in Madrid, Barcelona with a couple days in Andalusia or Costa Brava will probably be better off with a less detailed book. Lonely Planet has the Discover Spain guide, which features shorter length, more pictures and illustrations, and more of a laser focus on top tourist sites. I am convinced Lonely Planet's "Discover" series is actually a response to the successful "Eyewitness" series by DK -- like their Spain guide.

But if you need depth and breadth, the Country Guide is the way to go. I have been using Lonely Planet since 1989, when I first bought the Japan Country Guide. Before getting this book, the most recent Country Guide I had seen was the 2008 edition of "Mexico". Even compared to just a few years ago, this latest-generation guide has important updates that make it more relevant and give it a welcome feel of modernity.

The first major change from earlier guides is the inclusion of a lot of "top" lists. The book starts out with the "Top 28 Experiences" in Spain. Each city- or region-focused chapter starts off with boxes titled "Why Go?", "Best Places to Eat" and "Best Places to Stay" on the first page. And there are countless smaller boxes within individual chapters, such as various "Top Five Beaches" lists or "Top Picks for Kids".

The other major, and welcome, change is full color printing throughout the book. The maps now bear a familiar resemblance to those on Google, color typefaces are used to highlight headings and keywords, and a few key tourist sites (like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Seville Cathedral, and the Mezquita and Alhambra in Andalusia) are presented in 3-D color computer renderings that map out the sights. (I'm convinced this is another response by Lonely Planet to the features in DK's Eyewitness guides.)

If you need depth, have real or borderline OCD when it comes to vacation planning, or just plain love reading detailed travel books, this guide is for you and gets five stars.

If you'll be spending a week or two in Spain for business or pleasure and you just want to have a good time, do yourself a favor and get something lighter. You may not be happy with the weight and extreme detail found here.

Do not buy the Kindle edition of Lonely Planet Spain, or any other Kindle travel guide book. Buy the hard copy instead.

I bought the Kindle edition and loaded it onto my i-Pad. Big mistake.

1. There is no index, so if you want to go the section on, say, Seville, you have to flip through the front of the book to find the table of contents, then try to remember what province Seville is in, then go to that province, then find Seville. Huge hassle when you're walking around Seville trying to find something.

2. Bad bookmarking system. In a regular book, I can use a piece of paper and write on it, "XYZ" so I know gthe directions to get to XYZ Restaurant. In the Kindle, the electronic bookmark lists the first word on the page where XYZ is mentioned. So the bookmark for XYZ might read: "In ABC town, the bus station is at ***." However, XYZ Restaurant might not even be in that town. Because the book is voluminous, its difficult to find references by either an index (see comment 1 above) or book marking.

3. The Table of Contents is silly. Instead of listing the provinces, you go to something called "On the Road". You click that then the list of destinations comes out. Why can't they just say, "Provinces, cities and towns of Spain".

4. The maps are a disaster on the i-Pad. Way too small and when you enlarge them, they turn blurry so the names can't be read. We ended up using regular maps because of the poor quality of the Kindle maps.

Problems of the Kindle aside, the book was standard Lonely Planet quality. BUT DON'T BUY THE KINDLE EDITION!