Book Description
60 Maps
Customer Reviews:
If you're buying 1 Baltics travel book, don't buy this one.......2007-07-27
I generally love Lonely Planet books, so was a bit disappointed with this one. It's good as a quick reference guide, but nothing much more. It doesn't have very much background or history about some of the area's most important places. If you're going to buy only one book before traveling to the Baltics, choose the Rough Guide instead - we ended up using it almost exclusively towards then end of our trip. Also, the hotels/accommodations selection in this edition is very poor.
Excellence .......2007-03-10
The book I purchased was delivered to my house in great condition. It was if I had just bought the book at a book store.
First Time Traveler to Lithuania September 2005.......2005-09-26
I found the Lonely Planet Estonia Latvia & Lithuania book very helpful on my first trip to Lithuania. Six women traveling, we felt very safe, the maps were well written and made our daily planning easy. Time distances on the bus were accurate. Information on customs made us feel more at ease. We looked for relatives because my grandmother left Lithuania 100 years ago and found them. A bus trip to the city she was from, visiting the Tourist Information Center(as was listed in the book), an English speaking person in the office and we asked for a phone book which listed two phone numbers with my grandmother's last name. Wow, thank you Lonely Planet.
Useful, but needs some work.......2004-09-27
As usual, Lonely Planet guides give the most detailed information on the "nuts and bolts" of travel (bus and train instructions, locations and practicalities.) We found this particularly useful in a region where we did not share a common language with the people.
However, tourism to the Baltic region boomed in 2004 with these countries' entry into the EU, making the book's hotel listings completely inadequate. I don't fault the authors/editors for not anticipating the boom, but rather comment that, for example, with only 3000 hotel rooms in Vilnius a guidebook now needs to list a lot more hotles so visitors can hope to get one of those now-coveted rooms!
The other drawback of this book is common to most other Lonely Planet titles: the information on cities, buildings, monuments, etc., is very dry (lacks color) and is overly terse. For such information, I have come to enjoy Rough Guides which usually include enjoyable walking tours of the major tourist areas.
Comprehensive and Concise.......2004-05-04
The authors managed to stuff everything you need to know in a relatively small book. I have been in the Baltics three times and know Latvia quite well, but this book will enrich my next trip (the relatives and locals can only do so much).
I recommed it.
Book Description
This thorough overview covers the history, architecture, folklore, customs, language, and cuisine of this fascinating country. The highlights of Riga are featured along with a guide to rural Latvia.
Customer Reviews:
Great Buy.......2007-03-10
The product was in excellent shape when I received it. The book looked as if it were new and bought right off the book store shelf.
Book Description
The Latvian capital of Riga is rapidly increasing in popularity. This guide covers its history and culture as well as practical details for visitors, including accommodations, restaurants, shopping, and entertainment.
Customer Reviews:
Excellence .......2007-03-10
The book I purchased was delivered to my house in great condition. It was if I had just bought the book at a book store.
Book Description
Introduction
The Baltic States - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - are far from being the grey, Soviet-scarred republics that many people imagine them to be. For a start, they're graced by three of the most enthralling national capitals in Eastern Europe, each highly individual in character and boasting an extraordinary wealth of historic buildings, as well as an expanding and energetic nightlife and cultural scene. Outside the cities lie great swathes of unspoiled countryside, with deep, dark pine forests punctuated by stands of silver birch, calm blue lakes, and a wealth of bogs and wetlands, all bordered by literally hundreds of kilometres of silvery beach. Peppering the landscape are villages that look like something out of the paintings of Marc Chagall, their dainty churches and wonky timber houses leaning over narrow, rutted streets. As you'd expect from a region periodically battered by outside invaders, there are dramatic historical remains aplenty, from the grizzled ruins of the fortresses thrown up by land-hungry Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth century, to the crumbling military installations bequeathed by Soviet occupiers some 700 years later.
Although the half century spent under Soviet rule has left Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians with a great deal in common, they're each fiercely proud of their separate status, and tend to regard the "Baltic States" label as a matter of geographical convenience rather than a real indicator of shared culture.
The Latvians and Lithuanians do at least have similar origins, having emerged from the Indo-European tribes who settled the area some two thousand years before Christ, and they still speak closely related languages. The Estonians, on the other hand, have lived here at least three millennia longer and speak a Finno-Ugric tongue that has more in common with Finnish than with the languages of their next-door neighbours. In historical and religious terms, it's the Lithuanians that are a nation apart - having carved out a huge, independent empire in medieval times, they then converted to the Catholic faith in order to cement an alliance with Poland. In contrast, the Latvians and Estonians were conquered by Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth century and subjected to a German-speaking feudal culture that had become solidly Protestant by the mid-1500s. From the eighteenth-century onwards, the destinies of the three Baltic peoples began to converge, with most Latvians and Estonians being swallowed up by the Tsarist Empire during the reign of Peter the Great and the Lithuanians following several decades later. Despite their common predicament, no great tradition of Baltic cooperation emerged, and when the three Baltic States became independent democracies in 1918-1920 - only to lose their independence to the USSR and Nazi Germany two decades later - they did so as isolated units rather than as allies.
The one occasion on which the Baltic nations truly came together was in the 1988-1991 period, when a shared sense of injustice at what the Soviet Union had done to them produced an outpouring of inter-Baltic solidarity. At no time was this more evident than when an estimated two million people joined hands to form a human chain stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius on 23 August, 1989, the fiftieth anniversary of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact - the cynical Soviet-Nazi carve-up that had brought the curtain down on inter-war Baltic independence. Baltic fellow feeling became less pronounced in the post-Soviet period when each country began to focus on its own problems, and it's now the differences - rather than the similarities - between the Baltic peoples that most locals seem eager to impress upon visitors.
How different they actually are remains open to question, with both locals and outsiders resorting to a convenient collection of clichés whenever the question of national identity comes under discussion: the Lithuanians are thought to be warm and spontaneous, the Estonians distant and difficult to know, while the Latvians belong somewhere in between. In truth there are plenty of ethnographic similarities linking the three nationalities. A century ago the majority of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians lived on isolated farmsteads or small villages, and a love for the countryside, coupled with a contemplative, almost mystical feeling for nature, still runs in the blood. Shared historical experiences - especially the years of Soviet occupation and the sudden re-imposition of capitalism that followed it - have produced people with broadly similar outlooks and, wherever you are in the Baltic States, you'll come across older people marked by fatalism and lack of initiative and younger generations characterized by ambition, impatience and adaptability to change.
The Baltic peoples today are also united by gnawing concerns about whether such relatively small countries can preserve their distinct identities in a rapidly globalizing world. The rush to join NATO and the EU has been broadly welcomed in all three countries, not least because membership of both organizations promises protection against any future resurgence of Russian power. However, locals remain keenly aware that they can only be bit-part players in any future Europe. Lithuania has a population of 3.8 million, Latvia 2.3 million, and Estonia only 1.4 million - hardly the stuff of economic or cultural superpowers. Combined with this is a looming fear of population decline in countries that share some of the lowest birth rates in the world. Such anxieties are particularly strong in Estonia and Latvia, where the indigenous populations are in many towns and cities outnumbered by other ethnic groups - particularly Russians - who were encouraged to move here during the Soviet period. Only 55 percent of Latvia's inhabitants are ethnic Latvians, and the figure in Estonia, at 65 percent, isn't much better. Eager to immerse themselves in the new Europe and yet profoundly concerned with the need to preserve their national uniqueness, the Baltic States find themselves at a challenging crossroads.
Customer Reviews:
Excellence .......2007-03-10
The product was in excellent shape when I received it. The book looked as if it were new and bought right off the book store shelf.
Correction.......2005-08-01
Number of Estonians is 68 percent, not 65 percent. Go pick up a Lonely Planet book instead!
Well written guide, but needs more details.......2004-09-27
The Rough Guides are usually written in a colorful, well-researched manner that makes them a joy to have along in order to learn about the places you are visiting while exploring the area, and this book delivers along those lines. Also true to Rough Guide form, however, the book lacks important details regarding transportation: how many buses, how often, where to buy tickets, best routes, etc.
The Baltic countries have experienced a major boom in tourism since EU membership in May 2004, and hotel rooms are booked far in advance. As such, Rough needs to expand their listings to include a larger percentage of hotels. In August 2004 we found all the hotels listed in the Rough Guide fully booked in all 3 Baltic capitals! Admittedly, we did not plan very far ahead, and to be fair to this book, we did not find a major guide with more complete hotel listings.
The Listings section in each chapter also provides a handy reference. In general, however, Rough should expand this section to make it really useful, as listings are a bit limited. They should also start adding sections such as: Cyber cafes with digital photo downloads, Where to buy a GSM SIM chip, and similar sections for the digital traveler, to really make the listings complete.
In each major destination, this book includes walking tours with some interesting information on buildings, churches and monuments, intertwined with history and cultural observations that makes for enjoyable reading and walks. We were glad to have this book along.
Customer Reviews:
Excellence .......2007-03-10
The product was in excellent shape when I received it. The book looked as if it were new and bought right off the book store shelf.
Average customer rating:
- Flying proofreading or editing, or both
|
Flying Visits Iceland Finland & the Baltic (Flying Visits - Cadogan)
Joan Gannij
Manufacturer: Cadogan Guides
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1860111939 |
Book Description
The perfect companion for those exploring Northern Europe, this guide takes visitors to the most dramatic scenery, beautiful cities, and buzzing clubs, ensuring they enjoy every minute of their flying visit.
Customer Reviews:
Flying proofreading or editing, or both.......2007-09-04
The combination of countries was almost ideal for the purpose of the trip I was about to embark upon. It included Iceland and Lithuania. I grew up in Lithuania, and often visit Iceland, but the first had been changing rapidly, so it is good to keep checking the facts, and there's always something new one can find in a travel guide, even about a country one knows well. It is also a good way to assess the quality of information in the book, checking against the familiar. In that respect, this guide did not inspire trust: quite many misspellings in the Lithuanian part, a wrong URL here, a wrong word there (Zemuoges for "strawberry" - should have been "braskes" as "Zemuoges" are for wild strawberries). It lists the individuals who helped out with fact checking (and, it seems, stories, some of them dubiuos), so I would not be happy if I were one of the ones in the acknowledements for Lithuania.
Still an OK guide, hence three stars.
Book Description
The Baltic capital cities of Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, and Kaliningrad offer a range of attractions that appeal to both tourists and business travelers to the region. Located within easy reach of each other, they are ideal for a multi-center trip or individually for that unusual short break while in Europe. Getting the most out of a short stay couldn't be simpler using this selection of the best sightseeing, accommodations, and restaurant options in all four cities. Walking tours, city plans, and half-day excursions make it easy for independent travelers to compile their own itinerary. A background to history and culture, and essential words and phrases in four languages are included. Compiled by Baltic States specialists, this guide ensures that visitors have all the essentials for an inspiring city stay.
Customer Reviews:
A great companion in the Baltics.......2003-10-01
This book has good all-around coverage of the three capitals, but where it really shines is in describing history/culture/architecture. Rather than reciting dry facts, this book really makes the past come alive and also gives a real sense of what these countries are like today as they transform. The authors' passion for their subject is infectious. And a lot of thought has gone into this guide - The Riga section even has a little map just to identify each of the Art Nouveau buildings!
Each section of the book includes brief firsthand accounts from those who were in these cities at critical times in their history. (The reminiscences from a former German resident of Kaliningrad are remarkable.) I've spent the most time in Tallinn but have also visited the two other Baltic capitals and this is definitely the book to use.
Invaluable!.......2003-09-23
Definitely the best regional guide that I've found. As someone who often travels to Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, I really appreciated the fact that there was so much well-researched information all in one place. I've just about worn out my copy.
Baltic Capitals- a waste of money.......2003-09-18
This book contained nothing that I could not get on-line for free. I consider this to be a complete waste of money.
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Books Index
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The Rough Guide to The Baltic States (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
St. Petersburg (Lonely Planet City Guides)
Russia & Belarus (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)
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