Rick Steves France 2016 Paperback – December 8, 2015

In the opinion of this frequent traveler, Rick Steves's guides are the ONLY ones you need if you're going anywhere in Europe! In the past, I've bought two or three guidebooks for the same country before I felt like I had all of the information I needed. Once I found the Rick Steves books, I have never bought another vesion of any travel guide again. The Rick Steves guides are so thorough, that the only way you could get better, more complete guidance would be to have Rick or one of his tour guides along with you.Each guide takes you through the country city by city, including what to do before you leave home, what to pack, where to stay, where to eat, and what to see. He'll tell you what sights will need advance booking or reservations. There are walking guides for cities, as well as detailed walking tours for museums, churches, and other major sights. For the history lovers, there are beautifully written sections to educate you about what you're seeing, which makes your experience measurably more meaningful. The information is so detailed that Rick tells you things like, "When exiting the front of the train station, turn to your left and walk 20 yards to the bus stop. Take bus #11 to go directly to the castle." It doesn't get any easier to plan your sightseeing than that! And of course, there are simplified city maps to help you navigate once you get there, usually marked with his suggested walking tour route.Other helpful sections include tips about money, shopping, climate, and transportation. But one of my favorite parts of Rick's books is that he tells you how to really see a place by becoming what he calls a "temporary local." In other words, don't miss the real heart of the country by seeing only the well known tourist hot spots. He tells you how the locals live and how you can have that experience, too.Finally, each book includes a list of survival phrases and words to help you communicate while you're there. As Rick says, and I can confirm, the locals will very much appreciate your attempt to use their language instead of just assuming that they speak English. Don't worry about your pronunciation - just try it!There is so much valuable information in the Rick Steves guides that I'm sure I'm leaving something out. In my opinion, they have no equal!

I am a big fan of Rick Steves travel books. Packed with great information of the regions of France plus good advice on what to see, hotels to fit all budgets, restaurants, and French culture. As with all of Rick Steves travel guides, this book is entertaining and easy to read. This book might be a little heavy to take with you on your trip to France, but you can copy the information of the regions of France you plan to visit. Rick Steves also offers "Snapshots" of each region of France. These Snapshot books are the chapters from each region of France directly taken from "Rick Steves France 2016". For the first time traveler to France or for people who cannot decide what regions to visit during their stay in France "Rick Steves Fancy 2016" offers great information on the various regions of France.

I found this book to be very useful for my trip to Paris. It informed me about the museum pass which was very useful. The book only mentioned one place in Paris that you can get the museum pass but lucky for me I was able to purchase at the museum pass while at Disney Land Paris which made it much easier for me because when I did come to the city the place that sold the pass would have been closed. I found this book very helpful in planning my trip and I actually plan to buy more of these types of books when I go traveling.

How can you go wrong with recommendations from Rick Steves? We started to plan a honeymoon for this summer and were doing things on line. A customer recommended this book. I am glad she did. After reading the section on Nice we cancelled our reservations at one hotel and made them at another that was closer to the beach. Rick does a great job with his TV series and his books are even better.

Excellent guide with great practical sightseeing, transportation, and hotel information for traveling throughout France. While many guidebooks only focus on the major cities, this Rick Steves publication contains helpful information on both the major cities and quaint country towns and it comes with a helpful country map. It also offers suggestions and city maps for independent sightseeing as well as good hotel and restaurant recommendations.

If you're going to France, get this book. We used it religiously and weren't led wrong once. I could probably be an advertisement for Rick Steves now!My husband and I visited Paris, the Loire Valley, Dordogne River and Carcassonne last spring, all following the book's general lead. BEAUTIFUL places, great people in France. And, we didn't even know French!

Rick Steves provides the advice you need - a sea of possibilities, and he weeds out the ones that you don't need. We went in February, and many of his suggestions were closed (as he warned), but it was a good start for the extra research once we went to his recommended locations. His driving and walking tours are great - look up his podcasts for Paris as well.

The only problem with this book is that he did not even review Bordeaux which is where I am going. I could not understand why the Bordeaux region was not really covered. Otherwise, I stand by any Steves publication.

Love it. Great reference guide.