101 Weekends in Europe by Robin Barton
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Four Stars
Best for: People living in the UK looking for ideas of places to visit in Europe
In a nutshell: Snapshots of locals across Europe, including a few cities that might not be top of mind.
Worth quoting: N/A
Why I chose it: Looking for ideas for quick breaks away from London.
Review:
When I popped over to Amazon to grab the link for this review, I saw it had a very low rating (two 1-star and two 2-star reviews). I can see being disappointed, but those folks seemed to be expecting a detailed travel guide, and I can’t imagine expecting loads of details in a book that talks about 101 different cities in 30+ different countries.
It met my expectations perfectly and I’d recommend it for anyone living in the UK and looking for some ideas of where to start with planning weekends away. There are some of the usual suspects (Paris, Berlin), but also some cities that might not be first on the list, such as Talinn in Estonia. The author shares which airlines fly there from which London-area airports, so it works well for someone like me who is based in London.
Additionally, while the author doesn’t explicitly say if you need a car, the descriptions give a good enough idea of whether the main highlights are in a walkable city center or if the whole point is driving to neighboring towns.
My only complaint is that this seems to have been updated in 2015 (or at least reissued), but some of the text talks about things scheduled to be constructed / completed in 2008 / 2009. Surely they could have looked that up?