Selected Book
Australia (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
- Turtleback
- Author: DK Publishing
- Publisher: DK Travel
- Release Date: August 2006
- ISBN-10: 0756615690
- ISBN-13: 9780756615697
- List Price: $30.00
Price Comparisons
E-mail these Cheap Book Prices to a friend!
| Store | Price | Condition | Free Shipping? | Online Coupons and Deals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half.com | $12.47 as of 1/8 4am EST | Used | NO, $3.49 to $3.99 |
| |||
| Half.com | $14.89 as of 1/8 4am EST | New | NO, $3.49 to $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $15.00 as of 1/8 4am EST | New | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $15.89 as of 1/8 4am EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $19.80 as of 1/8 4am EST | New | YES, spend $25+ |
| |||
| TextbookX | $21.59 as of 1/8 4am EST | New | YES, spend $49+ |
| |||
| button not working? Click Here | |||||||
Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryAs the name implies, the Eyewitness Travel Guides bring you the world in full living color. In the Australia edition, each information-packed page is splashed with enticing photographs of the people, animals, plants, rock formations, deserts, and ocean vistas that make the country Down Under famous the world over. On the practical side, there are thousands of details to help you find your way to the must-see spots, plus full-color maps and useful at-a-glance tables that make it easy to sort through and locate food and accommodation choices. The introduction offers an overview of Australia's world-heritage sites, aboriginal culture and art, artists and writers, wines, surfing and beach culture, climate, annual events, flora and fauna, landscape, as well as a detailed history section. --Kathryn True |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
travel
For a trip to Australia, this is an excellent guide. It lists all places of interest, hotels and restaurants. discusses money and special events. Photographs are also excellent. I would recommend this
Australia Eyewitness Travel Guides - fantastic overview
Eyewithess Travel Guides give the most complete overview of any travel book or other travel product - good organization; great pictures, maps and other graphics; interesting & concise text and descriptions about history, national foods and beverages, etc.; good suggestions for lodging and eating. They are excellet resource and reference books, but they are concise enough to give a relatively complete overview but short enough to quickly convey information, especially if you do not have a lot of free time.
I believe that carefully reading about a desination is important for planning any trip. The Eyewithess Travel Guides are the best way to obtain that overview and prioritize where you want to go. Australia is a large country and this book covers alot of territory. The Australia guide is enormous help to us with our planning.
OK, but.......
I live in Australia and wanted a nice guide, and have always been drawn to the DK travel books with their lush photos, beautifully illustrated maps, building cut aways etc. In addition, this book was the 2006 version, latest update and later than many of its competitors.
As another reviewer has noted, all these photos and illustrations come at a price, which is lack of detail. In addition, I am not sure how rigorous the update process is. For example, the 2006 version does not cover the most significant new building in Brisbane, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), which cries out for inclusion in such a guide. This building was completed in 2006 and under construction for some years before.
Probably best as a supplementary guide or photo history of your travel.
Planning a holiday to Oz?
I love the DK eyewitness travel series because of the fine detail in describing geographic regions of the world while also including useful information about accommodation based on your budget, how to get around etc. The books have valuable information about each country ranging from culture and history to government and natural beauty.
The Australia book was very useful on my holiday over to Queensland and New South Wales. I had never been to Australia and so it was nice to have a guide that provided not only visual appeal with its pictures of the landscape and coloured maps but also had info detailing places to stay and see. I highly recommend this book and any other DK books offered for your next trip because unlike other travel books they not only offer an insight to the history and culture of the region but also offer info on the sights you may want to see. The thing I love the most is unlike other travel guides DK isnt just in black and white (thin pages) which are sometimes difficult to read and not as appealing to the eyes. DK books make you want to engage and get you excited to travel.
Only downside to the series is that they can be a bit more expensive than other books though amazon has good prices compared to other stores. Also they havent got books for many other countries/regions of the world, so Ive had to use other brands, I recommend Fodors Exploring series, theyre also colourful and affordable.
A Good Supplemental Reference
The DK Eyewitness Travel book for Australia is a decent travel guide, which includes a lot of pictures to help the traveler see what the attraction is while doing their planning. This 2006 revised edition runs over 600 pages, and includes an introductory section as well as 8 sections on the various areas of Australia, including one for Sydney by itself. It also has a section for Travelers' needs, which include accommodations, restaurants, and shopping information, and a section titled "Survival Guide" which contains a lot of useful information for travelers.
While the pictures are quite striking, they do seem to come at a price of more information about each of the attractions as well as the general areas. For my trip, I found the section on Tasmania to be rather sparse. The section on Melbourne was significantly better, but even there it would have been nice to have more information. I also question the practice of grouping all the hotels and restaurants together in a single section for the entire country. It seems as if the traveler would be better served if information of that sort was included in each of the sections rather than all together. They do organize the items by region within those sections, but in a hurry one might not notice if they stray outside of their area.
This is a useful reference, but I think it works best as a supplemental reference along with other material. If one needs a single reference, you should look elsewhere.