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Fodor's Citypack: Berlin's 25 Best

About.com Rating

By James Martin, About.com Guide

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Fodor's Citypack Guidebooks: Berlin's 25 Best

James Martin

The Bottom Line

I, along with many others, really like the Citypack concept. Berlin's 25 Best is chock full of the things a vacationer looks for in a city guide, without all the detail that a new arrival planning to move to a city might need. The edition reviewed here is up-to-date, and will provide the traveller with more than enough to do in visits of a few days to several weeks. It's got a durable cover, it's easily carryable, but not shirt-pocketable (unless you have a really big jacket pocket).

Pros

Durable, compact guidebook on the best of Berlin
Includes removable, detailed map of Berlin and transportation maps
It's affordable: available at many merchants for under $10

Cons

Berlin's 25 Best won't fit in your shirt pocket

Description

A concise guide to the Best of Berlin that succeeds as both planning and reference guide.
Just the facts you need--no long and boring histories of Berlin from the paleolithic age.
Durable, up-to-date, concise, thin, attractive, and cheap. What more do you need in a guidebook?

Guide Review - Fodor's Citypack: Berlin's 25 Best

Berlin's 25 Best offers descriptions, pictures and notes on Berlin's 25 best attractions in many categories, like palaces and gardens, museums and galleries, buildings, beer gardens, street markets and countryside jaunts. It has a full-size foldout map that detatches easily from the front jacket of the guidebook.

Authors Christopher and Melanie Rice give the reader a good feel for Berlin--a city exploding onto the tourist's radar--with great desciptions of the attractions, plus interesting tidbits of the controversies facing city planners as they rebuild Berlin for a new age.

Berlin's 25 Best is easy to thumb through and information is presented in an easily digested manner. Bulleted lists in the page margins give you a quick overview of every attraction. Below you'll find an iconic list of S or U-bahn stops, opening times, prices and other important information. The body of each attraction's description gives you a concise history and feel for the site.

At the end of Berlin's 25 Best you'll find Berlin Travel Essentials and a list of recommended hotels in three categories, the cheapest loaded with recommended hostels.

For the traveller interested in getting around Europe's biggest cities, the Fodors Citypack guides are wonderful additions to the guidebook glut. Berlin's 25 Best can be used to plan a trip and then tucked away into a suitcase pocket to become a valuable reference guide while you're exploring the wonders of Berlin.