Customer Reviews
Lonley Planet Andalucia guide - By: K. Runham, 03 Mar 2010 
As per all lonley planet guides a very thorough guide to all areas of Andalucia. Very acurate accomodation descriptions, & usefull local information, distances & opening times etc. It also lists local Bank Holidays & Festivals & how to participate, what the meaning of parades is & what a certain day will consist of. As some of these dates are decided locally they can be a moveable feast so best to check before you go to avoid disappointment.
My first poor Lonely Planet guide - Andalucia - By: /n, 03 Aug 2009 
I always buy a Lonely Planet's guide for every holiday.
As every Lonely Planet's reader know it helps you for accommodations, locations, restaurants, entertainment, etc...
It provides you with good descriptions & precise locations & until now it never let me down.
Unfortunately this doesn't apply for this Andalucia's guide!
First of all the copy that I received was a 2007 one! So some places weren't there any more...
Secondly the hotel's descriptions let me down more than once. Endingin places described as 'folsky' just plain, poor & decadent.
The maps provided were sometimein a too large scale leaving you wanderingin the cities without any idea of where you were because there were no street names but just the main ones.
Also more then once a restaurant or hotel's address was missing!
Good description, nice place... 'mmmh this sounds good, let's go there!'
'Oh, there's no address!!'
How can you find a place when they just tell you 3km out of Tarifa!? What about an address?
A Qualified Recommendation - By: Steve Keen, 19 Jul 2007 
Despite an unusually high number of flaws, this is nevertheless a book that will help you get the most out of your timein Andalucia.
Perhaps I just expect too much of Lonely Planet (LP), but it's their own fault. They've stood by me so many timesin so many different places in the past that I was beginning to take everything they told me as The Only Advice In Town. So when I arrivedin Seville I quickly got into the LP groove & hit La Bella Estrella, a "jazz bar".
Well, perhaps I'd arrived the day they buried the proprietor, but there was no jazz going on there, so off I went to Naima Café Jazz, happily only about five doors away down Calle Trajan. A bit better, but still not the place I expected based on LP's description. I reckon a good-sized drum kit would have excluded any customers, so how they have live musicin there I'm not sure, but at least they were playing some nice sounds, & they pay homage to the greats (Trane, of course, Miles, etc), though also not so greats (GURU? Gimme a break! This has to be Sevillano humour)in pictures on the wall. LP's much-vaunted "friendly staff" at Naima had either gone home or gone AWOL, shouting into a mobile on the steps outside, ignoring the stream of customers entering & then leavingin disgust. In fairness, the guy's as nice as pie when he returns to take my money, & his mate a couple of nights later is all attention, & merits a tip. Still no live music, but this is all the same a cool place to hang out to just chill & have a couple of cervezas. LP just need to make that clear.
So across the road diagonally to the Alameda de Hercules (where you can see LP's point about the boho crowd) & the newly opened Diablito. So it's notin LP, & nor is the makeover currently under wayin the Alameda. Nice food, rubbish busker, who luckily stays no more than ten minutes, gets no tips, & splits.
This is something else notin LP: a warning of the constant stream of panhandlersin attendance should you dine al fresco. At a restaurant opposite the cathedral characterised only by lousy service & horrendous self-regard, the bums were apparently queuing round the corner. One of them stood for all of thirty seconds & embarked on a travesty of a flamenco chant, received no tips, & left. Two minutes later he strolls by with wifein tow & shoppingin hand.
Next day, off I go looking for the nearest flamenco, at Sol Café Cantante. It's now a theatre called Sala O Cero. No flamenco apparent. I defy LP & book up for a tourist trap (LP can get really inverted snob on you when they want to), recommended by the friendly hotel staff at Hotel Cervantes (a Best Western, so no mentionin LP), called Tablao El Arenal, which doesn't merit a listingin LP but is excellent, with all the "duende" (spirit) they describe. Totally spellbinding. And there are plenty of Spanish suckersin there too, so I feel happy it's an equal opportunities "con".
Talking of cons, many Spanish (not just Sevillano) shopkeepers are so paranoid about credit card fraud they ask for ID, so if you're a Brit you'll need a driving licence or passport. Some shops are catching up on chip & pin, but even El Corte Ingles hasn't at time of writing. Again, LP don't seem to have this down.
In most other respects though it's spot on. The Giralda is amazing, the Alcazar awesome, the Plaza de España kind of gaudy & breathtakingin its pretensions but well worth the visit just for the scale of its adventure. LP also brings to your attention the Tobacco Factory & explains the contrast between the ornate renaissance end of the ayuntamiento & its plain 19th century extension.
It mentions the several bridges over the Guadalquivir, though it fails to mention the diversity of their design. It gets the maritime museum at the Torre D'Oro, but omits to mention the boat tours down the Guadalquivir that start from there.
There are interesting little asides like the origin of the chess term "checkmate" (Arabic sheikh, Spanish matar, to kill, apparently). Notes on the architecture which are more than enough for a casual observer such as me. Probably the best notes on wildlife I've readin an LP (including the local names, which is nice). The history of flamenco, kind of compensating for the duff advice on where to go see it. You are enjoying the place before you even arrive, but as reading the book post-dated my first visit, it also helped me appreciate places I'd already been a little more, such as Ronda.
It also helped me choose a couple of out-of-town excursions, such as a visit to Cordoba (the heads-up on the fast AVE trains helps; so does the description of the Mezquita).
Sometimes the writing suffers from sketchy directions, such as those to the visitor centre for Doñana at La Pueblo del Rio. The road number also seems to have changed, but that's also something the Rough Guide Map misses.
Oh, & Seville is just about to get a brand new tram system.
Time & Seville have not, it seems, been kind to LP. Even though my copy is from as recent as 2006, & I wasin Sevillein July 2007, the march of time is already demanding a new edition.
However, with some qualification, this book is still worth having as a useful basis for your trip. Just don't believe everything you read!
Essential Reading - By: simon fink, 01 Oct 2003 This book is essential reading for travellers to this part of Spain. The book's recommendations can be trusted and, whilst the information is thorough it isn't difficult to get to the more important parts quickly.
We used it to visit Seville, Granada, Malaga & Antequerain September 2003 & found it brilliant. It's writtenin an unfussy way,in plain English & by people who know what is worthwhile & what isn't.
Two important things to remember.
Buy the book well before you travel. (We bought itin the airport after we had booked some of our accommodation & so wasted hours looking at the 'net for stuff much more clearly detailedin the book).
The mapsin the book are pretty sketchy & quite small. If you're travelling around, don't rely solely on these maps (and LP advises,in the book, which maps to buy).
Overall, there isn't a better guide-book that I've found.
Plenty of facts , hard to navigate . - By: C. James, 28 Sep 2003 The contents page needs to be much more detailed .
The maps are fairly good , but spread through the text like pressed flowers ..... aimlessly .
For example : Seville ( general ) fills pages 134 & 135 .
Yet the Seville Central map is 10 pages away ( 144 & 145 ) .
Why , why , why , why , why ???
The index is far too short .
Seville's Feria de Abril is discussedin a large paragraph on page 153 . Yet , "Feria de Abril" is NOTin the index !!!
Many other silly layout mistakes make this book AWKWARD to use .
Some of the text could do with 'tightening up' too . Here & there , a rather pointless 'wordy' style breaks out .
Colour photo pages are very well done .
