Brussels (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

We recently took a trip to Belgium, where we intended to visit Brugge, Antwerp, and Brussels, although in the end, we dropped Antwerp in favor of spending more time in Brugge. I bought a copy of this book on the advice that it had a lot of coverage beyond Brussels.

Like most EyeWitness guides, the photos, sketched 3D area maps, etc. were all brilliant for identifying points of interest and notable details. The suggested walking tours also proved to be a great resource, since these cities are best visited simply by wandering the streets rather than heading straight for key destinations.

My only qualm with the book is that (as the title suggests) it is heavy on Brussels. This was a little disappointing, having heard that it included adequate coverage of the other cities in its subtitle. Nearly 75% of the book is dedicated to the capital with the other cities receiving only around a half dozen pages each. If you're planning to spend a lot of time in Brugge, Antwerp, or Ghent, I'd recommend finding a book with more focused coverage. If you plan to spend a lot of time in Brussels, with daytrips to one or more of the other cities, this book would probably be great.

Perfect for Belgium. Brussels, Bruge, Antwerp are all well done. The quality of the DK series makes them the pick of the class, but heavy. It's the only guilde that emmanates a feel for the area's architecture. I used the hotel section comparatively with other guides. It finished slightly ahead. What is unusual is a non-tourist perspective is part of the review mix. I am an intelligent successful high tech businessman and not particularly interested in clowns staying away from people that are. To me travel is not an entertainment video. It is a mix of pleasure, leisure, and learning while keeping in reasonable cost effective contact with the world that enabled me to make the trip. This is the one area that could use improvement. "Internet access" is a meaningless description. What's the cost, how fast, what mode, where, and how often is it available? For decades the hotel telephone has been the ultimate rip off tool. Now it's morphed into the cell phone realm. Despite what you have read international calling is still very expensive. When Best Western doesn't charge for the identical serice that Hyatt, Hilton,
Marriott, etc. do is it very clear whose happiness is primary despite what the brochure says. A lot more help on this would be most appreciated. Kudos to DK for giving local food a serious look. The inclusion of small, medium and high end places is a refreshing and useful change. For some reason no mention is made of the "ladies of the evening" displaying their virtues through sidewalk level bay windows along the street parallel to the Brussels airport-to-central station route about five minutes before it ends. After a long flight it provides a little spice that was missing in the airline food.

This was an indispensable tool my navigation of Belgium. I also purchased the Top 10, published by DK just so I would not miss anything. I liked the large maps and the clear directions to the venues. The pictures were GREAT. This book greatly enhanced my journey.

DK guides are by far the best for any trip -- their black-by-block walking guides just can't be beat.

I have had great experiences with the DK Guides. I use it extensively in my trip planning and this is the guide I take on the trip.

This guide provides execllent information about local sites throughout Beligium. It gives very clear guidance concerning what you can find and access information. It also helps you to locate the sites with indexed maps and diagrams.

I have found that this and the other DK Guides are bit weak in providing guidance about what to see. That is, it offers little qualitative information--everything sounds equally wonderful. And we all know this is not necessarily the case.

So I always find another guide that has more opinions and recomended tours to determine what to see. I espiecially look for guided the provide suggested walking tours. This has worked out well for the most part. I use other guides to plan the trip and the DK Guide in the country.

It has very usable maps although sometimes too limited in scope and you may require a local map to get around beyond the central city. Also, because the book is a bit heavy and too large to fit in a jacket pocket after the first day or so I leave it in the hotel and rely on the local map when walking about.

The one topic I find most reliable is DK's restaurant recommendations. The two places I tried in Brussels were fantastic and offered everything that the guide described. I have had equal success with DK's restaurant recommendations in other cities/countries.

I think this is an indispensible travel guide as long as you know what you are using it for--planning or background info, etc.