Argentina Hotels Travel - Wallpaper City Guide: Buenos Aires (Wallpaper City Guide Buenos Aires)
|
List Price: $9.95
Argentina Hotels Travel Price: $9.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
|
Average Customer Rating:   
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 918
EAN: 9780714846842
ISBN: 0714846848
Label: Phaidon Press
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 120
Publication Date: 2006-09-15
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Studio: Phaidon Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
"Wallpaper City Guides" not only suggest where to stay, eat, and drink, but what the tourist passionate about design might want to see, whether he/she has a week or 24 hours in the city. Featured are up and coming areas, landmark buildings in an 'Architour', design centres, and the best shops to buy items unique to that city. "Wallpaper City Guides" present travellers with a fast-track ticket to the chosen location. The edited guides offer the best, most exciting, and the most beautiful of that particular city. As well as looking beautiful, the guides are expertly designed with function as a priority, and have tabbed sections so that the tourist can easily find what they are looking for. There are maps, rate and currency cards, colour-coded parts of the city, and an easy navigational tool. They are the ultimate combination of form and function.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dude, it's cheap. Just get it.
Comment: I can understand why some people don't like the book. I agree with them on any number of points, but here's the score: if you're a little shameless about wanting to make sure you see hip stuff in your short time in BA, just get this. The restaurants recommended are really good (The Standard is amazing... Bar 6 is a great place to hang out when you're tired of walking around....). The hotel recommendations are a little ridiculous. (I had a great hotel and paid $350 for 5 nights... they recommend ultra-fab Faena which goes for $500 a night... you can live like a freaking king in Argentina on that kind of cash.... don't bother with their overblown hotel recommendations).
But as far as being a guide to great bars, restaurants, and other non-touristy attractions, it's quite good if you're a Radar-reading, design-obsessed kind of person. If you're a Rick Steeves kind of traveler, don't bother.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worst BsAs guidebook... ever
Comment: Sparse text throughout the guidebook is one complaint of mine, but I guess the "design-conscious traveller" doesn't need it. Of the 104 pages, 23 are dedicated to hotels. That's 22%, folks. A huge chunk of the book is dead weight after you've selected where to spend the night. One of the most horrific things I noticed was that in all the photos (which is the majority of this book's content) there are no people. Barely anyone. Buenos Aires is empty. Regardless if it's a hotel, a restaurant, a landmark building, a soccer stadium, whatever... no people. How the heck did they manage that? It seems surreal.
I laughed out loud when they suggested that you could see the best of BA in just one day. That must further separate me from the "design-conscious traveller." I don't mind. The only historical part of the visit was a trip to Recoleta Cemetery. I can't reproduce their entire text here cuz I'm sure they'd send copyright infringement lawyers after me, but they claim that the entrance is marked by two tall neoclassical columns. Really? Looks like a big gate with 4 columns to me.
The majority of their sightseeing-shopping-dining suggestions are in Palermo. Ew. But I can overlook that. What I can't overlook are the architectural choices: a museum that isn't open yet, 2 buildings by one architect (a crime when there are only 7 buildings recommended total), & the Calatrava bridge in Puerto Madero. Those selections aren't what people find enchanting BsAs architecture. I know what I'm talking about.
In the sports section, they mention the Huracán soccer stadium. I love it & was surprised that they listed it since sending a "design-conscious traveller" to that part of town would probably put them into shock. In the same section, the metrosexual-catering Markus Day Spa (is that a sport?) received a 3 page spread. In a book of 104 pages. I've heard from multiple sources that it isn't all that, but I don't have any personal experience with them. Still, I'm shocked at the amount of coverage.
Let's move to the maps in the back. Typos & misplaced neighborhoods abound. Parque Patricios does not border the Riachuelo, & Barracas has nothing to do with Avenida Entre Ríos. Congreso is not next to San Telmo. Microcentro is not San Nicolás, & Tribunales is not a neighborhood by anyone's measure. Avenida Sánez should be Saénz. What is a "Porte de Buenos Aires?" I think they meant "Puerto." They list something as "Parque del Cementerio" when it's actually Parque Centenario... two very different things.
The enlarged map of Recoleta is just as incorrect. Parque Carlos Thais should be Thays. Pasadas should be Posadas. Ríobamba is missing from the map. There is no such street as Jose Andres. The Palacio Estrouga should be the EstrougaMOU. There are other errors, but you get the point.
Why would anyone buy this?? If I submitted work this sloppy, I'd be fired (I'm a guidebook writer/researcher). This guidebook presents an oddly skewed vision of Buenos Aires that isn't the city I've lived in for almost 7 years. But someone has to be the worst... I just never expected it to be Phaidon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very hip. Very sparse.
Comment: I can relate to the design-oriented vibe, look and slant of this guide to Buenos Aires. And it's a nice addendum to the more complete Frommer's guide that I already had. But it's an addendum only - with the almost guaranteed promise of dating quickly.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buenos Aires guide
Comment: This book was useless in what I was looking for. I like guide books that help you find interesting places, restaurants, etc. (like Rick Steves)
This book does none of that. Save your money
Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprise
Comment: Brought Wallpaper to Buenos Aires almost as an afterthought, thinking it would be too idosyncratic to be of use to a regular guy like me. Wrong: it proved to be a very accurate guide to all that was best in BA, and much more insightful than most other guides.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Argentina Posters
Argentina Art Prints
Argentina Travel 2008 Calendars
2008 Monthly Calendars
Argentina Hotels Travel Special Resources
Argentina Arts
Argentina Business
Argentina Culture
Argentina Education
Argentina Government
Argentina Health
Argentina Map
Sports & Recreation
Travel & Tourism
Tourist Attractions
Argentina Museums
Argentina Travel Important Resources
Argentina Books
Argentina Magazines
Argentina Travel Destinations
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Calafate, Argentina
Cordoba, Argentina
Iguaza Fallsar, Argentina
Jujuy, Argentina
Salta, Argentina
San Carlos Bariloche
Trelew, Argentina
Tucuman, Argentina
Ushuaia, Argentina
Argentina Travel Hotels
Bariloche Hotels
Buenos Aires Hotels
Trelew Hotels
Cordoba Hotels
|
