Book Description

This is not a guidebook, though I hope it gives the reader some ideas on places worth seeing, accommodation worth considering, and decent restaurants worth dining in. It does not normally give a list of possible places to stay (only places I have experienced myself being included), but at the end of each chapter, there will be a Practicalities page containing the following: 1 Useful websites on places, maps, and transport. In general, sites relevant to more than one chapter will be found the first time they are relevant and are referenced in later chapters. 2 Accommodation on these pages will be only where I have stayed. I go for cheaper places when I travel alone, although I nearly always choose en-suite rooms as I got older, and moderately cheap when I went with Pam. In general, absence of comment means it is OK, bearing this in mind. 3 Restaurants are only mentioned on these pages if they are particularly good, either absolutely or in terms of value for moneyor if definitely not recommended. 4 Must-sees appear in the chapters themselves but will be summarised on these pages. The index is based on my historic fury at finding pages, only to get a totally uninformative mention of the place in passing. Text (normal print) references are meant to show the first or only page with information about the place. Those planning holidays may find it more helpful to go immediately to pages shown in italic print, where they will often find helpful URLs. I have checked all the multitude of URLs in this book in February 2012, inserting a lot of new ones in place of dead sites. Occasionally my comments on a site may be a bit dodgy now, but there are some great sites here. Im not sure how I overcame temptation to spend ages just looking at some!