Jessica's Guide To: A Review of the lost and gone

So, you’re getting ready for that trip to Spain. What are you packing? Your sandals with socks? (I hope not.) Your fanny pack? (Please don’t.) How about that always handy guide book? At first thought, that might be a good idea. A guide book could be handy to point you in the direction of the best food, hottest nightclubs, popular historical sites, and the most luxurious hotels. You walk over to your local bookstore and stop in the travel section. There are a number of books and all look like they could set you on the right path. Your hand reaches for a royal blue book. You look at the title, “Rick Steve’s Guide to Spain.” Could this be the one? No. Put it back. Put it back where you found it and walk far, far away from it. Shove it back on that shelf and push it out of your mind. “Rick Steve’s Guide to Spain” is an out of date, confusing, plethora of travel information.

Rick Steve writes various different travel guide books as well as hosts his own TV show touring the world. “Rick Steve’s Guide to Spain” at first glance may seem like the perfect travel resource. The book is split into a few different sections depending on the city in Spain. For each city there are hotels, museums, “must see” sites, restaurants, and general travel information. He talks about the public transportation system, taxis, and renting cars and includes price quotes for all of this. For the restaurants he describes the food, the service, and the location. Hotel information includes the accommodations, the location, prices, contact information and more. He tells about the museum hours, prices, admission information, and small facts about the museum. Also, for each city he has a small map that has all of the places he requests plotted out on the map. Sounds resourceful. All the information you need to know about your travel destination in one convenient book.

However, there are some things you need to consider. Number one: what exactly do you want to use this book as. If you are looking to use it as a small resource, sort of a beginning step to give you ideas or a general sense of your trip, then this book works perfect. You can pick some destinations that interest you and know the general idea of what is in the area. On the other hand, if you intend to use the book as your official “tour guide” for your vacation, you need to think again. Rick hasn’t travelled to Spain in a few years and the book is out of date. His prices are off, and many places he mentions have closed, moved, or are totally different from the way he described them. Maybe Rick should update his guides. The world is constantly changing. Businesses are collapsing, while others are blooming. In this changing, fast paced world, an author who wants to guide people in the right direction should keep up.

In the book, there are some maps, simple addresses and directions on how to get to the places Rick recommends. This would probably be my biggest problem with this guide book. The locations are vague, and the directions aren’t very detailed. If you are using this book, I’d assume you would want everything scheduled out and planned down to the very detail. If you want to spend your days wandering aimlessly around Spain with a guidebook in hand, frantically searching for what seems like the Holy Grail, then by all means, use Rick’s directions. Being lost can be fun and exciting sometimes. It’s a thrill to wander a foreign place with no real destination in mind and really soak up the culture around you; however, being lost every day looking for one specific place turns the thrill of wandering into a violent, painful scavenger hunt for the unknown. By the time you find the place, or if you ever find the place Rick recommends, you are tired, and would rather be back at the hotel. All of the pictures you take back to show your friends will feature a sweaty, frumpy, frowny, flustered traveler.

So, you’re ready to go on your trip to Spain. You pack your sandals (leave the socks); your purse or backpack (leave the fanny pack) and you consider the guide book. You decide to download some recent pages about your destination from the internet, call ahead to the hotels and restaurants you intend to visit, and buy yourself a decent map of the city. Rick Steve’s royal blue, book of the lost remains on the shelf, unopened. You enjoy your trip without the hassle of the painful hunts for hidden sites, and an updated list of places to visit, eat at, and sleep at. And in this time of our lives, we are very conscious of our finances. You can now enjoy your trip and use that 30$ you were going to use to buy that guide book, to buy yourself a steak dinner for two including a bottle of wine as you sit on the sidewalks of Europe.



****This was a paper I did for one of my essay classes at school! Just FYI! Hope you are having a good week! Happy Wednesday! It's a great Wednesday for me! Curling is on TV right now and I ADORE curling!!!!

-Jess

Apologies!!!

I ended up with way more homework than I expected! I'm sorry I didn't get the newest Guide up! My goal is to have it up by next weekend! Fingers crossed! Oh the joys of a college student! I can promise you one thing though...at this moment I am writing a paper for one of my English classes. I'm supposed to write a review about something. I chose to write about "Rick Steve's Guide to Spain." Seeing that this fits in with the theme of my blog, I will post my paper when it is completed! As for now, my paper is due in 3 hours (at midnight) so I need to get off facebook, turn off American Idol and get to typing!!!!
Have a good night!

~~~Jess

Jessica's Guide To: Cuernavaca

Stayed Tuned! Jessica's Guide to: Cuernavaca, Mexico will be coming to you this weekend! Cigarette Holders that stop us at security, Grandma's obsession with the superrama, Dad's language attempt, panic, confusion, deafness, fun, education, and travel are all to come this weekend!