City Travel Guides
Home Page > Go back a page
Books : The Rough Guide to Sicily - Edition 6
Search Books - select a category
1 2
1 2
Rating: 
- Generally helpful
I found several inaccuracies, such as restaurant names misspelled or maps showing hotels on the wrong side of the road, but nothing seriously wrong. The history and culture sections were adequate for the general visitor, and for most of the historical sites there was enough detail to save you having to buy separate guide books for each attraction. In Palermo, hotel listings were rather brief, and it may be better these days to search on the web, but out in the villages there were some useful recommendations. Town maps were generally adequate (though rather small scale: you need good eyesight) but I would suggest a proper road map as well if you are doing much travelling about by car. All in all, a useful book; it's difficult to see how it could be improved significantly without getting bigger and heavier; but others are probably as good.
Rating:
- Must have been commissioned by the Vatican
I have to say I am a bit surprised about the positive ratings this book has received as I would class it mediocre. They say that a guide book often tells you more about the person that has written it than about the place itself and this is certainly true here.
I bought the Rough Guide to Sicily because I had previously used a Rough Guide on another one of my travels and had found it very helpful. Unfortunately this one turned out to be out-of-date (every single hotel mentioned in the book happened to be in the next highest price category) and lacked a lot of important information. The author seems to have an unhealthy interest in churches above everything else. There are, of course, some very interesting churches in Sicily such as the Norman one in Monreale, echoing the colourful history of the island, however, I found it rather perplexing that the writer felt the need to describe what seems like every single little backyard chapel that has ever been built in Sicily, which is fairly useless for the average cultured traveller. As a result of the author's devoting far to many lines to matters of theology, the reader misses out on some vital information. For example, there's hardly a mention of Palermo's vibrant night life and the guidelines for finding affordable accommodation if you intend to stay for a bit longer are, at best, confusing. He simply fails to mention that the best way to find good, clean and central accommodation at a realistic price is to go to one of the local estate agents (none of which are listed in his book but that are of invaluable help especially in the summer when there a lot of empty flats due to locals/students staying with their families outside of Palermo).
The beaches are not very well described either (if at all) and I found my two favourite ones by pure chance (a tiny one in a nature reserve further up Mondello- there's is a footpath leading to it, just keep going straight for about 10 mins- and another larger one close to Agrigento in a town called Porto d'Empedocle where you can also hire beach huts in the summer).
I often found myself putting the book away and asking the (genuinely friendly) locals for advice and as a result only consulted the book a couple of times during my three month stay in Sicily. Admittedly, the information on public transport proved quite useful and if you can't find any other guide book, this one is better than none.
Rating:
- The perfect company for a honeymoon (apart from the wife)
Always reliable. As all other Rough Guides it does the dirty work for you so that readers can enjoy the always remarkable choices on where to eat, where to sleep and what to see.
Excellent. All places are described as I would describe them.
Rating: - UP-TO-DATE; INDISPENSIBLE; USER-FRIENDLY ; ENTERTAINING;
My husband and I were in Sicily for the first time in early September, 1999 and the Rough Guide was with us all the way. Not being able to speak a word of Italian, we found the Sicilian food terms extremely useful. Also, our trip to Stromboli was made easier by the information on ferries and hydrofols and it was a relief to know that we could put our rented car in a garage. We are definitely planning to go back to Sicily with our chatty and entertaining travelling companion.
- Generally helpfulI found several inaccuracies, such as restaurant names misspelled or maps showing hotels on the wrong side of the road, but nothing seriously wrong. The history and culture sections were adequate for the general visitor, and for most of the historical sites there was enough detail to save you having to buy separate guide books for each attraction. In Palermo, hotel listings were rather brief, and it may be better these days to search on the web, but out in the villages there were some useful recommendations. Town maps were generally adequate (though rather small scale: you need good eyesight) but I would suggest a proper road map as well if you are doing much travelling about by car. All in all, a useful book; it's difficult to see how it could be improved significantly without getting bigger and heavier; but others are probably as good.
Rating:
- Must have been commissioned by the VaticanI have to say I am a bit surprised about the positive ratings this book has received as I would class it mediocre. They say that a guide book often tells you more about the person that has written it than about the place itself and this is certainly true here.
I bought the Rough Guide to Sicily because I had previously used a Rough Guide on another one of my travels and had found it very helpful. Unfortunately this one turned out to be out-of-date (every single hotel mentioned in the book happened to be in the next highest price category) and lacked a lot of important information. The author seems to have an unhealthy interest in churches above everything else. There are, of course, some very interesting churches in Sicily such as the Norman one in Monreale, echoing the colourful history of the island, however, I found it rather perplexing that the writer felt the need to describe what seems like every single little backyard chapel that has ever been built in Sicily, which is fairly useless for the average cultured traveller. As a result of the author's devoting far to many lines to matters of theology, the reader misses out on some vital information. For example, there's hardly a mention of Palermo's vibrant night life and the guidelines for finding affordable accommodation if you intend to stay for a bit longer are, at best, confusing. He simply fails to mention that the best way to find good, clean and central accommodation at a realistic price is to go to one of the local estate agents (none of which are listed in his book but that are of invaluable help especially in the summer when there a lot of empty flats due to locals/students staying with their families outside of Palermo).
The beaches are not very well described either (if at all) and I found my two favourite ones by pure chance (a tiny one in a nature reserve further up Mondello- there's is a footpath leading to it, just keep going straight for about 10 mins- and another larger one close to Agrigento in a town called Porto d'Empedocle where you can also hire beach huts in the summer).
I often found myself putting the book away and asking the (genuinely friendly) locals for advice and as a result only consulted the book a couple of times during my three month stay in Sicily. Admittedly, the information on public transport proved quite useful and if you can't find any other guide book, this one is better than none.
Rating:
- The perfect company for a honeymoon (apart from the wife)Always reliable. As all other Rough Guides it does the dirty work for you so that readers can enjoy the always remarkable choices on where to eat, where to sleep and what to see.
Excellent. All places are described as I would describe them.
Rating:
- UP-TO-DATE; INDISPENSIBLE; USER-FRIENDLY ; ENTERTAINING;My husband and I were in Sicily for the first time in early September, 1999 and the Rough Guide was with us all the way. Not being able to speak a word of Italian, we found the Sicilian food terms extremely useful. Also, our trip to Stromboli was made easier by the information on ferries and hydrofols and it was a relief to know that we could put our rented car in a garage. We are definitely planning to go back to Sicily with our chatty and entertaining travelling companion.