Customer Rating: 
Summary: Traveling in Europe
Comment: This is the essential tour guide for traveling in Europe. Rick Steves' approach is to meld into the local cultures and really get to know the different cultures. He advocates avoiding the touristy sites that are geared to Americans because they cost more and offer less opportunity to really get into the local culture. He takes you to where the Europeans vacation and eat. He lists the hostels and inexpensive hotels that provide fewer creature comforts but bring you into contact with travelers from nay countries as well as the locals. He tells you right up front that his tours are for those seeking more of an adventure than a comfortable trip.
This book is packed with many practical tips for traveling in Europe. He tells you what to take and what to leave home. He explains how to find bargains in accommodations and eateries. He explains how to avoid being robbed or swindled. He explains how to chose or avoid certain kinds of tours. He tells you where the best museums and historic sites are located. And he tells you which ones to avoid. He tells you how to stay healthy and what to do when you get sick. This book is a great resource for the inexperienced as well as the experienced traveler.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rick Steves knows
Comment: Rick Steves is the master of travel guides and this book is no exception. Europe Through the Back Door provides you with the insight needed to experience Europe as the Europeans do instead of the typical tourist-y way. In it, Rick discusses traveling with a tour vs with a partner vs alone, how and what to pack, when and where to go, driving vs Eurail train passes vs budget airlines, food and hotel accomodations, money issues, and many more including "Special Concerns" like senior, single women, or gay travelers. Additionally, there's also Part Two, which is the actually "Back Doors" he has been talking about the entire first part. These are places all over Europe where you can get off the beaten path. Rick has been to all these places and they are his favorites which is why he is recommending them to you.
If you buy no other guidebook before you go to Europe, get this one. It will keep you from accidentally being the obnoxious American tourist who hates the French. (If you're interested in specific places, get Rick's guide for that place too: he has many books about certain cities, regions in countries, countries, or areas of Europe and most of them are updated yearly!)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Terrible description in section on Turkey
Comment: "Tourists are learning that the image of the terrible Turk is false, created to a great degree by it unfriendly neighbors. Turks are quick to remind visitors that, surrounded by Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Greece, they're not living in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood."
This is a direct quote.
It sounds like they're trying to say that the surrounding countries are painting an incorrect negative image of Turkey. Which is amusing, since he listed both Greece and Armenia there, which were both targeted by Turkey. Either this writing staff has no idea what they're writing and is just happy to sell books, thinking no one will double check the info, or they're Racist and opinionated. Either way, I wouldn't trust the info in here even as a rough guide on where to go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A book for getting the most out of Europe
Comment: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door presents a philosophy that many tourists seem to lack: When in Europe, ACT like you're in Europe! This book is aimed towards those travelers that just can't quite seem to ever escape the U.S. no matter where they travel.Rick presents a whole host of tips for seeing a Europe beyond the standard guided bus tours and airline deals. His years of experience go into his writing, giving often insightful and funny tips from sleeping overnight in the train station (he recommends sleeping in the first-class lounge to be among a higher class of hobo) to the best way to wash your clothes in the hotel sink. This book is not all about travelers caught in a pinch, however. There's also great advice for finding accomodations in during busy season, picking the right hotel/room, and finally finding those gems--great spots in Europe that no other traveler seems to know about. This book is not so much a guide to specifics as it is a guide to travel philosophy. Steves encourages the reader to immerse themselves in the local culture, and offers advice for the reader not sure how to do so. Those looking for a country-specific guidebook should look somewhere else, but they should also keep this book handy to really get a feel for what Europe truly is and was.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rick is a good travel guide, just not a good WRITER
Comment: Rick does an okay job of giving a quick overview of Europe, but sometimes forgets to "just inform" and tries to get all poetic and fancy. His description of Rothenburg does not inform me about the place, just about the wind and the leaves and his acid trip. This book will annoy you with its sporadic bursts of cheap thesaurus prose.. Rick is just not a good writer. Otherwise he does a good job of letting you know of not-so-touristy things to do in EU. The types of things he suggests are walking around and smelling things, sitting down and drinking a beer, buying a chunk of cheese and eating it on a park bench while people-watching. I don't see 18-30 year olds getting much from this book. Younger travellers might want to do more than just smell a place and get tipsy.
His writing tone seems biased; he's opinionated and sometimes makes me feel as if he gets paid to advertise shops and attractions.
Buy this book for a general overview of an Euro Trip, not as a travel guide. For more detailed info, grab a Lonely Planet guidebook.
In an effort to cater to ALL audiences, Rick, as well as oher mass market writers, tries to create ONE book for ALL types of people. Any given traveller will be interested in only 15% of this book, and toss the rest aside. The backpacker will use 15%. The high class big baller will use 15%. The middle class two week vacationer might use 10%. I would prefer to pay more for a book JUST FOR ME. (Mr. Backpacker)
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