Holland: The Rough Guide, Second Edition - Softcover

"Authoritative and opinionated, this series can't be beat," extols the Chicago Tribune of the Rough Guide's lively collection of guidebooks, including their first-edition Holland manual. Looking beyond truckloads of tulips and wistful windmills, these three rough guiders--Dunford, Holland (he should know his stuff) and Lee--take you mucking through the mud to the Frisian Islands, biking to the Biesboschmuseum nature reserve, lurking around the fish houses of Urk, and gulping Gulpener beer in Gulpen.

Along with essential coverage of places to eat, sleep, and meet, you'll learn a polder is an area of land reclaimed from the sea, a spoor is a train station platform, a VVV is a tourist information office, a gracht is a canal, beiaard are carillon chimes, and a fietspad is a bike path. The Rough Guide's penchant for using boldface type for words like meal, beer, bus, opening hours, payment, campsite, and the names of local towns and attractions is a useful way to help the traveler quickly glean the appropriate information from each chapter. In addition to a concise presentation of Dutch history, art, and literature, the authors provide useful reviews of the sites and charms of the larger towns like Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, and Delft.

Rough Guides are written by expert authors who are passionate about both writing and travel. They have detailed knowledge of the areas they write about—having either traveled extensively or lived there—and their expertise shines through on every page. It's priceless information, delivered with wit and insight, providing the down-to-earth, honest read that is the hallmark of Rough Guides.