This guide to Budapest is sometimes very good, other times quite patchy. The section on history, society & culture will help put your visit in good perspective. The sections on transportation, food, wine and shopping are all very accurate and thorough.There are some areas in which the guide is quite annoying. The walking tours the author suggests have no maps, and his instructions include things like " a few steps further south and you will find..." if you dont happen to have a compass on you this may not be so easy to follow.
The maps of the city are reasonable, and include metro stops but oddly (and annoyingly) no tram lines.
The section on the thermal baths describes them all quite accurately, but is missing the most basic information on the whole process (eg do you get a towel, do people go naked or wear speedos or something else, is a cubicle included in the entry price, is it safe to leave valuables in a cubicle etc).
The section on telecommunications notes there are "a number" of prepaid international phone cards available, but not what they are called or where to buy them. The author warns against using "country-direct" cards because of the expense, instead recommending (surprise, surprise) Lonely Planet's very own Ekno card. In fact for calls to Australia at least, Ekno costs double per minute than a "country-direct" card.
The guide also recommends flying from Australia to Budapest via London - a strange choice if you consider that you will backtrack nearly 2000km by doing so.
In all the guide is reasonable but is a long way from being the be-all and end-all. There may well be better ones around.
