Balkanology :: Explore Southeast EuropeOverview of the Balkans :: Books
Travel Guides
Choosing a guidebook
Coverage of the Balkan region by guidebooks is patchy. Greece and Turkey have been popular with western visitors for so long that a bewildering variety of guidebooks is available. Croatia and Slovenia are catching up fast. Romania and Bulgaria remain more specialised interests, but as they never dropped completely off the tourist map it hasn't been difficult to find guidebooks to these countries. Until recently the remainder of ex-Yugoslavia plus Albania was an unknown land for guidebook publishers, an empty space on the map bearing the legend "here be dragons". For my first visits to Bosnia and Serbia I had nothing more to go on than a handful of pages in an Eastern Europe guide and a book about Yugoslavia written in 1968. This has changed in the last few years with the publication of several Bradt guides and the new Western Balkans guide from Lonely Planet - now in its second edition.
I have found that my style of travel is best matched by these three guidebook series, which are generally aimed at independent travellers:
- If I need a complete guide to a single country I tend to choose Rough Guides where they are available. They are typically very thorough, with a lot of detail even about less obvious destinations within a country, and include plenty of background reading. They don't cover several countries in the Western Balkans.
- A major strength of Lonely Planet is their variety of multi-country guides, which are very useful if you are visiting several countries in one trip. That's why they dominate the list on this page. Their guides to individual countries are usually pretty good too, with good maps and clear, well-organised listings. They typically don't have as much detailed description as Rough Guides, which is why I tend to prefer the former.
- Bradt produces detailed guides to some countries not well covered by other publishers, and have greatly expanded their coverage of the Balkans in the last few years. Their guides are more idiosyncratic than the likes of RG and LP, and typically reflect the author's personality more than a corporate identity. This can be a good or bad thing depending on the author's interests and style of travel; the level of detail about public transport, for example, varies greatly. The quality of maps often leaves something to be desired - but on the the other hand, they at least attempt to map towns ignored by other guidebooks. Despite these minor quibbles they deserve credit for producing full-size guides to countries that are likely to remain a niche interest for some time. I admit to a slight bias here - several of their guides include my photos in the colour sections.
I also like the In Your Pocket city guides, available online and in magazine format from news outlets in some cities.
Multi-country guidebooks are listed below; guides to individual countries and cities are listed separately.
Multi-country guidebooks
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Western Balkans - Lonely Planet Guide (2nd edition published May 2009) - Marika McAdamThe second edition of "Western Balkans" covers Albania, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo (briefly), Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia (Slovenia has been dropped since the first edition). See the blog for more comments on the new edition. Individual chapters can be bought and downloaded from the Lonely Planet shop. |
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Eastern Europe - Lonely Planet Multi Country Guide (10th edition published September 2009)Includes all the Balkan countries except Greece and Turkey. There is quite a bit more detail than in the Europe on a Shoestring guide - enough to make this a definite contender for anyone planning a tour of several Balkan countries. Nevertheless it covers a vast area, so many interesting places are inevitably omitted to keep the book to a reasonable size. Coverage of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia has improved over the last couple of editions (admittedly from a fairly weak starting point). Again, individual country chapters can be bought and downloaded separately. |
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Mediterranean Europe - Lonely Planet Regional Guide (9th edition published September 2009)Depending on your planned route this is a possible alternative to the Eastern Europe guide, with about the same level of detail. Of the Balkan countries this guide includes Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, and Turkey. Slovenia and Bosnia apparently have coastlines too short to qualify as Mediterranean countries - although Portugal, with no Mediterranean shore at all, is included. |
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Europe on a Shoestring - Lonely Planet (6th edition published October 2009)Includes all the Balkan countries. The area covered is so vast that inevitably there isn't room for much detail on any one country - the focus is generally on major cities. A handy reference to have on your bookshelf, but don't expect it to lead you even slightly off the beaten path. |
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Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable - (Independent Traveller's Edition)A printed timetable might seem a bit old-school in our era of online databases, but being able to produce this from your backpack at a moment of indecision will make you feel like a proper traveller. Also includes ferry timetables. |
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Thomas Cook European Rail Map (16th edition published Feb 2007)The title is fairly self-explanatory: this is a map of Europe's railways. Main lines are distinguished from secondary ones; high speed lines are also identified, but that's of rather academic interest to the traveller in the Balkans. A nice touch is the highlighting of scenic lines - see the article Scenic Train Journeys in the Balkans. |
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