When I first started travelling to Europe 25 years ago, the Frommer guides were like beacons. They had a very definite goal in mind: To let you enjoy Europe for $XX dollars a day. Their books were fun and informative; but somewhere along the line, the Frommer people lost touch with their leadership.

When you try to write a book for everybody, you wind up writing for nobody. Let us take accommodations as an example: They are classified as Expensive, Moderate, and Inexpensive. Now I am not on public assistance by any means, yet I can barely afford Frommer’s Inexpensive accommodations, which average around more than $100 a night.

There are guidebooks which are good at accommodations and restaurants but not on sights; and there are others (like the superb DK Eyewitness Guides) which concentrate on the sights. I am hard put to place Frommer on this spectrum. In the Netherlands, he downplays the Zuider Zee Museum in Enkhuizen and the Open Air Museum in Arnhem, yet spends 3 chapters on Luxembourg, including one on “Planning a Trip to Luxembourg.” Hello! When was the last time you got the wife and kiddies mobilized for a fun filled 3 week vacation in the tiny Duchy of Luxembourg?

On the plus side, the “Best of…” lists are a useful counter to the general lack of emphasis in this guidebook.

If you were visiting the U.S., you would want a guidebook to show you why you might want to spend more time in New York than Youngstown. Once the best of guidebook series, Frommer has been reduced to cataloguing sights. Where’s the excitement? Not here.