Duncan J. D. Smith

Only in Vienna is a guidebook to the former Habsburg capital containing 84 quirky features of the city. Vienna is a city with hundreds of amazing things to see so this book only scratches the surface of what it has to offer. It is designed more for those who want to go on a trail of interesting anecdotes and stories.

Only in Vienna is not truly about completely hidden gems. The first item in list is something well served by tour groups - Harry Line's Doorway. It is the kind of well-known place easy to access from a mainstream tour. Other entries are just unusual notes on well-known features such as a description of an item in the Naural History Museum or are well known tales such as the creation of the croissant.

What does work about the book is that it offers a story about many of the places in Vienna. The trouble with this approach is Vienna is so beautiful and has so many stories it is easily discarded given the incredible number of sights to take in.

The entries are well-written and pithy. They are not too long and can be absorbed easily in 2-3 pages. They are interesting tales and are fun to read. It is a fun set of items to enjoy, the kind of flavour a tour guide can offer but spanning so many different locations.

Vienna is a stunning city with so much to absorb. Only in Vienna is a nice way to add some flavour to some of the locations but has its limitations in that there is so much to see in Vienna, 84 entries does not really scratch the surface of this incredible place.… (mais)

I picked this up intending to dip into it for quirky recommendations, and ended up reading it from cover to cover. Smith includes fascinating detail on a wealth of topics and clearly has a taste for the history of the often overlooked in everyday life. So, as well as famous monuments such as the Parliament Building and Chain Bridge, you can read about esoteric museums, little-known statues and interesting shops. There's loads of history, although it's not an academic work. There's some repetition and I spotted the odd error. You couldn't buy this instead of a conventional guide book - it's already a few years out of date - and for me no travel guide to Budapest will ever beat András Török's 'Budapest: a critical guide' but I'd still recommend it even to first-time visitors to Budapest and it's a must-buy for a return visit.… (mais)