Europe for a Bargain - Book Review

'Europe for a Bargain' is a travel book written by Aditi Mukherjee. It talks about the author's first-hand travel experience to Western Europe - UK (London), France (Paris). Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. It is a short book of ~60 pages and it can be easily read from start to finish, in a flight journey from Hyderabad to Delhi.The icing on the cake is that it is part of 'Kindle Unlimited' and 'Amazon Prime Reading' (free read with Prime Membership), which makes it even more interesting to read the book.

The book starts with Aditi's decision to sign-up with a travel agent for a group tour to Western Europe for 10-11 days and captures her experience starting from the visa appointment. The author has a very good sense of humor and uses satire very well in sharing her views on serious topics such as racism/ rape in India. The book has a lot of interesting facts and trivia such as - 'when the sun shines the Eiffel tower grows taller by 6 inches'. It also has useful tips such as 'carry sunscreen and dark shades (sun glasses) while climbing Mt. Titlis even when it is freezing cold, as UV exposure increases by 10% for every 3280 ft above sea level'.

However, it is not clear if it is a story book or a travelogue. If one treats the book as a travelogue/ travel guide, it misses a lot of critical information on how to save money (only mention is in the title of the book), where to book tickets, etc., The fact that the author has spent only a max of 1-3 days in each of those countries shows-up in the breath and depth of travel related information on those places. If you read this as a story book, there are clearly no twists or turns and there is hardly any events. The book is an amalgamation of facts and trivia, and the author's good sense of humor makes it an interesting read. 

Even with all its shortcomings, I still think it could be really useful for Indian readers who are aspiring to travel to Europe for first time, to understand what to expect in Western Europe, especially during group travel, from the perspective of an upper middle-class Indian traveler.