The Shoreditch in London (Party Earth)

The “Party Earth: Europe” guidebook, a piece of merchandise recently released by the rapidly expanding Party Earth company, provides in-depth and uniquely organized reviews of popular European social venues.

The guidebook, as well as the larger-scale Party Earth website that spawned it, differentiates itself from other review companies such as Zagat by crafting four unique characters, and by varying its rankings of fashionable hotspots in correspondence to these characters’ differing personality traits. 

Just as different consumers have dissimilar tastes, Lucas, Adriana, Emma, and Jonah – characters crafted by Party Earth – vary widely in their preferences for their ideal daytime and nighttime activities.  

For example, Lucas is described as a “guy’s guy” who loves sports bars that mix casualness with rowdiness, while Adriana is a trendy and sophisticated socialite who enjoys shopping at boutiques by day and partying at hip, modern clubs by night.  

Thus, while “Adriana” may give a loud pub a lower ranking, Lucas will likely assign it a very high numerical value.  The “person” who ranks a place the highest will then provide a helpful tip of how to maximize a consumer’s experience at the venue. 

Party Earth makes a smart move by using the four-character ranking system, which, unlike many guidebooks, takes individual taste into account.  While the company still effectively provides general consensuses about a venue’s quality through numerical ranking, it also recognizes that a sophisticated trendsetter and an uber-masculine sports fan are likely to diverge in their definitions of what constitutes an ideal day or night.  Thus, the four Party Earth personalities adequately enable readers to identify which personality they relate to most strongly, and to organize their activities based on which venues that character enjoys.

Employing the characters’ different rankings throughout the guide, the ambitious “Party Earth: Europe” book includes reviews of restaurants, bars, clubs, coffee shops, beaches, plazas and other European venues.  Cities reviewed are London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza, Pamplona, Rome, Munich, Florence, Venice and the French Riviera.  

Since the guidebook covers such vast territory, it is easy to see how the reviews’ complexity might slip from venue to venue or from city to city.  Fortunately, the “Party Earth: Europe” book maintains a consistent level of depth throughout its journey.  Like the website, it identifies the scene, the crowd, the entertainment and/or music, the food and the prices likely to accompany each locale.  These detailed descriptions will make international partiers feel at home as they have the time of their lives exploring the cities of their dreams.

Also, unlike the Zagat books, the “Party Earth: Europe” guide avoids creating the impression that more expensive entertainment will be more enjoyable.  By including affordable venues that still receive high rankings in correspondence with their quality, Party Earth sends the message that tourists, many of whom are financially strapped college students, can still have an amazing time while sticking to their budgets.

The Ocho y Medio Club in Madrid (Party Earth)

While the “Party Earth: Europe” book focuses exclusively on European social venues, all that content in addition to reviews of several American cities can be viewed on the website.  Thus, the website is a better resource for Angelenos looking for local entertainment.

Moreover, the “Party Earth: Europe” guidebook, due to its written nature, cannot include an important feature of the Party Earth website – the calendar of events.  This real-time calendar helps consumers plan their social schedules on a day-to-day basis.  It encompasses a wide variety of goings-on, including concerts, sporting events, festivals, comedy shows, exhibits and performing arts displays.  

This detailed calendar, combined with the many different ways people can search the site, allows readers to truly explore the ins and outs of Los Angeles and many other popular cities in America and in Europe, such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London and Paris. 

Even though the guidebook does not utilize the interactivity of the website, it nevertheless provides a compact physical guide to Europe that is ideal for international partiers constantly on the move.  Its attention to detail combined with its uniquely personalized structure should ensure that everyone – guys’ guys and trendy club kids alike – has an unforgettable experience abroad.

You can learn more about the book as well as bars and clubs in Los Angeles on partyearth.com.

Reach staff reporter Lindsay here.