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London (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

London (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

List Price: $25.00
Your Price: $16.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mixed results
Review: The Eyewitness Guide is superb if you're a first-time visitor to London or a novice tourist interested in seeing the true "guts" of the city's major tourist attractions. However, as an experienced traveler with an interest in seeing stuff well beyond the standard tourist realm, I found this guide extremely disappointing. Particularly in terms of (the minimal selection of) restaurants and nightlife, most of the places recommended are extremely touristy and filled basically with guide-toting Americans. (Putting aside the irony of me *being* a guide-toting American, of course.) There's also not a whole lot of detail about some interesting areas of the city off the beaten path, such as Brixton and the East End.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Eyewitness vs. Frommer's
Review: The verdict - Eyewitness is more useful and user-friendly than Frommer's, most of the time.

On a recent 2-week excursion to London, I brought Eyewitness and Frommer's along for comparison purposes and to be sure not to miss anything. I ended up using Eyewitness every day throughout the day and referring to Frommer's only for occasional reference. Mapwise, Frommer's is virtually unusuable with its pull-out map being too clunky while covering too little. Eyewitness' many maps at the back of the book were a life-saver, and the mini neighborhood maps in each section were a nice touch as well.

Visually, Eyewitness is more appealing with its colorful photographs and better paper. Initially I thought all those photos, drawings and captions would be too distracting and superfluous but they turned out to be quite nifty.

The restaurants featured are a select few (perhaps too few?) and the couple we tried based on recommendation from Eyewitness (Sofra and L'Odeon) did not disappoint.

I must acknowledge that Frommer's tends to be more in-depth when it comes to historical info and off-the-beaten-track/quirky stuff. At the same time, there seems to be almost too much text in Frommer's which can be difficult to weed through when hunting for a hint or two in a rush. Frommer's also includes admission/ticket prices missing in Eyewitness, while neither guidebook bothers to provide info on free admission times offered by many museums.

And, since I have your attention, here's a sample of the places I grew to love in London during the trip -

The National Gallery (be sure to check out the audio tour - it's an immense resource)

The Courtauld Gallery (a small but mighty collection)

The Theatre Museum (do ask about a complimentary - on Wednesdays, at least - tour of the nearby Drury Lane Royal Theatre - it's the most underappreciated tourist attraction in London!)

A walk in Kensington gardens - as close to urban heaven on earth as it gets.

Have fun!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: On the Money
Review: I used this book extensively on a recent visit to London. The maps were easy to use and very helpful. The guide and floorplans to various sites and museums helped to zero in on those sections that most interested me before I arrived and then to easily locate and explore them once I was there. The restaurent reviews were helpful in narrowing down the choices and when I did eat in a place that was reviewed found the reviews to be quite accurate. Overall I would rate this guide very highly because of it's usefulness both in planning a visit and it's practical use once in London. A good investment for the first time visitor.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: difficult to follow
Review: I found this guide difficult to follow; I thought the breakdown by areas were a bit disjointed and I continually had to figure out what area I was in and then search for the section in the book. Then once I found that section, restaurants and lodging were located elsewhere. Also, the harder cover stock makes it heavy and cumbersome to take with you while travelling.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Virtual London
Review: Get this, the book has 3-D maps of major city areas (Kensington, Greenwich, Chelsea), such attractions as the Tower and Hampton Court, and even the museums. If you spend time studying this book, you will arrive in London feeling like you've got a very good idea of what you want to see and where to find it. It even has an Underground map! I would have liked to see more description about what the various areas of the city offered when it came to lodging (why should I stay in Picadilly or South Kensington instead of Chelsea or Greenwich, etc.), but other than that, the book was fun to read and informative.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST
Review: I have used the previous edition of this outstanding guide on several trips to London. It is the BEST travel guide I have ever used! Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best London guide to date.
Review: I've visited London about a dozen times in the last few years and have acquired a drawer full of decent travel guides on London. In a word, this is the best. The guide breaks the capital down by area (most do) but it also has shaded 3D street-by-street maps that depict the buildings so you know what you are looking for. The book is also up to date. The photos are extremely high quality. The leather cover is smart and doesn't immediately brand you a tourist (if that matters), but it partially obscures the tube map inside the back. A laminated card of the underground is also included, which is very handy. Downsides? It won't fit into your pocket, and is a bit on the heavy side.

Mind the Gap and buy this book!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent guide!
Review: I had to go on a college trip and i had been in London almost a decade ago from 2000,tis guide helped me a lot,it has a lot of info on tourist spots,restaurants,shopping,it has details such as which metro station is near,the address the phone the special features,it has a metro guide a ittle tricky but as soon as you do your first metro try you will use it like a native.It has also general infos on taxi cabs,money,and i strongly advise you to buy it as a fantastic guide not only for London but as a series part.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Best Travel Guides
Review: I travel often and have bought many different travel guides, but this was hands-down the best guide I've ever bought. The book is conveniently organized by neighborhood so that you can plan your activities or find a good place to eat even if you've wandered into an expected area. I especially like the fact that for every attraction the nearest Underground station is noted so that it's always easy to get to your destination and then get back to your hotel. The guide has many pictures, and detailed descriptions of the attractions, which includes admittance prices and hours, in addition to an appendix of many detailed city maps. It is not only very useful, but is laid out very well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This sucker is HEAVY!
Review: The most important point of my review: this sucker is heavy! The book weighs a pound and a half!

Now, a pound and a half might not seem like much, but compare this to some other guidebooks. My Lonely Planet Iceland book has 600 pages and weighs a pound. This guidebook has 400 pages and weighs a pound and a half -- 50% more weight, and only two-thirds the size. It's heavy.

What do you get for the heaviness? Nice, glossy pages and tons of color pictures. It's a very nice-looking book. The attraction sections seemed well done, though it was missing some attractions I was interested in (which I suppose is bound to happen with a city the size of London). The index -- one of my measures of a good guidebook -- was adequate for pointing me to everything I wanted to look up quickly.

I haven't looked into it too much, so my 4 stars might actually drop. I can say that the hotel section has a few offerings in the 'under 70 pounds' category, but it definitely seems geared toward the more upscale tourist. I suspect the restaurants might be the same way. It's not a backpacker's guide to London, which is more what I was looking for.

But the pictures are nice, and if you're looking for something not geared to a backpacker it's probably pretty good.


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