London (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
by Michael Leapman, Roger Williams
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.36 You Save: $18.64 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of London (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Book Review: Fantastic as much as a keepsake
Summary: 5 Stars
The new (2006) Eyewitness Guide for London maintains the beautifully-photographed, competently-written, and *brilliantly designed* full-color format--with heavy use of informational sidebars--that the DK Eyewitness series has become famous for. It's a combination of a guide for practical use and--primarily--a whirlwind, photographically-intensive overview of London as a tourist is likely to encounter it...and as a tourist is likely to enjoy remembering it when looking through the book upon return from London.
The book is nicely arranged by sections of the city. All major tourist attractions are covered, in part through the use of attractive cutaway museum floor plans and street plans for neighborhoods commonly visited by tourists, including a few removed from the center of London, such as Greenwich.
The Eyewitness Guides do not provide in-depth or specialist information; but, overall, they are no less detail-oriented than any other of the many *basic overview* guidebooks. A helpful contrasting example might be the Blue Guide for London: which is also an overview guide book but which cannot fairly be called a "basic" guide. While the Blue Guide is as broad in scope as the Eyewitness Guide in terms of the number of attractions covered, it is generally more detail-oriented, especially regarding architecture and history.
Since the Eyewitness Guide for London is not a specialist guide book, it is also largely free from editorializing, for better or worse. (I.e., no entry in an Eyewitness guide is going to include a suggestion to avoid a particular attraction, or a warning that some aspect of an attraction can prove frustrating. Other guides--such as a TimeOut, Blue Guide, or a Lonely Planet guide--are better for that.)
As is the case with most guide books, the Eyewitness Guide also offers sections of practical tips and information. This includes how to operate most London phones, what British currency looks like, what the emergency numbers are (e.g., in London one dials "999" not "911"), where to buy stamps, how "zebra" crosswalks work, etc. It should be stressed that other guide books offer the same information, and some more comprehensively. But the Eyewitness series' handling of such information is noteworthy once again because of the photographically-intensive style. While another guide book might inform the reader that in London phone booths are red, the Eyewitness Guide states the same thing *and shows a photograph* of a typical red phone booth. Is such a photograph really necessary? No. But, the photograph becomes one more aspect of the London tourist experience graphically captured by the publisher.
In short, the book is a must-have if you're traveling for the first time to London. I never tire of thumbing through my Eyewitness Guide for London. So rich, colorful, and dense are the layers of photographic and graphic elements in the Eyewitness Guide for London that it can provide hours of enjoyment both before and after your trip.
Book Review: Smart, User-Friendly Guidebook Has Legs After Your Trip to London
Summary: 4 Stars
From Lonely Planet to the Rough Guides, location-specific guidebooks generally seem so transient since a purchase generally depends upon an upcoming trip and soon afterward ends up in a storage box collecting dust or on craigslist for sale. That's not to say they don't have valuable information when you need them, but there is no incentive to return to the book once the trip has ended. The one exception to the rule is the series of Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Travel Guides. The London guide is as good as any in the series as it presents a graphically pleasing, intuitively organized guidebook with detailed pictorials that show animated aerial shots of neighborhoods like Covent Garden or cut-away floor plans of heavily visited buildings like Westminster Abbey or the Tate. It also helps make geographic sense of neighborhoods that allow you to navigate easily through them by pointing out recommended sights.
The first part of the book presents a timeline history of London that is both interesting and useful, as events are cross-referenced to sights you would want to see there. There is a well-presented survival guide toward the end of the book that highlights important travel information as well as recommendations on where to stay, shop and eat. Moreover, there is a comprehensive street finder of central London which helps you navigate without the inconvenience of fold-out maps. All the information is contained within a user-friendly, laminated paperback format that slips easily into backpacks and holds up well against inclement weather (a particular plus in rainy London). For all its obvious benefits, the one that has the most resonance to me is the fact that the book makes a fine keepsake of the trip afterward given its colorfully glossy quality. Even though the price is on the higher end of such guides, it is well worth it for its lasting value after your trip.
Book Review: Informative and easy-to-use resource
Summary: 4 Stars
After looking through many other travel guides, mostly copy-dense volumes with only a section or two of color photos, I admit to having been skeptical of the utility of this large, colorful, profusely-illustrated book. Would it really have the in-depth info I wanted? I shouldn't have worried. When my wife and I took a vacation to London this spring, this (along with one or two more specialized guides) was the book we ended up taking with us.
This guide handily divides London up into several sections, and covers each in generous depth. The suggested walks and tourist highlights in each chapter came in handy, even if we never chose to follow them verbatim. The collection of maps in the back, as well as the more narrowly-focused illustrated maps in each section, was easy to read and pretty comprehensive. And because the illustrations are large and lavish, it was no problem finding the information we needed quickly (keeping us from having to stand on street corners thumbing frantically through guidebooks like, well, like tourists).
The general travel information at the back of the book also came in handy, although we found it odd that according to the authors, "travelers checks are the safest alternative to carrying large amounts of cash." In fact, we had absolutely no problem accessing our American bank accounts via British ATMs, which struck us as a far safer and more convenient process.
Many travel guides become obsolete very quickly. But the many illustrations in an "Eyewitness Travel Guide" make it a best-of photo album as much as a guidebook. I think this volume is one of the very few that may be worth hanging on to now that we're back home.
Book Review: A must have for a London vacation
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this book 6 weeks before my trip to London - and it was money well spent! Before leaving, I planned my entire vacation using the D&K Travel guide (and tripadvisor dot com for reviews). The map section is excellent and accurate as I used it continually on walking tours as well as when on the buses and tube. I really loved the map section. The maps are broken down into sections of London with arrows at the edges of each map pointing to the page number that the map continues on (depending which direction you are following) - so no struggling with a huge unruly map. There is a handy tube (subway) guide at the back of the book. The book fit nicely into my purse, and this was very important to me as I wanted it with me at all times. Not only did I find the road maps terrific, but also the various overview maps of specific areas (i.e. Covent Garden, Russell Square, Westminster & Whitehall) which had recommended walking tours marked up. The individual attractions diagrams (i.e. Westminster Abbey, British Museum, National Gallery), were excellent too and right on the mark as I used them for planning exhibits to see in advance of the trip. Being a full color guide divided into locations, you'll find information easily and be able to organize a flowing itinerary. The tips section is excellent with bus, telephone, currency and many other important tidbits of info. As for the hotel/B&B selection, I found it limited, but the information accurate as to the accommodations listed. My vacation in London was fabulous and I truly think this book had a big part in my trips success. Almost all of the museums in London are free - enjoy!Book Review: The One Best Guide to London
Summary: 5 Stars
The City of London is one of the most fascinating urban areas on the planet. Its remarkable history, from its founding by the Romans and its long years as the center of the British Empire to its vibrant present as a cultural and commercial center provide venues of interest for almost everyone.
The Eyewitness Travel Guide to London packs an enormous amount of useful information into a single, easily portable guidebook. This guide includes a brief synopsis of London's long history, breakouts by area of what to see and do, traveler's tips on where to stay and where to eat, and survival information on how to get to, and around London. This last section includes vital information on how to get from the various airports into London itself.
This eyewitness guides come with the usual extensive collection of maps, photographs, and diagrams of attractions, along with short explanations on their respective histories. Enough information is provided to allow the discerning traveler to plan a vacation and to determine when to visit popular tourist attractions such as the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral. The guide also include information on many attractions that are off the beaten tourist path, such as London's many smaller museums that offer unique collections for public view. The guide includes a number of useful internet web page addresses where visitors can check the latest information on operating hours.
This guide is highly recommended to the traveler planning a visit to London.