London (Eyewitness Travel Guides) by Roger Williams, Michael Leapman
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Book Reviews of London (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Book Review: Traveling to London for the first time
Summary: 4 Stars
It's a great book if you've never been there before to find out what you want to do. Everything is categorized in the back, and great pictures! It's definitely a good thing to purchase before you go and study on the long plane ride.Book Review: Great guide book
Summary: 4 Stars
This guide book met our needs, and I would recommend it to anyone traveling to London for the first time. However, it was a little heavy, but the information and maps were what we were after!Book Review: London Travel Guide
Summary: 4 Stars
While traveling to London on business, this was a great guide to review prior to my trip to map out where to go and what to see in the short amount of personal time I had. Highly recommended.Book Review: Not as good as other DK guides
Summary: 3 Stars
I like DK Books. Their wonderful pictures and diagrams are real strengths and I would buy this particular London book again.
However it was written so long ago and has been so poorly patched its practical text is not suitable for the people I bought it for. The advice about traveler's checks with the patch about using your credit card to get a cash advance from an ATM is quite a bit off. Digital camera owners need to be told to look at their charger and see if it works at 240; that tells them whether to get a voltage transformer or only a plug adapter. Oyster cards are a confusing convenience that can save real money and time if you stay more than a few days. These practical things need to be written up properly.
A brief reference to vibrant Canary Wharf and the superb Dockland's museum was not added very well. The photo on page 236 must have been taken before the first American edition in 1993. For perhaps 5 years you have been able take a tour that walks across the top of Tower Bridge; do readers want to be told that is a change from what the book used to say? Goddard's pie shop, which gets as much coverage as Docklands - Canary Wharf, is closed. Have the editors heard of Ben Franklin's house?
"Annually Revised" it says. There is evidence of many revisions and repairs; that is true. However this 2007 edition is not good enough to be your main guide book. Read it with some skepticism.
Book Review: Not worth it
Summary: 2 Stars
CAUTION: Do not pick up an Eyewitness Travel Guide unless you are prepared to take a huge hit on your savings account and buy a plane ticket. Any and all of these books make your mouth water for the beautiful and exotic places featured within the pages.
Now that the commerical is over, we'll get down to what I didn't like.
The pictures are amazing and beautiful and inspiring, but that's more or less where this book's assets end. If you're looking for information, pick up Frommer's instead. There are very brief travel helps in the back of the book, but if you had to be stranded in London with one guide book, you'd be foolish (and lost) if you chose this one. The travel information and survival tips are kept at a bare minimum, and even information on the sights and sites mentioned or pictured in the book are lacking. Think National Geographic captions.
If you're planning a trip, it's worth checking this book out of the library to help you make a list of all the beautiful places you want to see, but if you want to know the best place to stand for the Changing of the Guard or where to find cheap food that resembles food, find another book.