Customer Reviews

Access London 6e (6th Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I came across the Access London book before traveling to London this year. [Note: I also had the Frommer's and Let's Go books too.] Access quickly became my London "companion". Organizing the information by neighborhood made it easier to plan my days and "explore" a different area each day! The reviews are very accurate and lively written. Perhaps the best feature is it's "off the beaten path" quality. The guide effectively balances "tourist favorites" with little gems that are well-kept secrets to all but the most inquisitive travelers. Highly recommended!

Heaven bless the people who took the time to recommend this book. I bought it right after booking my trip and was glad that I did. Having never really travelled before this book made my solo trip to London a rewarding and wonderful experience. I was able to find all of the things that I'd always wanted to see and a few things that I would never have found on my own. I carried it with me constantly and found myself feeling very comfortable getting around. I advise marking the pages of what you want to see before you leave and perhaps making a list. Take the book with you at all times and make full use of the maps it provides. I saw more of the city than I'd ever imagined and had a wonderful time doing it. I firmly believe that without this book my trip wouldn't have been nearly so successful.

Any travel guide to London is going to describe the main attractions: The Knopf guide gives the best background and cultural information, the DK guide gives the best maps and "move about town" information. Where the Access guide shows its genius is information about hotels, shops, and restaurants. This is a book to use to plan before going, and slip into your pocket when heading out to the London streets. The hotel descriptions are excellent (in this book I found the Fielding hotel in Covent Garden, everything the book said and a great place). This is the book to study what kind of shopping to do and where the shops are (have a teapot shaped like the Tower of London now). Found a great Turkish restaurnat near the Strand from this book. This is the book that fills in the spaces between the big attractions with the stuff that is fun. It is laid out geographically, so if you are walking from Trafalgar to the British Museum, a look at this book will give excellent, useful, short descriptions of shops and restaurants between the two, so you can take not the fastest path, but the most fun.

I bought Access London after reviewing a dozen or so guidebooks over a few cups of coffee at the local bookstore, and haven't looked back. I only wish that Access guides were available for all of the places that I have traveled. Hopefully one day they will be!
Perhaps it was my personal outlook toward going to the city that swayed my decision; so be it. I couldn't have cared less about Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard. It was the old history of London that I sought. The narrow passages, the Thames and it's memories of a 1000 yrs. of watermen plying the river, the pubs which seemed moored in a stream of time all their own. Access London provided the location to many of these windows on the past and was invaluable in making a memorable experience of both of my trips to the City.
Now, it should not be misunderstood that Access London doesn't give useful and accurate information about the more popular attractions London has to offer, because it does, and then some. I found the sections pertaining to the museums of London to be especially helpful in finding the highlights among a myriad of exhibitions. The book went so far as to provide floor plans for each of the major museums as well. A last consideration in recommending Access London is the fact that it is laid out in geographic sections. This means that no matter where you find yourself in the heart of this most interesting city you are provided with a host of alternatives when it comes to your eating, drinking, sleeping, and sightseeing options.

Access London is an explorers guide to a great city and gets my strongest recommendation.

I have used "Access" city guides for many years and have found them to be excellent! They are easy to understand with lots of information that is quite useful. In addition, they are a lightweight and handy size. Unfortunately, they are not updated often, in fact I just purchased "Access London" eighth edition ( I have all of the previous editions) and have found it to be a repeat of the previous two editions. Much of the guide is out of date. This is disappointing,as I have come to rely on "Access" guides to plan trips. I now will have to use a more current guide.

I picked up Access London the day before my trip. I'd puchased several well-known uides already, but something about Access caught my eye. What a good decision. I never opened the other books.

Access London provided me with all the tools I needed to get around. A map made navigating London's streets easy. Additionally, the book came with a store-by-store guide of popular shopping districts. We were able to find Harrod's, Selfridge's and McDonalds by following the guide.

Along with the navigational aids, the book provides historical information about the sites and what it costs to get in. What a deal!!!

I recommend Access London to both the London "newbie" and the seasoned London traveler. Don't leave home without it.

A friend gave me this guide book as a birthday gift for my trip to London. Having always travelled with Lonely Planet guide books, I hesitated before finally deciding not to buy the Lonely Planet guide as a complement to this one (I also already had a Knopff map guide)... Big mistake! First of all, this guide book does not have a tube map!!! Second, the maps of the different boroughs are not very good. Also, the information is all thrown together so you have restaurants and hotels amidst tourist attractions. Even thought the titles are color coded, this is not very practical, making it harder to find the information you need.

I also found that this guide book did not include sufficient practical information that one might need when travelling: addresses for Internet cafés, laundromats, information for women travelling alone, etc, which Lonely Planet guides offer extensively. Furthermore, the recommendations in this guide book, in terms of restaurants and hotels, seemed more suitable for "older" travellers and travellers with a larger budget. If you are young or if you are looking for the "cool" places to hang out, this guide will not be very helpful.

One good thing about this guide book though is that it has detailed background information on the different tourist attractions one might visit. This is nice to have when you are not taking a guided tour.

Overall, this guide book is OK, but not good enough to be the only book you rely on during your trip.

I work in a book store,so, believe me, I have had plenty of time to look at travel books and I have to say that these access guides are the best.There are a couple of reasons why. First off, the pages are thicker paper so they wont tear as easily if you are carrying it aound every day and thumbing thru it constantly like i was!! They also color code the listings..green for parks, blue for hotels, you get the idea. As another person said before, its all by area so you can always se whats up where you are..very nice. I highly reccomend it and all the others!!

Richard Saul Wurman transformed the world of guidebooks, beginning more that 20 years ago with Access Los Angeles. An architect and graphic artist, Wurman breaks cities into neighborhoods. Maps, the intelligent use of color and good information combine to make this series the best single set of guidebooks on the market.

The London guide is typical; and excellent. Another plus of the Access guides is the excellent insider reviews of hotels and restaurants. Also, best bets by locals often take you off the beaten path to places the locals frequent. I have yet to be disappointed.

This is the one you will tuck in your pocket or stash in your shoulderpack as you explore London.

Though this series embodies a clever concept, both the current edition (the 7th) and the previous one contain many inaccuracies, especially the inclusion of places that have changed dramatically or that are simply no longer there. While the format is convenient for having at hand while walking around the city, I cannot recommend using this book for planning. Moreover, the concept and presentation around which this series is based has been significantly improved upon by the DK-Publishing Eyewitness Travel Guides series.

If you intend to walk around London and want an accurate guide that orients you and points out the essential and interesting sites, the Eyewitness Travel Guides series is a much better bet. If you are really looking for a street-by-street, house-by-house listing of everything there is, the Access series is useful--but be sure to check everything that matters to you with another source before departing to make sure it really is there!