Blue Guide New York: (BLUE GUIDE) (Paperback)

by Carol Wright (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Possibly the most comprehensive guide there is to New York. -- New York Daily News

Sets the standard for travel guides. -- Sunday Times [London]

[I]mpressive and indispensable to the serious sightseer. -- New York Times, Richard F. Shepard --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
This is the best-researched, best-presented, most comprehensive cultural guides in the English language covering art, history, architecture and archeology.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 584 pages
• Publisher: Blue Guide; 4 edition (August 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905131232
• ISBN-13: 978-1905131235
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #195,940 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Indispensable!, March 12, 2005

By	Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blue Guide New York (Paperback)

Carol von Pressentin Wright's "Blue Guide to New York" is probably the most comprehensive guidebook to the Big Apple available. Absolutely indispensable, it includes 41 detailed maps for all five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, along with several black and white photographs. As a New Yorker, I cannot think of anything that has not been included here. I frequently use the book myself, especially when I have out-of-town visitors. It is also excellent, for New Yorkers and visitors alike, to use on walking tours. I have the 2002 edition.

In an extremely accessible format, "The Blue Guide" presents information on all NYC districts and important sights, including: practical information, lodgings, restaurants and eateries for every budget, transportation, museums and galleries, sports, performing arts, shopping, monuments, historic detail and districts, detailed walking tours and background information. As noted, there is a veritable plethora of clear and easy-to-follow maps, along with a large pull-out MTA map of the subway system, and bus, railroad and ferry connections.

From the posh shops on Madison and Fifth Avenues to the funky Lower East Side, from the streets of Greenwich Village and Soho to the brownstones of Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, this is the one and only guide you will need to navigate through this fabulous city, and to find fascinating out-of-the-way places most tourests never discover. There are myriad cultures here: Little Odessa in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Little Italy, Chinatown, a thriving Greek community in Astoria, Queens, Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn where Arabic is heard on the street and wares from all over the Middle East are sold. Almost every country in the world is represented here and you can visit them all easily with the Blue Guide in hand. I hope you enjoy the city I love!
JANA

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Architectural Guide To New York City, June 1, 1999

By	Robert in NY "wldtrav" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Guide New York (Paperback)

Simply the best book available for those seriously interested in a detailed architectural history of New York, even though the most recent edition was published in 1991. Unbelievably rich in detail. As other reviewers point out however, this is NOT a typical "tourist" guide about where to eat, sleep or have fun in New York.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless, October 7, 2006

By	Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Blue Guide New York (Paperback)

All right, the most recent edition of the Blue Guide added CBGB's, an East Village rock, punk club that has now gone out of business. A few other establishments in the various editions of this fantastic guide are undoubtedly also no longer with us.

Having said that, even the oldest first and second editions (the latter, from 1991) are still incredibly useful, even timeless. For even they have listings of the most important sights in each of the city's five boroughs, a bevy of maps, lists of hotels and restaurants, sightseeing services, theaters, amusements, gardens, museums and so on.

But unlike the average, perfunctory city guide, this one (at least the 1991 edition) has more than 760 pages, including all the maps. And those pages also encompass a broad spectrum of architectural descriptions and historical events.

Not only buildings and the like are described here. So are whole parks, streets and districts, along with detailed pointers on all the exterior and interior trivia one could ever want to know while on a walking tour.

I can't attest to the value of any of the other 40-plus Blue Guide titles. But if you forget every other guide book while in New York, it will be okay, so long as you bring along at least some version of this one.

--Alyssa A. Lappen