Customer Reviews

Chicago (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is a good guide. It could be better. The four regions of the city they focus on are far too restictive. They could spend more time in the North Side. Alot of the tourist-friendly sights of Lincoln Park, Wrigley Field, or Belmont and Clark arent even in the detailed parts in the book. The South Side has lots of space, which is good. Yet the City goes farther north, and alot of those areas are the places tourists love. Some of the maps of greater Chicago arent overly to scale, or realistic. I forgive though, its the first edition, always more to tweek it!

I used to live in Chicago, and I can tell you that had I had this book back then, I would have visited lots of places I never knew existed or didn't fully appreciate at the time. As in most DK Travel Guides, there's lots of information, photos, maps and graphs.

Sure, the book is a bit outdated, but then again, IT'S A BOOK! In any case, the good people at DK keep updating their books from time to time.

I do have one complaint, in the fact that this book has less than half the pages that the New York book's got. Because it's less famous it doesn't mean that Chicago is less of a great city as the big apple is...

I've reviewed several travel guides lately, a number from Eyewitness Travel. This is another useful guidebook. And since I am from Illinois originally and Chicago always beckoned as a terrific place to visit, I was most interested in how well this book satisfied. Well, to end any suspense as to my answer, it satisfied very well indeed.

As with any guidebook, there will be questions about why certain sights were mentioned, certain hotels selected, certain restaurants singled out, etc. But that is a part of development of any guidebook. Choices must be made.

The first part of the book provides background context on Chicago--from four suggested tours of Chicago to a brief history of the place and other introductory information. On pages 21-25 are some bold selections. On Page 21, the top ten tourist attractions (I'm not sure that these would be my Top 10, but some are no brainers, such as the Art Institute, the Magnificent Mile, the Field Museum, and so on). Pages 22-23 feature the best museums in the city--and the choice is pretty reasonable.

One of the standard features of any guidebook for a city is a consideration of the different areas within the city. Here, I'll just mention a couple.

One, the downtown core, including the Loop (defined by a loop in the elevated train tracks). There are some great buildings and museums here--the Art Institute (both a great piece of architecture and a stunning museum), the old Marshall Field's flagship store (now Macy's; it's still hard to refer to the place as Macy's!), Sears Tower, Auditorium Building, and Millennium Park. Places to stay? I love the old classic Palmer House. I also enjoy staying at the Hyatt Regency (its restaurant, Stetson's is also worth mentioning, although it's not listed in this guide). Some grand ones. I always enjoyed Miller's Pub, with its fine baby-back ribs. And walk out toward the Lakefront from here and enjoy the view.

Two, the North Side. Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building are wonderful. Want to shop till you drop? Check out the Magnificent Mile; in the process go up to the observation deck of the Hancock Building. I'm nervous about heights and get conniptions, but I can survive because of the splendid view! Some fine steak houses are located here--the well known Morton's and a Don Shula.

There is also a valuable guide as to where to go for antiques, art and art supplies, books, gifts and souvenirs, sporting goods, and so on.

As someone who has visited Chicago numerous times and has a soft spot in his heart for the Windy City, I find this a very good volume. So, a strong recommendation!

For the most part, Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Travel Guides are terrific both as a backpack resource and as a keepsake afterward. I have about a dozen of their books at home, and I return to them frequently since I am a fan of the pleasing graphics and intuitive organization by neighborhood. The New York City guidebook (or more accurately, the Manhattan guide) is a particularly strong entry in the series, but the slim volume put together for Chicago, last published in 2003, is a relative disappointment. The gap comes from how the editors define the city's boundaries or at least what they perceive to be the areas of highest interest. Of course, the Loop and the Near North Side are covered thoroughly, but popular neighborhoods like Lakeview and Lincoln Park are given short shrift relegated to small paragraphs in the Farther Afield chapter.

The first part of the book presents a brief history of the city that is interesting if rather cursory with events that are cross-referenced to the more popular 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, which helps you navigate without the inconvenience of fold-out maps. But again, the shortcomings reflect the selection of key areas at the expense of others. Even with copies of Chicago and Time Out, I was not able to achieve a more holistic view of the city when I traveled there.

The pluses remain in its format. All the information is contained within a user-friendly, laminated paperback format that slips easily into backpacks and holds up well against inclement weather. Of particular use are the detailed pictorials showing animated aerial shots of neighborhoods and cut-away floor plans of the more heavily visited buildings like the Art Institute of Chicago. However, the net result is a guidebook that provides only marginal value in spite of the high quality of the series as a whole.

This is a legendary style of Chicago book. Living in Illinois for years, I would like to recommend this book since it really highlights the special Chicagoan atmosphere only available in Chicago. However, if you have been with DK's books, this guide inherits Eyewitness' stylish format. Though already having a couple of Chicago travel guides, I still cannot help to pull out my credit card for it.

The ethnic neighborhoods, which Chicago is quite famous for, is barely mentioned and offers no instructions on how to visit them. This book is much thinner than the other Eyewitness city Guides.

This is a rather slim volume compared to other books from the DK Eyewitness Travel series. And it's also the only one that I have been somewhat disappointed with so far. Sure, the info one expects is there. But this series usually excells with lavish illustrations. And I think some improvements would be in order here. To me, somehow there is just not enough of the greatness of this fabulous city coming through. There are a few nice illustrations, like the views from the Hancock. But most pictures are not doing justice to the objects they are showing. Just two examples: the Hancock building is a major landmark with a very characteristic look. And the photo on page 64 just does not show the diagonal framework that is part of the uniqueness of this building. Likewise, the new Trump tower is shown with such a tiny picture that it's hard to imagine the impression this building actually adds to the city's skyline. Most three-dimensional drawings that DK is famous for look somewhat unfinished in this volume. And I think there could well be some more illustrations of Chicago's interesting art-deco buildings. Why is there no illustration of one of the major attractions of Millennium Park, the Crown Fountain? And the only illustration of the Bean on page 21, another major attraction of that same park, is certainly not making one want to go to enjoy it. Many of the detail maps are tucked too much into the spine of the book too. I could go on, with the somehow distorted depiction of the famous Marina towers that were the reason I originally visited Chicago in 1968, the lack of a better view of the Willis (former Sears) tower and its surroundings as seen from the famous boat tour on the Chicago River, etc, etc. Overall, it's all there, one could say, as far as mere contents is concerned, but optically crammed into too few pages.

Earlier editions of this book got mostly excellent reviews. I suspect the problem with the 2010 edition is that the publisher did not allow sufficient room for a thorough update. The Trump tower mentioned above, as well as the Millenium park may simply have had to be squeezed in somehow. I certainly hope the next edition will have a substantial increase in the number of pages, with correspondingly improved coverage of some of the newer sights. Sure, the mere number of pages is no measure for the quality of a book. But the Paris guide of the same series has more than twice the number of pages compared to the present Chicago guide. As the basic standards ought to be similar, it is at least an indicator that Chicago got a bit short shrifted.

This was fantistic since it also had 3-D maps and street guides. The maps are worth the price alone. MJR

Great book for sightseeing. It is very well organized and easy to read. It does not overwhelm with information, which is something I love. It gives you just the right amount of details to get a feel for what you are seeing. The color-coded sections are a great idea.

If I would have to say one negative thing about the Chicago guide is that it could use a slightly better Metro map.

I generally love the guides from this publisher and recommend them.

I received the book in perfect condition, as promised. It is just what I expected from Eyewitness Travel: comprehensive, full of information, and stocked with colorful photos. These are by far my favorite travel guides, and the Chicago book does not disappoint!