I recently hosted an out-of-town guest who had never been to Los Angeles before, and while walking around Chinatown she found the City Walks deck and bought it to help inspire her explorations. Not only was it very user-friendly, but the walking tours provided incredible ideas of places to visit for an out-of-town guest. My friend liked the deck so much she gave to to me to keep for future guests.
Pluses:
1. Maps are very clear and user-friendly.
2. Public transit information is provided.
3. Witty, engaging writing style that conveys a sense of the culture and attitudes of Angelenos.
4. Varied locations; not just a hit list of popular tourist destinations.
5. Useful and interesting information about the area on each card.
Minus:
There are only 50! Although this is part of a series of "travel decks" that all have 50 walking tours of various cities, one could easily do another 50 locations in a place so geographically diverse as Los Angeles. Also, the locations, while varied, tend to trend to the north and west portions of the Los Angeles metropolitan region. Where are the tours of the San Gabriel Valley? Long Beach/Queen Mary? Redondo Beach? Hopefully another deck of 50 will be released for Los Angeles, though I am not deducting any stars for this as I believe the compilation of locations is pretty good despite limitations imposed by the series' format.
