Customer Reviews

Eyewitness Travel Guide to San Francisco and Northern California (revised)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a native San Franciscan, so I consider myself to have the highest qualifications to review this book! I liked this book so much I'm buying it for a friend who's moving there. Like all the Eyewitness Travel books, this one features an appealing layout with photos that bring the city alive, and has appropriately categorized and complimented the city's diverse neighborhoods. If you visit, don't waste your time on schloky Fisherman's Wharf! Get out and see the neighborhoods that make San Francisco what it is.

Dorling Kindersley makes the best travel guides hands down. They are extremely well illustrated, have extensive and detailed maps up to date information on hotels (rates, rooms etc), restaurants (costs and reservation policies), and sites to see.

The travel guides have wonderful pictures, well researched histories and facts about San Francisco(about Lombard street, Cable Cars, Angel's Flight....), what wines to look for and taste (not just divided between Napa and Sonoma but also by vineyard but also by year), detailed walking tours, information on famous sites (Alcatraz, the sea lions at Pier 39 and some of the top wineries to visit in Napa and Sonoma). DK also makes a guide that covers all of California and I own both - unless you are simply going to San Francisco, I suggest buying the California guide over this one - they have almost the same information. The European guides for each city have more detail than this guide but it is still a good buy.

The guide covers travel information, driving directions, the best places to shop and eat, where to get good deals and SOOO much more. The book give you wonderful ideas on how to best see each area in a limited time or really enjoy it if you are there for more than a few days. The book also covers things to do that many tourists might over look as well as telling you what is worth your while and what to skip.

This is one of the best guides available on the market. It is perfect if you are planning to go to a few cities in a limited time or for more in depth information when planning a longer trip.

The Eyewitness Travel Guide to San Francisco is a colorful guide to Northern California. It has great photography and is full of pictures. If you are a visual person, like pictures and don't like to read a lot, this book is for you. It is very complete with detailed information on sightseeing, shopping, eating out, and interesting things to do. This book is highly recommended. If you are interested in California, then you should also look at the Eyewitness Guide: California. It is a complete guide to the entire state. It is unfortunate that the Eyewitness Guide is not available for other cities in the Western US.

This is a great book and I've just bought a dozen to hand out to my clients because it really presents San Francisco the way it must be visited: by neighborhoods, by experiences. Each neighborhood is presented in it's totality - with historical remarks, notable sights, comprehensive recommendations, and bird's-eye-view maps to put you on top of your trip. Compare that with the alphbetical list of tourist traps often found in guidebooks and you'll appreciate the extra effort.

Although pretty to look at this book lacks depth. I would have enjoyed exploring more out-of-the-way places that are not on the average tourist track. Many of the restaurants listed are out of business. Eyewitness hits the high spots but is in need of an update.

The Eyewitness Travel Guide is in my personal opinion one of the best, if not the best, travel guide series out there. Aside from the stunning illustration in the book, the book is extremely organized, usually giving you a brief history of the location, followed by a systematic review of the destination by sections. I particularly appreciate the "Tours" section that I found in the SF and New York guides. Various detailed walking tours or driving tours were planned out and clearly marked on maps and specific sights were highlighted so that you know what you are seeing. Many guides tell you what you need to see and do while this serie of guide SHOW you what you are seeing and also point out specific aspects of the sights. For this SF and N. Cal guide, I only gave it a 4 stars because I feel that the guide is rather weak on the N. Cal section. Specifically, many major sights in N. Cal were only given brief 1 page description, which with illustration taking a significant part of the page layout, does not do a thorough job highlighting the various sights in N. California. You will probably want to supplement this guide with another guide if you intend to visit other N. Cal sites.

In short, this book helped us so much when we visited San Francico. We only had 3 days and we were able to make the most of them because of Eyewitness' travel guide. Great maps. Great Suggestions. Great walking tours.

I used this book while on several trips to the SF area. It is perfect for sightseeing the city, as well as in determining what to see. Even in the outlying areas, the book points you in the right directions in which to go, though not as good as its coverage of SF. If you are looking for a book on SF, then this is the one you should look for.

This is an incredible book. The illustrations are unbelievably detailed. I used to live in SF and still I could study this book for hours. Even if you have been to every place in the book, you will still learn something. This is the perfect gift for anyone traveling to San Francisco and/or Northern California. I can't recommend this book enough.

I love the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide series - and other books from DK - Dorling Kindersley (...). The travel guides are very handy, the details in the guides are very interesting and very well done with great page layouts and plenty of pictures and graphics explaining architectures of popular buildings and maps of neighborhoods in good detail and style. A great buy for anyone visiting San Francisco and those already living there too to get to know their city better (in fact, now I make sure I buy a DK guide for every location I visit!).

There is a version that comes with a larger map and quick cue cards in a leather binder/pouch as well. Great to carry around or gift but costs slightly more. Worth it.