Customer Reviews

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Philadelphia & The Pennsylvania Dutch Country

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

 

 

Thinking of visiting Philadelphia and the surrounding region? This is an awfully good introduction to the area and a fine resource for visitors and tourists. Is it perfect? No. Is it helpful? Yes indeed!

The Eyewitness folks have developed a series of books termed "Eyewitness Travel" that are quite nice. This volume begins with context about the city, including comments on its history and a quick survey of some special attractions.

Next, the book focuses on Philadelphia, area by area. Old City is, of course, especially interesting, containing many sights dating back to the city's earlier era, including the Betsy Ross House, Elfreth's Alley (the oldest continually inhabited street in the United States), and Independence Hall. Another delightful fixture? City Tavern, with its recipes by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on the menu.

Other areas include Society Hall and Penn's Landing, Center City, Logan Square and the Museum District, and other areas, including outside of Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is well described here (pages 88-91), as are many other cultural landmarks.

Want an idea where to stay or eat? This work also includes information on these issues. One can certainly disagree with some of the listings (I have places to eat that I'd add), but the choices aren't unreasonable and would be helpful to potential visitors.

All in all, a good resource to take with you when visiting Philly or the surrounding area.

This guide book is slightly out of date now, but it features some cutaway diagrams of Philadelphia buildings which you won't find anywhere else. It also has plenty of photos to serve as inspiration for making the trip. I'm not sure why all the Philadelphia guide books include Lancaster and the Pennsylvania Dutch Country because that area is actually far from the city and deserves its own book.

This book is so old that the Comcast Center does not even appear in any of its skyline photos. There are other changes you should be aware of. For example, SEPTA is eliminating the confusing "R" and numbers and rebranding Regional Rail using the current destination names. And today I learned that the Prince Theater on Chestnut Street is going bankrupt so something may change there.

I used this book's "3 day plan" to travel through Philadelphia, and we had a great time! I have used the sister book for Boston, and it was also fantastic. Everything was planned and laid out in order, so that I didn't have to worry too much about where to go or what to see. We had a great trip!

The Eyewitness Travel guides have become my favorite travel books - they are comprehensive yet still easy to follow. I moved to Philadelphia recently and wanted a book to become familiar with the area and explore. It's more comprehensive than I could have imagined. Sometimes a bit hard to follow because attractions are organized according to city neighborhoods (which I'm not familiar with yet - and the only reason I gave the review a 4 star), but otherwise it's very informative. Hours, contact information, restaurant prices are all very accurate.