Customer Reviews

Frommer's Amsterdam (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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We travel a lot and always get a Frommer's Guide the first time we visit a new place. In general these guides are full of useful information, accurate maps and excellent sight-seeing suggestions and lists of restaurants. We have found this to be true of the Frommer's Guides to France, Provence, Germany, London, Spain and Norway.

This Amsterdam guide did not live up to our expectations. It's not that the book is "terrible", but we consistently found inaccuracies and, as others have said here, were often left wondering if the author George McDonald actually ate at the restaurants he recommends. One could reasonably suspect that the appearance of some of these restaurants' names in the guide were paid endorsements. (A particular recommendation for Indonesian food, which one can find in abundance in Amsterdam, was especially suspicious, as it was overpriced and nowhere near the quality of other restaurants we visited).

We always like to walk when visiting a city, and this Amsterdam Guide contains several long walking tours. We tried almost all of them, and invariably gave up and headed in our own direction. The maps provided with the walking tours had inaccuracies serious enough to really throw us off (street names off by an entire block), and included ridiculous "points of interest" -- in one case he sends you off to see the site of a historic orphanage, when in fact the orphanage is gone and now replaced by the new Ballet house, an unattractive steel and glass monstrosity. He even goes so far as to explain that the orphanage "used" to stand there. What's the point? Does Mr. McDonald really not think that Amsterdam has enough existing points-of-interest that he has to send us off to the ones that aren't there anymore?

Further, the tear-out folding map that comes with the book contains little more than street names -- there are inexplicably no references to points-of-interest mentioned in the book, or even major landmarks.

I bought this book for my first trip to Amsterdam. The basic info is sound but there were some problems. The most annoying is that key parts of maps end up in the middle (binding) making them difficult to read. The restaurant reviews were in inaccurate and left the reader wondering whether anyone from Frommers had been in the restaurant. In summary the book is OK but there are better ones on the market.

I just took this book to Amsterdam. I found it to be very helpful. The books features maps dedicated to a single subject (such as a restaurant map, a hotel map, etc.). We used these extensively. The Frommer's Irreverent Guides have more candid and entertaining reviews (including information on coffeeshops, which this book essentially skips), but this book is an excellent one-stop source of travel information. If you're only bringing one guide to Amsterdam, this one will do the job well. If you can pack two, bring along the Irreverent Guide (or something similarly hip).

Frommer's Amsterdam is a guide that lunges to introduce students to the fun, vibrant and occasionally disreputable capital of the Netherlands. As with most guides, readers should have high expectations of what they will be purchasing. Travel guides can potentially play a huge role in your trip to a faraway land, and you always want to make sure you have the right guide before you leave so you can trust you aren't going to be missing out. Taking a trip to Amsterdam would be no exception to this rule - it's a highly complex city in an obscure area of the world and it's easy to miss out on the must-sees. Frommer's Amsterdam is a thick, incredibly informative guide that contains more knowledge than any traveler could stand to comprehend - the only problem is, it may not have the right knowledge that it's buyers will be looking for. Though its 300 pages offer an encyclopedic database of things to do around the area, it sadly presents itself as such - dull and lacking of details, personal accounts, and pictures. These are factors in a guide that are valuable to most casual travelers. Though a never ending list of attractions and restaurants may seem ideal, it doesn't exactly carry the weight of what's missing.

It is highly apparent after gazing through the chapters of this travel guide that it was printed for a younger audience. Section titles including "Fun Things to Do for Free" and "How to Experience Amsterdam in 2 Days" all point to travelers with low budgets who may not plan on staying long. The travel guide also mentions universities and college life throughout its pages, information only relevant to an audience interested in such. The author, George McDonald, acts as your tour guide around the city - hitting hundreds of attractions, restaurants, and hotels along the way. Much like a tour guide you may find on an actual trip or vacation, George McDonald tries to include his personality and voice throughout the guide to make it appeal to younger readers. The only problem is that George McDonald doesn't have much of a personality to begin with. While he is constantly attempting to humor his young audience, this humor is often followed not by laughs, but rather by disconnection and pity in the way that a teenager pities his dad for trying to be hip. This doesn't make college readers want to buy the guide, it makes them want to leave the country that much sooner.

When Spring Break rolls around, Frommer's Amsterdam may come in handy on your quick dash to the Netherlands, offering immediate access to cheap necessities. A great majority of the recommendations in this guide focus on cheap lodging, quick dining, and crazy explorations that can be done on a budget. Likewise, there is a heavy focus on the appeals of the red light district and the drug scene that runs rampant through the city. For these reasons, it would seem that this travel guide would have immense appeal and could be considered an immediate buy - unless, of course, you're looking for more than just words. This book presents itself as being graphically dull, contains few pictures, and dissuades travelers who may want to see an actual view of Amsterdam. With hundreds of attractions to choose from, throwing a few pictures into this book would have been helpful in making traveling decisions. Readers coming from an English-speaking background may not be able to tell the difference between Begijnhof and Magere Brug, and rather than sticking around to read paragraphs about Dutch draw-bridge history, may just skip through for the lack of images. Plenty of other guides out there offer the same informational value but also provide aesthetic value, some for even cheaper than this one. Frommer's Amsterdam is a highly informative travel guide, but only halfway meets the needs of basic travelers and the college students it was written for.

There seems to be limitless information packed into the 300 pages of this book - and that is truly the biggest upside to buying a Frommer's guide. Chapter after chapter seems to hold new treasures that one could look to get out of a trip to Amsterdam - ice bars, rave clubs, historical churches, the list goes on. But despite how deep this list may grow, and how fulfilling it may seem, I question the treasures that may have been accidentally left out. After skimming through a guide on Boston from the same publisher, it quickly grew apparent that the handbook was forgetting some major details. For example, Pizzeria Regina, a world-renowned, multi-award winning pizzeria from Boston's own North End was blatantly ignored in the guide - not just that, but all pizza joints were left out. Anyone who knows of Pizzeria Regina knows of the value this place holds to Boston and the value it holds to travelers. Other users of Frommer's guides have had their complaints as well. According to Amazon.com, one user wrote that "the restaurant reviews were inaccurate and left the reader wondering whether anyone from Frommer's had been in the restaurant" in respect to their guide on Amsterdam. Flags are raised not only for the publisher, but for this book as well.

For $17.99, Frommer's Amsterdam is a well-priced compact pocket guide loaded with textual resources. It was written with college budgets in mind and has great recommendations for those going on short vacations. But sadly, it lacks any visual references other than a few black and white regional maps, one of which is in color but has unfortunate binding placement making it impossible to read. Though the publisher is well rooted in our libraries, some users have complained about similar texts lacking depth and realism. Frommer's Amsterdam is too risky with not enough chance at paying off - when you've got dozens of other guides for the same price that have what this one lacks, it makes no sense to settle. Overall, Frommer's Amsterdam is arguably the best guide that I'd never recommend.

I found this book to be very helpful in both preparing for and experiencing my trip to Amsterdam. It can be daunting to visit this country as there are so many things to see and such diverse lifestyles. The one area that I believe this book, as well as the 4 others I read during my preparations, fell short was in the area of hotels and where to stay during the trip. We were looking for something with all of the amenities of the luxury hotels, but with a funky/off beat feel to it. We stayed at the Hilton, but that was like being in the states. Not bad, but hardly the feel of this great city. Frommer does, however, always deliver in the areas surrounding food, shopping, and excursions and this book is no exception. It was a great prep guide and all of the maps helped tremendously.

I found this book very useful. It's very detailed and gives a lot of relevant, interesting information on what to see and do in Amsterdam. There are also suggested walking tours that I really enjoyed.