Customer Reviews

Frommer's England 2001 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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

 

 

I took two country guides with me to England: Fodor's and Frommer's (see my review on Fodor's). Frommer's is my first choice for England, and here is why. The authors, Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince, have done their homework and have given visitors to England a very good guide. Their succinct section "The Best of England" points out, in 16 subject areas (The Best Cathedrals, Best Gardens, Best Pubs etc.), important areas that every tourist should be aware of.

Frommer's very informative 60 page section "Planning Your Trip to England" is a quick and important read. The guide's strongest section is `London', top rate and excellent. Porter & Prince are also the author's of the recommended guide: "Frommer's London 2003". The `London' section in this book has been taken from that guide.

Frommer's publications tend to be for the more affluent travelers but they do offer more help for those hoping to find "inexpensive" lodging (less than $100 a night) in England. Their "Very Expensive" range is unusually $400-$1000 per night, sometimes more. However, all of their recommendations are reliable and their description is very good.

Unlike, Fodor's, they make life a bit easier by giving you the actual cost of accommodations and restaurant in both British pounds and dollars. Almost all of the hotels have website listing and seeing your accommodations in color via the web is a major help.

However, this is not true for the restaurant listings, even though now many of the top restaurants have their own websites with vivid photos and menus -- I found no addresses listed.

A guide book worth its salt has to guide you with quality maps. The few maps that Frommer's uses are graphically laid-out with restaurants and accommodations numerically located on each map. However, this guide cries out for MORE MAPS. This is a very weak area in this guide that could be easily remedied. Also, but not a significant deterrent, Frommer's only has nine pages set aside to introduce you to 2000+ years of English history.

Do note that Fodor's includes Scotland and Wales, whereas this book, Frommer's England 2003, is strictly England. So, if you want one guide to take with you to see `England' then this is the guide to get. It is reliable, informative and very well laid out. Strongly Recommended.

As always, an excellent Frommer's guide. I love Frommer's guides and won't travel without them. I prefer them to Fodor's because they actually make recommendations for sights, hotels, and restaurants, rather than just providing a comprehensive list that the traveller must sort through on his/her own. Frommer's provides the best combination of tourist destinations, hotels, and restaurants in one book that I have found. Numerous options in different price categories for hotels are clearly listed, (although be aware that this book is not for the "shoestring" traveler). Headings, key information, & phone numbers are in red, so they stand out in the text, making it easy to quickly reference.

As always, the book is well organized and concise with numerous helpful hints. When I am on the road, I don't want to wade through 2 pages of "color" and "history" to find the key points about a city. The approach is to help you pick sights to visit, not to provide a detailed explanation or tour of the site once you get there. This is also not a book of color pictures and drawings. Such books may be wonderful in one's living room curled up by the fire (DK/Insight Guides), but I find them altogether unuseable on the road.

Although comprehensive, Frommer's does not list every sight, no matter how obscure, an approach I greatly prefer. If you want to know every small museum and pile of stone ruins that may exist, get the Michelin Green Guide. If you only want a limited handful of sights with detailed local color get Rick Steves. However, if you want a concise list of all the major sights, clearly rated, so you can plan an excellent trip on your own in any location, get Frommer's. Frommer's clearly marks the "Best" attractions to visit, and then provides a wide choice of Tier 2 & 3 options (more than could be accomplished on any three trips), without leaving the reader confused on which attractions are the most worthwhile.

The only reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because it ONLY covers England and is missing Wales. Frommer's does not publish a comprehensive guide to Great Britain; and although they have separate guides for Scotland and Ireland, there is nothing available for Wales. For those travelling in the Southern UK, this is a major omission. I don't know why there is no guide for the UK, or why Wales is missing, but this could be a problem if you only want to use a single guidebook for your trip. If you're travelling to London only, I'd recommend "Frommer's London" (it is more in depth and smaller). But if you want a guide book that only covers England, and does it well, then Frommer's is THE best.

Back in 1969, my husband and I traveled together to England for our honeymoon using our trusty copy of Frommer's England, finding it the most reliable and accurate on the market. In 2002, my son and his wife accompanied us on our most recent trip, bringing along their young son, thus marking three generations of users of this fact- and fun-filled guide to the very best that England has to offer--all at an affordable price.

We are Anglophiles, and we feel that we grew up with this guide. Except for a few misses, we've traveled to England almost every year to renew our friendships with the many people we've met through this intensely personal and extremely practical guidebook.

What we've always liked about Frommer's England is its ability to cut through the touristic hype and to connect its readers immediately to the heart and soul of England, recommending the best of its people and its most intriguing places. We are not a wealthy family; vacation hours are precious to us, and not to be wasted.

With Frommer's England, you get the feeling that the authors have been there long before you, discarding that which is of little use, and ferreting out the charm and appeal of this ever-fascinating and frequently changing place.

Although Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince keep changing and revising the guide, we admire how they keep recommending certain very special places, particularly those oases to which we keep returning.

Each year, the guide brings plenty of new things to see and do, but it also respects English tradition and knows that you're not touring the countryside for cutting-edge venues, although there's quite a bit of that as well. It follows the premise that you're in England to see where the lovely villages, the old stone manors, the country lanes, the old-fashioned tearooms, and the charming country houses lie. And throughout, there are accurate and very practical descriptions of the kinds of places that offer comfortable lodgings and good food in a wide array of price brackets.

Within two or three more years, we will have explored every part of this wonderful country, using Frommer's England as our trusty compass. My husband and I have agreed that once we have completed this self-imposed "assignment," we'll start all over again, following the same trail originally blazed by us in 1969. With us, we'll carry Frommer's England, not just as a guidebook, but as a trusted friend who has never led us astray.

Of all the travel books I purchased for my first trip to England, the Frommer's edition is the one I used and kept after my trip. It is comprehensive, detailed, and gives good advice. It had all the attractions I wanted to visit and more. They also have a great website as a reference tool.

You're going to LOVE BRITAIN! I've spent a year in England and have made >30 visits all together.

Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Frommer's
These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.

Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.

Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for pubs, hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the underground and the double decker buses. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the city centre. When you get to be an old London hand, remember that the classic Londoners guide will always be an A to Z (zed) map and guide. If you want to go a bit beyond the central core of the city (perhaps to Windsor, Hampton, or further away) you really need the proper AtoZ to be able to find exact routes and streets.

Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

I wish I would have purchased Rick Steve's guide before purchasing this one. This guide probably has everything you will need but lacks the personal opinions/suggestions that Rick Steve's book provides. Not a bad book if you want to purchase more than one guidebook, but definitely not my first choice.

I have to disagree. Frommer's England worked great for me on a recent trip. It pointed out off-the-beaten-path spots, as well as exact pricing for hotels and restaurants (and the prices were spot on!). It gave me all budgetary options, whereas Rick Steves concentrates on low-budget options. I prefer the laid-backness of Frommer's.

Not bad, although I feel that I know England better than the book having lived there most of my life. More research needs to be done on the country outside of the major cities. Tourists would understand the English people and culture more if they ventured into the hinterland, and avoided the tourist areas. Rent a car, grab a map and explore. Try staying at cheap inns. Go to the nearest pub and talk to the locals. They don't bite.

I ALWAYS FIND THE FROMMER GUIDE BOOKS TO BE DISCRIMINATING, HONEST, UP-TO-DATE AND RIGHT ON! IT'S LIKE BEING TAKEN AROUND BY YOUR BEST FRIENDS.