Frommer's London 2010 (Frommer's Color Complete) [Paperback]

Darwin Porter (Author), Danforth Prince (Author)

Book Description

Series: Frommer's Color Complete | Publication Date: September 28, 2009

• BRAND NEW - FULL-COLOR GUIDE!
• Our authors, longtime London experts, show you the highlights of this world capital. They hit the city's many unique attractions, including its best museums (from the masters at the National Gallery to the quirky Vinopolis wine museum). They also describe attractions especially for kids.
• London is a culinary mecca with 45 Michelin-starred restaurants, and our authors take you on a foodie's tour--from varied ethnic cuisines, to haute dining, to Indian feasts on Brick Lane, to delicious pub grub.
• Detailed listings show you the best places to shop in London, from small antiques shops and vintage clothing stores to its famous outdoor markets and posh department stores.
• The guide also includes a quick jaunt to Windsor and Eton, and side trips to the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge, the revered site of Stonehenge, and Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon.
• PLUS: Hundreds of color photos, foldout map and detailed maps throughout, as well as exact prices, directions, opening hours,and other practical information

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Discover The Best of London
Content from Frommer's London 2010

The British capital is alive and well and culturally more vibrant than it has been in years. The sounds of the latest music pour out of Victorian pubs, experimental theater is popping up on stages built for Shakespeare’s plays, upstart chefs are reinventing the bland dishes British mums have made for generations, and Brits are even running the couture houses of Dior and Givenchy. In food, fashion, film, music, and just about everything else, London now stands at the cutting edge, just as it did in the 1960s.

If this sea of change worries you more than it appeals to you, rest assured that traditional London still exists, essentially intact under the veneer of hip. From high tea almost anywhere to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the city still abounds with the tradition and charm of days gone by. Discovering London and making it your own can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you have limited time. Even in the 18th century, Daniel Defoe found London “stretched out in buildings, straggling, confused, out of all shape, uncompact and unequal; neither long nor broad, round nor square.” The actual City of London proper is 2.6 sq. km (1 sq. mile) of very expensive real estate around the Bank of England. All of the gargantuan rest of the city is made up of separate villages, boroughs, and corporations—each with its own mayor and administration. Together, however, they add up to a mammoth metropolis.

Luckily, whether you’re looking for Dickens’s house or hot designer Vivienne Westwood’s flagship store, only the heart of London’s huge territory need concern you. The core of London is one of the most fascinating places on earth. With every step, you’ll feel the tremendous influence this city exerted over global culture back when it was the capital of an empire on which the sun never set.

London is a mass of contradictions. On the one hand, it’s a decidedly royal city, studded with palaces, court gardens, coats of arms, and other regal paraphernalia; yet it’s also the home of the world’s second-oldest parliamentary democracy (Iceland was the first).

Today London has grown less English and more international. The gent with the bowler hat is long gone; today’s Londoner might have a turban, a mohawk, or even a baseball cap. It’s becoming easier to find a café au lait and a croissant than a scone and a cup of tea. The city is home to thousands of immigrants and refugees, both rich and poor, from all reaches of the world.

London's Top Destinations by Category

The Most Unforgettable Travel Experiences	The Best Splurge Hotels	The Most Unforgettable Dining Experiences
The Best Museums	The Best Activities for Families	The Best Things to Do for Free (or Almost)

From the Back Cover

Frommer's London 2010

Full Color Inside

With Foldout Map

• Hundreds of color photos

• Foldout map, plus detailed maps throughout

• Exact prices, directions, opening hours,and other practical information

• Candid reviews of hotels and restaurants,plus sights, shopping, and nightlife

• Itineraries, walking tours, and trip-planning ideas

• Insider tips from local expert authors

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Frommers; 5 edition (September 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470470666
• ISBN-13: 978-0470470664
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for newbies and first timers., November 18, 2009

By 

Bearcat (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Frommer's London 2010 (Frommer's Color Complete) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

My wife and I have been to London many times for both business and pleasure. Usually we make at least one trip a year at minimum. We have owned several different travel guides including older Frommers versions. This is probably the best Frommer's of the past few years due to the inclusion of more photo's but I would say if you are a veteran traveler to London this might not be as useful for you.

If you are a first timer to London this is a great guide. It will give you information on the major sites to see including useful information such as opening and closing times, costs, how to get to and from major tourist attractions and the best times to go. Overall this is a great guide for someone new to London who wants to see all the major sites. For you veterans there are probably better options.

One note. As others have mentioned there are several pages in this guide that actually are from the Paris guide. Check pages 281-296 as these are usually the pages which are actually for Paris. If you find this is the case just return your copy for a new one. Hopefully this has now been corrected.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very touristy, but good for first or second time visitors, October 31, 2009

By 

J. Fuchs "jax76" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frommer's London 2010 (Frommer's Color Complete) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

There's nothing particularly wrong with this travel guide, except that it is so focused on hitting the major tourist attractions that it fails to convey the real attractions of London, which are the various neighborhoods and their particular charms. When Frommer's goes over the neighborhoods in brief, they mean it -- the section is brief. If you've never been to London, the guide is quite useful as it covers all of the highlights, but if you've been to London for more than a few days, you'll find this guide lacking. As just an example, in the section on shopping, there's a half-page on department stores, but while it lists Harrod's and Harvey Nic's, the best department store in London, Selfridges, isn't even listed. It's like a having a guide for Los Angeles and writing about Neiman Marcus but not Saks Fifth Avenue. Under the section on Clerkenwell two minor churches are listed, but Smithfield, a gorgeous set of buildings which now serve as London's central meat market but which historically was the site of major executions, including that of William Wallace, isn't even mentioned. There are a lot of "secondary"-type places listed, but there could have been more instead of some of the less useful info that's included.

The book devotes a fair amount of space to side trips from London, including, in a an apparent error on the part of the publisher, a section on Paris from their Paris guide instead of the planned sectioned on literary London. But really, while info on true day trips outside the city is great, much of the guide focuses on longer, overnight trips and I'd rather have more detailed info on London itself. They could have devoted a section to great city walking itineraries, and given info about guided walks around the city, such as the numerous ghost walks and pub walks available, which are truly fun. Frommer's and I do gree on one thing about London, though -- the best places to visit are totally free (like the British and National Museums).

If you've never been to London and like just being a tourist when you travel, this is a great guide, with plenty of useful advice such as how to buy theater tickets and detailed listings of places to stay and to eat. Since hotels and restaurants come and go, however, I prefer to use the internet for that and use my travel books for years as a guide to really getting to know a city. Also, this book does include a map, but if you're going to be in London more than a few days, buy a pocket version of London A-Z (pronounced "zed" in England), which is super-detailed and an absolute necessity.

Not my cup of tea as travel guides go, but plenty of people will find this friendly and useful.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars London Calling, October 23, 2009

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frommer's London 2010 (Frommer's Color Complete) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

American touring families, business travelers, students on educational holidays, and sailors on shore leave stand to gain from this guide. It takes a multi-pronged approach to London, taking in the posh and pricy alongside the cheap and kid-friendly, and making sure everybody has something to do. Lavishly illustrated and written with a strong opinion and sharp wit, it's a pleasure to read, even if you never have a chance to visit.

I pooh-poohed an earlier edition of this guide because it focused on the ritziest, priciest hotels and restaurants in town, and focused on sights so obvious and popular that most guide buyers wouldn't have much interest. Not this time. Though it means the book is now thicker (too big for most pockets), it makes up for that in being more thorough, and reaching out to blue-collar travelers in a way it didn't always in the past.

I also appreciate the fact that it covers regions of London often overlooked by tour guides, like Wapping and Southwark. For those who don't want the part of the city that's tragically hip and Botox-ridden, it casts its net wide enough to take in London's different aspects and age ranges. Though the enclosed foldout map only encompasses Central London, the text reaches far and wide in a way too few other guides do.

For fans of the muy mondo weird, sixteen pages of Chapter Seven have been mixed with the same pages from a Paris guide. I don't know how this happened, and it lacks the professionalism most of us expect from Frommer's. Still, that's sixteen pages out of over 450, so it could be a lot worse.

Chapters One and Two make for good reading, while the remaining chapters mainly reward casual browsing. Whether you're planning an imminent trip to London or you just want to drool over the possibilities after reading Jane Austen, this is a readable, fun guide for Anglophiles and casual glancers alike. Upbeat, spirited, and useful, anyone with even a passing interest in London will enjoy this guide.