Customer Reviews

Insiders' Guide to Williamsburg and Virginia's Historic Triangle (Insiders' Guide Series)

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I bought this book for our family vacation in the Historic Triangle, but I'm sorry to say that it was a waste of money. We found as much - and more - useful information in the brochures we picked up around town, and they at least had current restaurant information and coupons in them! The authors provide almost nothing in the way of evaluative information; every entry reads like an ad for the place discussed. There is no suggested itinerary information, no strategy guide for any attraction, and no sense of what to avoid. If you are used to the Unofficial Guides books, then you will not find this book helpful at all! We travel a good bit and often use guide books to plan our trips, and this book was the least helpful one that I have purchased. Pick up brochures when you arrive in town - they will tell you all of the book's information for free!

I took this book with me on my family's visit to the Historic Triangle and, I have to say, found it to be of little value. To begin with, one very fatal flaw exists. This book was written by locals, or "insiders" as they call themselves. That, to me at least, detracts greatly from the value of the book. Of course they're going to promote the area, and one has to wonder just how objective the authors can be in making recommendations of an area where they themselves apparently live. I'd much rather consult a book written by someone who has experienced the Williamsburg area as I did--as a tourist.

Despite this issue (and it became more and more apparent as the visit progressed that this WAS a huge issue) my wife and I tried to consult the book when making dining decisions. Here I feel the book is downright misleading--we drove around for two hours one night and could not find a single restaurant recommended in the book where the prices corresponded to what was listed in the book. Of course one has to account for seasonal variations, but we were there in the offseason, which should have been either cheaper or at least consistent with the book's claims (aside from the fact that, if this is written as a tourist book, prices should be given for tourist season).

An example: an Italian restaurant we went to was listed in the book as having an average cost for two people to dine at less than $20. Upon arriving we discovered that there were, in fact, only one or two single entrees under $10 each, and that most were around $15. The only way we would have been able to eat there for $20 was for my wife and I to get the cheapest thing on the menu and drink water. Being a little off in price is understandable--being 50% off is unacceptable. We experienced this at a number of establishments that we visited, and finally discarded the book and ate dinner at a chain restaurant in frustration.

We visited a couple of the local attractions mentioned in the book and found that they did not live up to what the book promised. We also had lunch at one of the highly recommended "local favorites" and had one of the most superbly disappointing meals of our entire vacation. We also found, in talking to other people there, that this "local favorite" was almost entirely full of tourists--there seemed to be few, if any, locals there.

It's one thing to say this is an inferior travel guide, but I feel it is worse than that. I view it more as a piece of propaganda for the area and have a hard time believing that such misleading information could not have been placed deliberately. I guess the advantage of getting a travel book written by "outsiders" is that you can safely assume they have no vested interest in anything they're recommending.