Lonely Planet LondonListen to Yeomen's yarns on a visit to the Tower of LondonClimb Parliament Hill for expansive views of the cityFind out why an Oyster is your best friend when it comes to city transportTake a walk on the culinary wild side at London's dozens of ethnic restaurantsIn This Guide:Three authors, 1800 hours of research, over 800 places recommendedSpecial day-trips chapter and color sections on London's architecture and the River ThamesLocals lift the lid on traditional pie & mash, the city's Blue Plaques and exclusive literary evenings
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Lonely Planet guidebooks are, quite simply, like no others.' --New York Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.
What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.
What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By jmc
Format:Paperback
I am a long-time Lonely Planet fan. I even bought one about where I live for those moments I'm feeling touristy in my hometown. The London City Guide wasn't very useful at all. I have an upcoming trip to San Francisico planned, and I'm seriously considering trying a different publisher after this experience.
The guide has the Lonely Planet standards - maps, walking tours, tons of history about the city. But the index is terrible! If you're like me and you use the index to look up information quickly while you're walking by a landmark, this book won't help you much. Want to learn about Buckingham Palace? While Kensington and Windsor are listed in the index, Buckingham is not. You have to find a special section called "Palaces" in the back pages, and the page number for Buckingham is listed there. This is just one example of SEVERAL instances where I was unsatisfied with this purchase.
As another reviewer mentioned, there is no information on the Underground "Tube" system. They give you a map, but that's it. And the people working in the stations are of little help when trying to decide which pass is best for your needs. One of my travel companions had the Rick Steves London book, which provided detailed Underground info that helped us choose our Oyster card.
Also, the admission prices they list are WAY off. Of course, you can't really fault them for that. As soon as you print a book, it's immediately out of date. But my advice is to wait (if you can) for the next publication of this book, or look up the admission prices online before you go if you're trying to budget out your trip in advance.
Here are a few tips that I learned while visiting London that this book didn't teach me -
1) Always try to buy your attactions tickets ahead of time to avoid wasting time in line. We bought our tickets every morning at our hotel's front desk.
2) Try to stay in the Paddington Station area. Among others, Paddington has the Circle and District Underground lines which take you to pretty much any attraction. You can also take trains from Heathrow to Paddington, and can even catch a train out of the city, if that is on your itinerary.
3) Those red double decker "hop on and off" tour buses are overpriced at 25 GBP. At my time of travel, the US conversion made it over $40! While they help you get a lay of the land, it would have been a great cost savings just to use our Oyster cards to get to the attractions we wanted to see.
4) When converting your currency to GBP, it is better to withdraw the funds from an ATM rather than using those currency exchange places in the airport and train stations. In my experience, my bank gave me a much better exchange rate and didn't even charge me for the transaction!
The guide has the Lonely Planet standards - maps, walking tours, tons of history about the city. But the index is terrible! If you're like me and you use the index to look up information quickly while you're walking by a landmark, this book won't help you much. Want to learn about Buckingham Palace? While Kensington and Windsor are listed in the index, Buckingham is not. You have to find a special section called "Palaces" in the back pages, and the page number for Buckingham is listed there. This is just one example of SEVERAL instances where I was unsatisfied with this purchase.
As another reviewer mentioned, there is no information on the Underground "Tube" system. They give you a map, but that's it. And the people working in the stations are of little help when trying to decide which pass is best for your needs. One of my travel companions had the Rick Steves London book, which provided detailed Underground info that helped us choose our Oyster card.
Also, the admission prices they list are WAY off. Of course, you can't really fault them for that. As soon as you print a book, it's immediately out of date. But my advice is to wait (if you can) for the next publication of this book, or look up the admission prices online before you go if you're trying to budget out your trip in advance.
Here are a few tips that I learned while visiting London that this book didn't teach me -
1) Always try to buy your attactions tickets ahead of time to avoid wasting time in line. We bought our tickets every morning at our hotel's front desk.
2) Try to stay in the Paddington Station area. Among others, Paddington has the Circle and District Underground lines which take you to pretty much any attraction. You can also take trains from Heathrow to Paddington, and can even catch a train out of the city, if that is on your itinerary.
3) Those red double decker "hop on and off" tour buses are overpriced at 25 GBP. At my time of travel, the US conversion made it over $40! While they help you get a lay of the land, it would have been a great cost savings just to use our Oyster cards to get to the attractions we wanted to see.
4) When converting your currency to GBP, it is better to withdraw the funds from an ATM rather than using those currency exchange places in the airport and train stations. In my experience, my bank gave me a much better exchange rate and didn't even charge me for the transaction!
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By AcornMan
Format:Paperback
It seems like the Lonely Planet guides are really hit and miss. Some are outstanding, but others are quite lacking. Unfortunately the London guide is not very impressive. For starters, the entire book is poorly organized and confusing. London is an enormous city, with several distinct areas, but this book does a very poor job of helping the reader understand where things are. There is almost no cross referencing to help the reader find things that are described in it. I was also disappointed with the maps, which have decent detail in some parts, but no detail whatsoever in many other parts. Finally, this book lacks the detail that I was able to find in some other guides. Overall, I was quite disappointed with this book.
If you want really good London tavel guides, the Rough Gude to London and the Eyewitness London guide are far, far better.
If you want really good London tavel guides, the Rough Gude to London and the Eyewitness London guide are far, far better.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By HapaChic
Format:Paperback
I went to London for about 5 days. A lot of this book was out of date, such as ticket prices for admission to tourist attractions and opening times). Since this edition was published in January 2006, I would recommend a more recent guidebook.
The restaurant recommendations were more upscale than I was hoping for. A place described as Italian with mains costing 7-p pounds actually turned out to be a Mediterranean tapas place and ending up costing 40 pounds per person. I would agree with a previous review that the accomodations were a bit pricier than I was looking for and had better luck finding a place online. I gave it two stars because I did find a nice, traditional pub to hang out in that I went back to multiple nights.
Cross referencing attractions would have been nice - if you looked for a certain subject in the index, it could be spread across 3 different pages (ie. pg 11, 213, 77). I spent a lot of time during my trip with my nose in this book, and I had even flipped through it beforehand! (it took me 2 hours to decide on the inexpensive "Italian" restaurant).
The Walking Tours were ok, but I got the feeling I was missing a lot of things as I followed the maps in the book. I also got lost a lot, which may or may not could be attributed to the book (my travel companions are still laughing about it).
I was so unhappy with this book, I purposefully left it in my rented flat in London. Choose another guidebook.
The restaurant recommendations were more upscale than I was hoping for. A place described as Italian with mains costing 7-p pounds actually turned out to be a Mediterranean tapas place and ending up costing 40 pounds per person. I would agree with a previous review that the accomodations were a bit pricier than I was looking for and had better luck finding a place online. I gave it two stars because I did find a nice, traditional pub to hang out in that I went back to multiple nights.
Cross referencing attractions would have been nice - if you looked for a certain subject in the index, it could be spread across 3 different pages (ie. pg 11, 213, 77). I spent a lot of time during my trip with my nose in this book, and I had even flipped through it beforehand! (it took me 2 hours to decide on the inexpensive "Italian" restaurant).
The Walking Tours were ok, but I got the feeling I was missing a lot of things as I followed the maps in the book. I also got lost a lot, which may or may not could be attributed to the book (my travel companions are still laughing about it).
I was so unhappy with this book, I purposefully left it in my rented flat in London. Choose another guidebook.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
very helpful
Used this for my recent London trip (May 2012) and found it useful as always if slightly dated (buy the newer version if you're traveling now). Read more
Published 11 months ago by IC
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very great information
There are many cool things within the pages of this book. Learned a lot and helped me mold my trip to London! Dont go without it!
Published on May 5, 2011 by Janna Retzler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lonely Planet - THE ONLY travel guide you need!
I've visited 44 countries, mostly on a budget, and Lonely Planet is THE only book I would consider using. It's throrough, comprehensive and concise. Read more
Published on April 11, 2011 by Michael J. Schmidt
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good content, basic maps
The London history was helpful, as were the site descriptions. The maps do not have labels for each worthwhile site, only a number tied to an index on another page. Read more
Published on November 7, 2010 by D. Doctor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lonely Planet London City Guide Review
As a new reader to the Lonely Planet series, I was surprised at how much I liked this book. It's well organized and very detailed. The walking guides are a good addition. Read more
Published on October 4, 2010 by Katarra K. VanZandt
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as it could be
I agree with many other reviews: the index is confusing. And most importantly LP's user friendly color maps in the back of the book (2010 printing)are gone. Read more
Published on June 21, 2010 by Liberty 4
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehesive guide
Very complete guide to London for the traveller seeking a thorough introduction to a large and complex city. The walking tours were particularly helpful. Read more
Published on May 31, 2010
5.0 out of 5 stars
well done
I need help getting around as I've never been there. This book has alot of info....
Published on April 14, 2010 by Derek Haas
4.0 out of 5 stars
take this with you!
London City Guide from Lonely Planet by Tom Masters, Steve Fallon, Vesna Maric is another of the excellent guide and planning books from this noted publisher. Read more
Published on March 2, 2010 by Bonnie Neely
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great, as always
Once I read the Lonely Planet Egypt (my own country) I fell in love with it. Amazingly accurate, I knew I could rely on it elsewhere. Read more
Published on June 9, 2009 by Aly I. Shalaby
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