Customer Reviews

New York (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a New York City aficionado, who visits the city about four times a year, I find this book to be the best I've read. Visually, this guide is amazing. The glossy, clear and beautiful photos throughout the book, make it even more worthy of buying and the maps (including one for the subway) are also easy to understand.

The book is divided up into sections based on each area of town and then there is a chapter titled "Travelers' Needs," which includes places to stay, all types of restaurants, shopping and much more. The "Survival Guide" is also extremely helpful with its practical information. You'll also find history about New York all throughout the guide, which I find very interesting.

Another really nice thing about this book is that it is friendly to foreign visitors, explaining things like how to use a pay phone and the U.S. currency.

If you are planning on going to NYC, this "Eyewitness Travel Guide" is an absolute must have! Everything you want or need to know about this fabulous and one-of-a-kind city is right in this book.

We bought and studied this travel guide, and the Street Wise map prior to our first trip to NYC. When we got there, we found that we felt completely comfortable moving about the city as we felt we already knew it! What's nice is that you'll find the information by neighborhood, so no matter where you're staying you'll find info on the area. It covers everything from hotels to restaurants to how to ride the subway. I can't recommend this travel guide highly enough!!

This book is a great travel guide to New York City. It is beautifully illustrated & gives important information about all the best sites in NYC. It also informs you on things you may not want to miss in each area of the city that is highlighted. I had never traveled in NYC on my own & this book, of the 5 or 6 I bought on NYC, was the only one that explained the subway system so that I understood it. Another book that I'm glad I purchased is the Zagat Survey & the Zagat Map on NYC restaurants.

Eyewitness Travel Guide books always provide great pictures of ones destination and this book is no exception. The pictures are great! Buying this book is a fantastic way to get family members excited for a vacation destination, however it is more of a prep book than an actual helpful guidebook. If you can only buy one book and tangible information is what you are looking for your money would be better spent on Fodor's 05 New York City book. However, if you can afford two books, buy both. Buy the Fodor's book because it is full of maps, directions, prices, and ratings. Buy the Eyewitness Travel Guide because it allows you to envision your destination in full color. Note: The survivor guide portion of the Eyewitness Travel Guide is invaluable to inexperienced travelers. It does a fantastic guide of teaching one to use subways, taxis, and buses. Not only does it clearly spell out what one needs to do, it shows pictures of taximeters, bus number locations, etc. These pictures really prepare one for trips into the unfamiliar. The book also gives great information and a full proof formula for figuring out New York streets and avenues.

I've lived in New York for 13 years, and have never seen a travel guide that comes close to this book. The layout and pictures are beautiful/informative. A "must-have" for every New Yorker who thinks they already know their city!

I first discovered these books (a series Eyewitness Travel) by accident in a Stockholm bookstore. I had just come from Gothenborg by train and was a bit dazed. The book I bought by accident was in swedish but it still useful because of all the photos, cut away views, museum pictures, and maps and historical details. When I got home I bought a pile on Amazon.com of different places that I was going or had visited - but in english.

On a cold day back here in the USA (or Canada) or elsewhere, have a glass of beer and sit in a nice chair or in the garden on a warm day and read this book. For a moment you will be back in New Yotk at a deli have corned beef on rye.

The photos and desicriptions and cutaway drawings are excellent. Plus they throw in some history and details on the art and many other things of interest. A solid 430 page effort - lots of stuff to see and absorb. What is attractive about this book are the photos and cutaway views. Normally you do not see these. But the book brings it all to life with just magnificent photos and maps. And it makes a nice souvenir post trip. Subway maps included.

This is the best travel guide series there is. It presents NYC, (Manhattan, plus many interesting sites outside Manhattan) in enough detail to help you decide if you want to go there, but not so much as to make the book overwhelmingly large. It is a portable guide (we took it everywhere with us in NY) that has all the essentials. In addition to sites, it lists hotels, restaurants, information on getting around, and much more. And the index is exhaustive, so finding something quickly is easy. The pictures are informative, the maps are detailed, the information up-to-date. I reviewed a lot of guide books before buying this one. This is the best guide you could possibly want.

My work has provided me with the opportunity to travel a good bit. I am the type of person who wants to get a working background for my destinations, both in terms of history and geographic layout. Because I work, I don't have a great deal of time to spend reading and studying different, often lengthy, travel guides before or during my trips.

Because these guides are concise, beautifully illustrated, relatively compact, and impeccably organized, I cannot recommend highly enough the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides! The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide is THE guide I buy for every destination. Not only do I get a quick history and background of the destination, but I also will be provided with a visual guide to everything. The visual detail is really what sets the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides apart.

The street maps of common destination points are drawn in dimensional detail so you will visually recognize when you "get there." The regional maps are colorful and concise.

However, the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide really shows its stuff with the drawings associated with attractions such as museums. Their presentation of museum layouts allow the traveler who is short on time to quickly see the best of the museum within the time the traveler has to spend.

Each DK Eyewitness Travel Guide has a good summary section in the back with practical information about where to eat, where to sleep, what to do, and how to get around.

While I may supplement the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide with others for a more detailed travel guide, the other guide is only more to read, not more to see. Buy the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide first for any destination.

Many of the complaints that any guide book is going to generate from the necessity of condensing a colossal amount of information between the covers of a book with any sense of focus.

I think the Eyewitness Guides are excellent at breaking down an area very quickly and in a visual manner. You can look at a map and very quicly locate where you are without having to spin around and circles and get your bearings. They are also excellent in helping to decide which sites to visit (especially on a short trip) based on a picture (well, numerous ones) alone. There will be some information and some history--enough for some, not for others.

Do not use this book as a restaurant, hotel, or shopping gude. You'll be disappointed. Use this book to plan your trip and to carry around with you as you explore an area. New York has far too much to offer to attempt to make this a restaurant guide and a photo/map guide. This is also a great guide for someone who finds himself in NYC for an unexpected weekend (or one on short notice).

I personally have found that the combination of EyeWitness Guides for quick reference and the Blue Guide (the most comprehensive, historically and art/architectural driven book series out there) are a great combination for me. I'll read up in the Blue Book before my trip and carry it as a reference for when I return in the evenings. The Eyewitness goes with me wherever I go on the trip during the day. The book is made for this. Its covers are very sturdy and meant to take a beating in a backpack.

I couldn't care less about the cutaway pictures in these Eyewitness Guides, but most of the other pictures are useful and worth browsing through. As others have said, the basic survival necessities (subway tickets, etc...) are nice for a foreign visitor or someone uncomfortable in larger cities. The Eyewitness books are wonderful to take home with you and browse through after your trip to relive old memories.

Other recommendations: if you want to use a single guide book with more info, try the Michelin Guide (though I find the Eyewitness more intuitive to use in the field). Overall, I've been quite happy with this guide. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this book has saved quite a few trees--if you're into that sort of thing. ;)

Absolutely excellent guide book and a great memento to have as a reminder of all great places visited. I traveled with some one who had been to New York several times. She loved this book and also found it very useful for a repeat visitor. With this book and a subway map in your back pack your are all set to enjoy this great city. Suggest you purchase it before you go to review areas of most interest to you. Great that it is revised annually and very accurate.