5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Marvelous Resource, January 25, 2010
This review is from: Pauline Frommer's London: Spend Less, See More (Pauline Frommer Guides) (Paperback)
I got this before a travel course to London that was just over 2 weeks long. I had been to London previously, but only for a couple of days with my family and didn't really know the city.
I loved this guidebook! I shopped for guidebooks for hours and this was by far the best I found, and it proved an as-good-and-better resource during our trip compared to my classmates books (mostly the biggies Fodors and Frommers).
The book was very easy to read. I read it cover-to-cover a couple of months before the trip, and found the writing style casual and sometimes hilarious!
What I love about this book is it covers all the essential London activities that tourists want to do, but also delves into getting to know the city like a true Londoner and seeing some great attractions that have niche appeal or are off the beaten path. AND it does all this keeping budget as a top priority!
It's perfect for students, families, and basically anyone who wants an authentic experience without throwing money around.
The dining recommendations were great. Nearly everyone I passed on the street with good prices and atmosphere that my classmates and I wanted to eat at was covered in this book!
I loved London and need to go back to this amazing city throughout my life, and I think this book and future editions will be a great help in planning my trips in the future. The accommodations section was not relevant for this trip, as my school booked our large group into a hotel, but I read it anyway and the advice on finding affordable B&Bs and inns with great facilities will prove very useful for future trips.
The only real flaws I found with this book is that
1) the maps are all kind of spread out. There's good maps of areas like Notting Hill that aren't always in other maps of the central city, but it takes some thumbing through to find them when you're standing in the middle of the street needing directions. ALso, there is no bus maps or tube maps, but obviously those are very easy to pick up at the nearest tube station, and that ensures they're up to date. Also, I'd recommend supplementing the book with a book mini map such as the A-Z pocket guide, which is mentioned in the book and proved very useful and portable!
2) The book is not completely up to date. I have the 2nd edition, and it doesn't seem that they put out a new edition each year like the bigger guidebooks. As a result, I got a few surprises on my trip. The prices, especially on food, were consistently a pound or two higher than the book suggested, and I think this is probably do to the increasing cost of food supplies during the recession, and due to recent VAT increases. I also tried to find a small tea and coffee museum that was in the guidebook, and also was featured in my A-Z map (2009 edition), and turns out the museum has closed in the past year and was completely gone! However, I don't think these little out-of-date bits negate the huge usefulness of this book!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Off the beaten track, April 26, 2007
This is the second time I've been to London, so I wasn't keen on seeing the totally touristy places this time around. This book had some great recommendations for unusual sites (I loved the Hunterian Museum!), lovely restaurants and generally well-priced places-to-stay. The informal but informative style was really great.
Since we went to Paris on this trip, too, I only wish the Paris version had come out before we had gone!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great city on a budget, January 17, 2012
This review is from: Pauline Frommer's London: Spend Less, See More (Pauline Frommer Guides) (Paperback)
The author's advice on living well in London (as a tourist) is highly opinionated, but that's a good thing. I've been traveling off and on to London since 2001 and this guide does an amazing job of covering the highs and lows of the city. His recommendations are also very very personal so he describes the wares in a store, the service of a restaurant, or the amenities of a hotel room in great detail.
Hotels -- His hotel recommendations are spot on. I tried the Jesmond Hotel in Bloomsbury and it was exactly as he described, and the rates are surprisingly affordable. The author aims for low to mid budget as much as possible, assuming that you don't have some company expense account to pick up your hotel bill at the Ritz. Also, you don't want to spend all of your precious pounds on lodging when there are so many other fun things to do in London.
Restaurants -- The restaurant recommendations are a bit 50/50 for me. He recommends a number of Asian eateries since they're relatively inexpensive but I'm really picky about eating Asian food in Europe --- in general, they do Asian food just so-so. I didn't rely a whole lot on this guide for restaurants since I normally just come across a place that looks nice and has an attractive menu, but if it's your first time in London, you should single out a restaurant or two you're interested in trying.
Neighborhoods -- because of this guide, I discovered Marleybone, a wonderful neighborhood off of Oxford Circus. It's cool and hip, and lacks the pretension of Mayfair. Perfect for strolling and window shopping.
Shopping --- I also discovered the Muji store in London through this guidebook. The author really has combed London for its best wares. It's not like you're going to find anything extraordinary (even Wedgewood has an online store), but he does point out the location of the Burberry outlet (in Hackney, a working class industrial looking neighborhood with more bark than bite), and some key traditional department stores you might want to write home about.
Overall, a well written and thorough guidebook based on the author's long ongoing love for one of the greatest cities in the world.
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