Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' Great Britain 2009

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Rick Steves' travel philosophy is to travel better by traveling cheaper and closer to the people. If your idea of a dream vacation is sleeping on the eighth floor of a high-rise hotel for a fortune every night, this is the wrong book for you. If your idea of wonderful is to sleep in an exquisite four-poster bed at a Scottish B&B owned by a pleasant old lady who will talk to you for hours, all for about fifty bucks a night -- buy this book. Steves has three big strengths, which are all at work in this book: The most important, by far, is the accomodations. Steves consistently finds amazingly good buys among centrally located B&Bs with friendly owners. The only problem is that everybody knows this, so getting a room on short notice in the summer at one of his spots can be dicey. The second big strength is the practical guides to sights, which include lots of interesting little details that you won't find elsewhere while telling you in no-uncertain terms which sights are must sees and which ones you should skip. Over time, his picks may not always coincide with yours -- but I almost always found his stuff on-target. The third big-strength is Steves' travel philosophy, which is especially helpful to first-time travelers (or those venturing away from the Hilton for the first time). I highly recommend that you also check out Europe Through the Back Door, Steves' classic magnum opus, now in its 19th Edition.

I actually got this book because I am going on a Rick Steves' "Best of London" tour later this year. We booked a couple of days before and after the tour to do some stuff on our own in England, and after browsing several books (Fodor's, Lonely Planet, etc.) in bookstores, I settled on Rick's book.

My reasoning wasn't that I was going on one of his tours, it truly was the best book I saw on the shelves. The book isn't dominated by details on London, exactly what I wanted. In fact, Rick suggests you make London the last part of your tour. Why is this a good thing? There are plenty of books that focus on London itself, in fact every tour book I listed before has one. It would be like a foriegn traveler coming to the United States for a couple of weeks and only getting a book on Washington DC.

Being that I've never been out of the United States before, I'm a little wary of making reservations and plans without seeing what I'm getting into first. So not only do you get candid reviews on the sites (rated "must see", "try to see", "see if you can", "worth noting"...and sections on what is a waste of time), information on how to get there, where to eat, but most importantly web pages to check out before hand.

What's best is that Rick Steves is frank...doesn't sugar coat what is good and what is bad, what is a must see and what is a must avoid. I feel more confident making reservations and plans with this book than I would have with others.

I'll be going on my second trip to England this summer, and I thought that I would use this book a lot. I had used the London guide two years ago and was very happy with it. But I bought the book a few weeks ago, and I'm kind of disappointed. Since I've already been to England, and know some of what I want to see, this book isn't all that helpful. I don't need just a list of the normal tourist stuff in Edinburgh, or Bath. I think that Rick Steves is great at helping people try to travel on their own, without a tour group, but I don't think that his choice of places to visit are particularly original, or complete. He seems to really like Bath and Blackpool, but totally ignores some of my favorite places in England, such as Canterbury Cathedral. Also, although his directions to finding places in London are great, and he does give some information about each site, he doesn't give nearly enough background information about places to suit me. His directions to places outside of London are not nearly as helpful. If you're an experienced traveler in England, this book is not for you. If you're going for the first time, I'd buy this book for the directions to places and accomodations lists, and to help narrow down choices of places to visit, and then I'd look at other guidebooks to get more in-depth information for specific sites. I'd recommend the Dorling-Kindersley guide to London for starters. His sense of humor is terrific, and I appreciate his honesty about some of the things that he doesn't like, but I need more information than is available here. Spend some time on the internet, looking up things you're interested in, and researching, along with another guidebook or two, and you'll be much happier with your trip to England than you would be if you just relied on this book.

Five Shows: This DVD contains five complete "Rick Steves' Europe" TV shows on Britain, first broadcast from 2000-2005 -- plus bonus behind-the-scenes footage.

Running Time: 2½+ hours.

Join host Rick Steves on a lively 2½-hour romp through Britain in five half-hour "Rick Steves' Europe" TV shows. You'll spend an hour in London, covering the greatest of the old sights (St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower), and some exciting new ones (the British Library and Millennium Bridge). Then you'll cover England's salty south coast from Dover to Land's End - and the hilly southwest, from the charming Cotswold villages to the rugged beauty of Wales. Up north in Scotland we'll toss a log, sip some whiskey and sail to a sacred island. As a bonus, Rick reveals behind-the-scenes footage and stories about his TV series.

London: Royal and Rambunctious: We whisper secrets across the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral and eat our way through Soho. Then we check out the treasures of the new British Library, roll with the drums at the Changing of the Guard, and cruise the Thames to Kew Gardens.

London: Mod and Trad: We check out the new - the Millennium Bridge and the British Museum's Great Court, and admire the old - well-wrapped mummies and a rare Leonardo. After bantering with Beefeaters at the Tower of London, we do some riverside beach-combing along the Thames, from the Tate Modern to the dizzying London Eye.

South England: Dover to Lands' End: From the white cliffs of Dover to Land's End, we ponder Roman, Norman, and threatened Nazi invasions. After exploring Admiral Nelson's flagship, we chase wild ponies and discover an ancient stone circle. For refreshment, it's cream tea and Cornish pasties.

Heart of England and South Wales: After King Arthur country at Glastonbury, we go back in time to prehistoric Stonehenge. We sample hard apple cider in Wells, meet an eccentric lord in the Cotswolds, and visit an evocative ruined abbey in South Wales.

Scotland's Islands and Highlands: In Scotland, legends of Bonnie Prince Charlie swirl with pipers and kilts around crumbling castles. After tossing a caber (log) at a Scottish clan gathering, we remember Highland massacres. We play hide-and-seek with the Loch Ness Monster, tour a whiskey distillery, and take a ferry to sacred Iona.

My buddy and I just got back from our trip to the U.K. We used this book almost exclusively and it was a huge help in planning our time. The only flaw is that there is very little info on the eastern portion of the big Island from lower Scotland to Cambridge.

The reason for this omission is clear. There's not much to see in north east England. The problem is that a drive from Edinburg to Cambridge is stretching the limits of time spent in a car, in a foreign country, on the wrong side of the road. This omission left us to our own devices for one night's stay and it wasn't very much fun looking for lodging after eight.

Other than that the book was great. We went through lower left England then up through Whales and Scotland then back down to all the major schools and cities on the lower right. Through everything, Rick Steves got us where we wanted to go and helped us find good food and accomodations.

I'm happy to report that we saw everything we'd hoped to see and discovered quite a few other amazing locations using this book. I'd reccomend it to anyone who is planning a trip to the U.K.

One quick tip. Give yourself plenty of time to read this thing before you go and make reservations for where you'd like to stay the first and last night of your trip. In the middle Rick Steve gives you plenty of good advice about where to stay and what to see and do. Good book, great trip. Happy travels!

I received my 2004 guide to Great Britain today and excitedly leafed through the pages to start planning my trip-- I thoroughly enjoyed the pages about London (and booked my hotel based on Mr. Steves' advice) but then I continued planning the rest of my trip-- Has there been an earthquake in England and the whole southern part disappeared into the Channel? Where's Canterbury? Dover? Hastings? Chichester? Brighton--- I have wasted my money since 2/3 of my trip is planned for this area and there was NOTHING in the ads or in the title of the book that says "does not include information on the southern counties"... The book is a ripoff.

I've spent a year in England and have made >30 visits all together.

Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.

Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for pubs, hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the underground and the double decker buses. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the city centre. When you get to be an old London hand, remember that the classic Londoners guide will always be an A to Z (zed) map and guide. If you want to go a bit beyond the central core of the city (perhaps to Windsor, Hampton, or further away) you really need the proper AtoZ to be able to find exact routes and streets.

Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

Frommer's
These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.

Unfortunately, the only well-worn portion of my book is the 'London' section, but the rest will eventually get used! This book was such a great help to me in not only finding a moderately priced hotel (prices...yikes!) but in getting to all the places I wanted to see. The color maps of London and the Tube system up front are easily accessible! If I needed a quick look at a map, they were right up front so I didn't have to dig through the book and stand out as a tourist.
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe For The Senses - A Photographic Journal"

It annoys me to read some of the reviews of this book on amazon, so I thought I'd write my own.

Rick Steves main focus is to get people who haven't traveled much in Europe, traveling comfortably, and getting to know the people and sights.

He is not (and doesn't pretend to be) a comprehensive guide book. He has picked what he thinks are the most important things to see - which makes it LESS confusing for new travelers. He often recommends a range of places to stay, but not the absolute cheapest. He has another book for that, and there are other guides for that sort of travel too.

I have traveled a lot, but now I travel with kids, and I'm less likely to be adventurous. Many of Ricks' accomodations have kid friendly hotels, with family rooms. Many of the hotels that owners will help you - which is particularly nice if you don't speak the language.

It is true. You may have to supplement his books with others, but SO WHAT? You're spending thousands of dollars on these trips. Take what you need from each kind of book (or website), but don't trash books because they don't do everything!!

I think Rick Steves is a good travel guide but in a way, he is a snob. He is quick to dismiss some places as too touristy or not worthwhile. I like the EyeWitness Guides much better.