Customer Reviews

Time Out London

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

 

 

I hadn't planned on visiting London during my European adventure last year, but a French railway strike changed my itinerary. The Eurostar was still running, so I booked passage from Paris to London instead of heading to Barcelona as originally intended. I urgently needed a good London guidebook, so I rushed to a Gard du Nord newsstand and quickly scanned the shelves. "Time Out London" was the only choice they had, so I forked over some Euros and hoped it would suffice.

As I read while the Eurostar sped towards England, I found "Time Out London" to be informative and well laid-out. I struck up a conversation with the couple across from me (he was Irish, she was English), and had a great time talking about their deep involvement in the European art community. When we neared our final stop, they asked to see my guidebook, and after looking through it remarked it was a good choice. The used the excellent train map to point out some prime sightseeing stops, the station closest to my Ibis hotel in East Barking, and even where I needed to catch the express train to Gatwick for my departure flight. It certainly pays to step out and meet people while traveling.

Their suggestions increased my respect for this guidebook, and helped me maximize my limited time in London. The railway map made it easy to get around, and the city map highlighted must-see sights so I had no problems finding Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, and a host of other attractions. As is my custom when leaving for a new destination, I left the "Time Out London" guide behind for someone else to enjoy.

If you are heading to London, I highly recommend taking this "Time Out" guide along. One important detail stood out: At a London bookstore I compared this book's rail map to a couple of pocket guides, and found that the "Time Out" map was larger. In fact, it was the only one long enough to include the East Barking train stop, where my hotel was located. I'm glad I had that map - anything that expedites the process of finding one's hotel in a strange city after a long day of travel is a godsend.

Time Out guides are awesome, always. They are the best city guides. Unfortunately, this guide wasn't that well organized. Other Time Out guides are organized by area and within the section about the area there is a map, what to do, where to shop and where to eat. This guide is organized by sightseeing, entertainment and food, so you constantly have to flip back and forth through the book to find info....It is still better then any other guide, though, and if you supplement it with the weekly Time Out in London, you will have a great time

We just got back from a fantastic trip to London. We brought several guide books with us but Time Out London proved to be the only one we needed -- except for the fact that the type size in the index is microscopic -- and therefore completely unusable.

I mention this because anyone over the age of 30 will have great difficulty using this index without a magnifying device.

It's too bad they do this to save a couple pages, because the index is crucial to getting the most out of this guide book.

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!

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.

When we went to London, we bought several other guide books. We should have saved our money. This book was outstanding! The book told us about all the sights everyone knows, and many many more that I would have never thought of. This book is the best. The map in the book is great. Don't buy another! This book sold us on the Time Out series. We will never buy another guide book. Neither should you!!

I really like the look and how compact this book is for travel. You don't need another book. It's packed with information and you almost don't need to buy the Time Out London Mazagine if you plan ahead.

I've purchased Frommer's, Eyewitness Guides, and Time Out. Time Out is absolutely the best guide I own. It really gives you thorough ideas of what to really DO in London, instead of just seeing the regular old touristy stuff. If you're going to London for a second or a third time, or you're going to be there for a long time, I highly recommend it.

It's the only guide I pull out every time I travel to London.

This book is quite good. The maps are excellent and I didn't have to buy any other maps. The information is very current (including prices, where's hot to go etc.). The layout is a little different from other guidebooks (instead of looking at shopping, eating, sightseeing in each area, this book separates the sections into shopping: areas A,B,C, etc. and Sightseeing in different areas etc). Quite easy to read and I highly recommend. It did enhance my trip to London and is quite well written. I didn't use it to find places to eat, but shopping and sightseeing places are quite good. Once in London, make sure you pick up a copy of "time out"--the weekly newspaper of what's going on. We missed Diana Krall b/c I picked up the paper 1 day too late!

im studying in london for five weeks..and the program is winding down but this book really helped me find my way around the city...i carry it everywhere i go...

I found this book to be lacking in really useful information.Better guides are available free from many travel agencies or on-line.Hotel info mostly covers
more expensive places and I found the maps to be particularly useless. Much
information on British history but little help to a novice tourist.