Customer Reviews

Not for Tourists 2008 Guide to Seattle (Not for Tourists Guidebook)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Amazing breakdowns of the neighborhoods - color maps, lists and locations of businesses and more. Nice glossy pages and more info than a short-term visitor could ever use - we bought it as a relocation guide and it has paid of in dividends for us! It helped us decide on which neighborhood to live in, helped us find businesses and services, and showed us fun places to eat and hang out. Use it for visiting but remember that it is also a fantastic book full of info to help you move to Seattle!

I'm a Seattle mostly-native (been here for 20 years) and picked up this book so that my guests from couchsurfing.com might be able to use it to get around the city. I used the Not For Tourists New York to get around while visiting there, and figured the local one might be handy too.

It's great! It truly does cover the city from the perspective of a local person, including witty and accurate comments about neighborhoods, restaurants/bars, etc., useful information about how to get around the city and to other nearby cities via public transportation, cool local places that are beautiful/unique but not touristy, etc.

In fact I'm so fond of it that sometimes I carry it around and read it myself for fun even though I'm quite familiar with the city already. It's entertaining for natives and informative for transplants/visitors too. I would definitely recommend it for someone who's just moved here.

Even though it's called "not for tourists", I think that really depends what kind of tourist you are. If you're someone who wants to hang out in the places where local people hang out and do the things they do, I still consider it very useful. None of the tourist books have maps of neighborhoods outside the central tourist area of downtown, so if you want to go beyond the beaten path this is a fine way to do it. The book doesn't have reviews of tourist spots but you could always combine it with a more tourist-y book. I bought some other more touristy books too and found the Lonely Planet to be the best of those.

I gave the book, 'Not for Tourists' as a gift and it was received with much interest and delight. The book is very informative, covering various districts in and around Seattle. The information is very detailed and acurate, with good readable maps, great information about the many areas that it covers and a fun book to browse through. I've lived in Seattle for many years and it was great fun reading through this delightful book. I will be purchasing 'Not for Tourists' for my self.

I was born and have lived in Seattle most of my life, so I know plenty of good and interesting spots in and near the city, but many of them simply aren't featured in this book. For the most part, it's merely a series of maps with lists of businesses in various categories. There's no commentary on what these establishments are like or which places are better or worse, nor any explanation as to why some were included while others were omitted.

If you want to know a place, you need more than what you can get from an auto club map and a phone directory. You want insights and a sense that the author has a point of view and a love for his or her city. This sterile book has very little of that.

As an alternative, I suggest the Seattle Survival Guide, 4th edition, from Sasquatch Press, which is just a bit out of date, having been published in 2005 as opposed to 2007, but which includes far more of the distinctive personality and unique features of the region: inside lingo, ethnic groups, parking tips, movers and shakers, politics, crime, music, weather, publications, kid stuff, school recommendations, heath care, and much more. Lots of stats and historical background.

My wife and I bought this book for a trip to Seattle where we were going to meet a friend who had just moved there. We purchased the book with the expectation of leaving it with our friend so we had no expectation of how well it would work for us. To our surprise, this was the book we used the most while we were there.

The organization and content really work for this guide. My husband and I used it to plan the Seattle portion of our Pacific Northwest honeymoon, and it was incredibly helpful. We were able to single out which neighborhoods to visit and then choose restaurants, clubs, and activities from the great recommendations in the book. It was nice to discover some of the hidden gems instead of narrowing our trip to seeing only the typical sights. Clear maps and humorous descriptions round out this carefully planned resource. I'd recommend this series for both tourists and residents looking to discover and rediscover a beloved city.

Erica Asahan wrote:

Well, I lived in Seattle for years, this book is great to have! She has so many points and venues I did not know existed! Great reference book to have.

I would probably rate this 4.5 stars if I could, but I like it enough to round up. This is an excellent way to learn about the city. The book is divided into chapters that cover neighborhoods. It doesn't focus on the hottest new restaurants/clubs, instead it gives you the feel so that you have a basis for exploration. As the title indicates, this isn't the right book for a weekend tourist but it is great for new Seattle inhabitants.

I think this book may be good if you are not a tourist (hence the name). The maps are good, but it does not give you an idea of what to see when you are there. It got such good reviews even as a tourist book that I ordered it. For vacationing there, I'd rather stick with Frommers or Fodors.