Customer Reviews

Not for Tourists Guide to London 2010 (Not For Tourists Guidebooks)

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So I bought this book because of the maps. That's mostly what it is... the maps cover a huge area around London, and most maps in guidebooks or the A-Z only cover central London. I bought it along with two other guidebooks that were more review and advice focused, and that i thought would be more useful in terms of finding authentic attractions and cheap food (they were, check out Pauline Frommer's Spend Less, See More!). But I wanted some good maps, so I got this.

Well, halfway through my two weeks in London I threw it out. Many of the little icons on the maps showing the locations of pubs, restaurants, banks, etc, were way off. The street addresses listed on the right side were correct, but the map did not match up correctly, and I got lost a few times trying to find something, only to realize later that it was a few blocks down the street and the map was wrong. It was inconsistent enough that the book wasn't worth it's carrying weight in my purse anymore (it's a pretty dense little block of a book). I bought an A-Z map at a newsstand and was perfectly happy with it, at is was about the same page dimensions but a fraction of the weight, with a lot more detail in terms of things like museums marked on it.

I just wish I hadn't paid full price for it at the book store! I wouldn't really recommend it, as even when the maps are right, there's no indication about whether a restaurant is cheap or expensive. also, there seems to be a huge amount of banks marked on the maps, when I'd rather have more attractions, pubs, and cafes, and restaurants marked!

I like the concept of a "tourbook for residents" and this book might carry that off well, but only if you can read it! These books come in two page sizes and unfortunately this one is in the smaller size, which may be small enough to fit in a purse but cannot be read without a magnifier. If it were in the same larger page size as the Atlanta and Seattle books (which are still small enough to fit in a glovebox) I would have given it higher marks. Actually, I gave it a third star only because of the vast area covered: the other NFT books I have contain from 11 to 49 maps; this one has 152! I hope the publishers see fit to do the next edition in the larger page size. This is a great idea, but in this case, not too well-executed.