Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to England

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Unofficial Guides are usually very well written and helpful and this one is no exception. The book starts off with some basic information on traveling to England (when to go, how to get deals, etc.) before moving on to more specific information for various geographic areas of England. The most extensive coverage is reserved for London, which is probably wise since most tourists will certainly focus their stay around that magnificent city. Other places of interest are covered as well with all the usual suspects (Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Stonehenge, Cotswolds, etc.) all covered reasonably well. The writing is clear and concise and the book is well organized. It is a very solid entry and useful guide for visiting England.

Having given the book its due, it is not the best guide to England as a whole. I used this book as well as Frommer's extensively while planning my trip and must say that Frommer's does a better job of covering the country as a whole. This is largely due to the fact that the Frommer's guide is a whopping 300 pages longer and every bit of that goes into describing various parts of the country. It is worth noting that if your trip will be limited to London and the surrounding area then the Unofficial Guide is a worthy choice as I actually preferred it's format and information for the city to the Frommer's book.

In summary, this is a quality book but if you truly plan to explore beyond London then I would recommend purchasing the Frommer's England guide first. The Unofficial Guide was the best I found on London itself and I can recommend it without reserve if you limit your trip to the city. Another worth while purchase is the Eyewitness Guide which has fairly sparse information on specifics but with all its color photos and maps, is unparalleled at giving you a sense of a place to help decide if a specific location is worth visiting.