Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to New York City

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Who wouldn't like to get the unofficial word on a big complex city? Who wouldn't like to feel that they were going to be able to find the places that make a city memorable, and that they weren't going to stick out as easy pickings while doing so?

These guide books promise, essentially, that you will know what you are doing before you've actually had the experience, removing some of the nasty anxiety of going horribly wrong as you set out to find urban magic. Some of their features are excellent. The hotel section, for instance, is comprehensive and gives several ways of looking for a hotel that might match your needs. Neighborhood overviews are also very fine.

HOWEVER! other aspects are both annoying and silly. Addresses are often wrong; hours of operation ditto; information about public transporation is (to be charitable) out-of-date. Nothing quite beats hopping confidently onto a bus with a pocket full of dollar bills, only to discover that busses only accept tokens or quarters.

They don't do badly at explaining what attitude you need to take to manage in New York, but neither do they do well. They hint, for example, at the importance of tipping, but do not convey the underlying fact that tipping in NYC is essentially small-time protection money. Not that that's a bad thing. Similarly, restaurant coverage was unimaginative, but maybe there is no way to predict whether a tourist would prefer a very very safe and bland experience, or is more adventurous and would prefer places where the locals eat. Even then, which locals?

This book helped us find a hotel that pleased us. Still, the other aspects annoyed us sufficiently that we left it behind in JFK before we took off.

On a recent business trip, this guide offered everything I needed-- a cheap place to stay, some great places to eat, great rates on all the top attractions, and even Broadway shows without paying full price.

If you need a guidebook that will help you plan an itinerary, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! This book, while chock-full of information, gives no practical tips whatsoever about how to arrange activities while touring. I read through it twice and came away with snippets of information but nothing that helped with actually planning how my family would spend each of our four days in the city. The index is incomplete and much of the information is sketchy at best. I would NOT recommend this as a resource, especially for first-time visitors.

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is excellent, the best Disney guide, specially for it's details. I wanted a New York guide, so I guessed this would have the same quality. I was wrong. It doesn't comes close. Fodors is a better choice with more useful information. The Unofficial also needs a more careful update. It's written that I could find a Warner Bros store at Columbus Circle, but the Warner stores closed many years ago. Fortunately I was already well informed.

Unlike other titles in the series, the Unofficial Guide to New York City doesn't have suggested touring plans or "must see" lists. The restaurant desciptions are lacking (for example, there are NO restaurants listed on 9th Avenue Midtown and there are NO restaurants on the Chinatown map!). There is a brief introductory chapter on the history of the City and that is worth reading.

My family recently went on vacation to a couple of cities, such as Washington D.C., Philadelphia, NYC and Boston. I really found the information in The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C. to be immensely useful in planning our 5 day stay there. The guide was filled with useful information about touring tips, and we planned our itinerary accordingly, saving much time and effort in the process.

"The Unofficial Guide to New York City" on the other hand was utterly disappointing - there were no touring hints or strategies, and the information also seemed all over the place. The restaurant guide appeared incomplete, not covering certain sectors of the city, and on the whole, this guide was not a reliable tour guide of NYC. I also used another guide, Frommer's, and found that much more useful. Pass on this one.