Frommer's Amsterdam (Hardcover)

by George McDonald (Author) "You can't easily miss the fact that parts of the center city, the IJ channel waterfront, and the southeastern business and residential districts are giant..." (more)
Key Phrases: Centraal Station, Amstel River, Golden Age (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go-they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!

Freewheeling Amsterdam is one of Europe's most exciting cities, and Frommer's Amsterdam has all the practical details and candid advice you need to plan a successful trip. We've reviewed the very best places to stay and dine, from plush business hotels to intimate, family-run B&Bs, from grand cafes to Indonesian rijstaffel restaurants. With Frommer's in hand, it's easy to explore the all the city's top sights, whether you want to see masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum and the van Gogh Museum, experience the poignancy of the Anne Frank House, or bike along the canals. And of course, we've got all the details on Amsterdam's legendary nightlife: concerts, jazz clubs, brown cafes, smoking coffee shops, and even the lowdown on the Red Light District. The guide also includes side trips to Rotterdam and the Hague, plus lovely small towns nearby where you can visit cheese markets and see tulip fields in spectacular bloom. Frommer's puts the city at your fingertips, with walking tours, a complete shopper's guide, and a free color fold-out map!

From the Back Cover
Frommer's. The best trips start here.

Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer.

• Insider tips on the best bars, brown cafés, and smoking coffeeshops—plus the Dutch quest for gezelligheid.
• Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.
• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.
• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company; 10th Book & Map edition (December 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028626001
• ISBN-13: 978-0028626000
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,027,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to Frommer's usual quality, July 20, 2005

By	Jeff in Philly "Jeff in Philly" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Amsterdam (Frommer's Complete) (Paperback)

We travel a lot and always get a Frommer's Guide the first time we visit a new place. In general these guides are full of useful information, accurate maps and excellent sight-seeing suggestions and lists of restaurants. We have found this to be true of the Frommer's Guides to France, Provence, Germany, London, Spain and Norway.

This Amsterdam guide did not live up to our expectations. It's not that the book is "terrible", but we consistently found inaccuracies and, as others have said here, were often left wondering if the author George McDonald actually ate at the restaurants he recommends. One could reasonably suspect that the appearance of some of these restaurants' names in the guide were paid endorsements. (A particular recommendation for Indonesian food, which one can find in abundance in Amsterdam, was especially suspicious, as it was overpriced and nowhere near the quality of other restaurants we visited).

We always like to walk when visiting a city, and this Amsterdam Guide contains several long walking tours. We tried almost all of them, and invariably gave up and headed in our own direction. The maps provided with the walking tours had inaccuracies serious enough to really throw us off (street names off by an entire block), and included ridiculous "points of interest" -- in one case he sends you off to see the site of a historic orphanage, when in fact the orphanage is gone and now replaced by the new Ballet house, an unattractive steel and glass monstrosity. He even goes so far as to explain that the orphanage "used" to stand there. What's the point? Does Mr. McDonald really not think that Amsterdam has enough existing points-of-interest that he has to send us off to the ones that aren't there anymore?

Further, the tear-out folding map that comes with the book contains little more than street names -- there are inexplicably no references to points-of-interest mentioned in the book, or even major landmarks.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A real disappointment., November 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Frommer's Amsterdam (9th ed) (Paperback)

I bought this book for my first trip to Amsterdam. The basic info is sound but there were some problems. The most annoying is that key parts of maps end up in the middle (binding) making them difficult to read. The restaurant reviews were in inaccurate and left the reader wondering whether anyone from Frommers had been in the restaurant. In summary the book is OK but there are better ones on the market.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good, basic travel guide, November 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Frommer's Amsterdam (Frommer's Amsterdam, 11th ed) (Paperback)

I just took this book to Amsterdam. I found it to be very helpful. The books features maps dedicated to a single subject (such as a restaurant map, a hotel map, etc.). We used these extensively. The Frommer's Irreverent Guides have more candid and entertaining reviews (including information on coffeeshops, which this book essentially skips), but this book is an excellent one-stop source of travel information. If you're only bringing one guide to Amsterdam, this one will do the job well. If you can pack two, bring along the Irreverent Guide (or something similarly hip).