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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince, have done their homework, February 25, 2003
I took two country guides with me to England: Fodor's and Frommer's (see my review on Fodor's). Frommer's is my first choice for England, and here is why. The authors, Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince, have done their homework and have given visitors to England a very good guide. Their succinct section "The Best of England" points out, in 16 subject areas (The Best Cathedrals, Best Gardens, Best Pubs etc.), important areas that every tourist should be aware of. Frommer's very informative 60 page section "Planning Your Trip to England" is a quick and important read. The guide's strongest section is `London', top rate and excellent. Porter & Prince are also the author's of the recommended guide: "Frommer's London 2003". The `London' section in this book has been taken from that guide. Frommer's publications tend to be for the more affluent travelers but they do offer more help for those hoping to find "inexpensive" lodging (less than $100 a night) in England. Their "Very Expensive" range is unusually $400-$1000 per night, sometimes more. However, all of their recommendations are reliable and their description is very good. Unlike, Fodor's, they make life a bit easier by giving you the actual cost of accommodations and restaurant in both British pounds and dollars. Almost all of the hotels have website listing and seeing your accommodations in color via the web is a major help. However, this is not true for the restaurant listings, even though now many of the top restaurants have their own websites with vivid photos and menus -- I found no addresses listed. A guide book worth its salt has to guide you with quality maps. The few maps that Frommer's uses are graphically laid-out with restaurants and accommodations numerically located on each map. However, this guide cries out for MORE MAPS. This is a very weak area in this guide that could be easily remedied. Also, but not a significant deterrent, Frommer's only has nine pages set aside to introduce you to 2000+ years of English history. Do note that Fodor's includes Scotland and Wales, whereas this book, Frommer's England 2003, is strictly England. So, if you want one guide to take with you to see `England' then this is the guide to get. It is reliable, informative and very well laid out. Strongly Recommended.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book On Englad, But Where is Wales?, July 22, 2001
By A Customer
As always, an excellent Frommer's guide. I love Frommer's guides and won't travel without them. I prefer them to Fodor's because they actually make recommendations for sights, hotels, and restaurants, rather than just providing a comprehensive list that the traveller must sort through on his/her own. Frommer's provides the best combination of tourist destinations, hotels, and restaurants in one book that I have found. Numerous options in different price categories for hotels are clearly listed, (although be aware that this book is not for the "shoestring" traveler). Headings, key information, & phone numbers are in red, so they stand out in the text, making it easy to quickly reference. As always, the book is well organized and concise with numerous helpful hints. When I am on the road, I don't want to wade through 2 pages of "color" and "history" to find the key points about a city. The approach is to help you pick sights to visit, not to provide a detailed explanation or tour of the site once you get there. This is also not a book of color pictures and drawings. Such books may be wonderful in one's living room curled up by the fire (DK/Insight Guides), but I find them altogether unuseable on the road. Although comprehensive, Frommer's does not list every sight, no matter how obscure, an approach I greatly prefer. If you want to know every small museum and pile of stone ruins that may exist, get the Michelin Green Guide. If you only want a limited handful of sights with detailed local color get Rick Steves. However, if you want a concise list of all the major sights, clearly rated, so you can plan an excellent trip on your own in any location, get Frommer's. Frommer's clearly marks the "Best" attractions to visit, and then provides a wide choice of Tier 2 & 3 options (more than could be accomplished on any three trips), without leaving the reader confused on which attractions are the most worthwhile. The only reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because it ONLY covers England and is missing Wales. Frommer's does not publish a comprehensive guide to Great Britain; and although they have separate guides for Scotland and Ireland, there is nothing available for Wales. For those travelling in the Southern UK, this is a major omission. I don't know why there is no guide for the UK, or why Wales is missing, but this could be a problem if you only want to use a single guidebook for your trip. If you're travelling to London only, I'd recommend "Frommer's London" (it is more in depth and smaller). But if you want a guide book that only covers England, and does it well, then Frommer's is THE best.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We are third-generation users of this travel guide, November 3, 2002
Back in 1969, my husband and I traveled together to England for our honeymoon using our trusty copy of Frommer's England, finding it the most reliable and accurate on the market. In 2002, my son and his wife accompanied us on our most recent trip, bringing along their young son, thus marking three generations of users of this fact- and fun-filled guide to the very best that England has to offer--all at an affordable price. We are Anglophiles, and we feel that we grew up with this guide. Except for a few misses, we've traveled to England almost every year to renew our friendships with the many people we've met through this intensely personal and extremely practical guidebook. What we've always liked about Frommer's England is its ability to cut through the touristic hype and to connect its readers immediately to the heart and soul of England, recommending the best of its people and its most intriguing places. We are not a wealthy family; vacation hours are precious to us, and not to be wasted. With Frommer's England, you get the feeling that the authors have been there long before you, discarding that which is of little use, and ferreting out the charm and appeal of this ever-fascinating and frequently changing place. Although Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince keep changing and revising the guide, we admire how they keep recommending certain very special places, particularly those oases to which we keep returning. Each year, the guide brings plenty of new things to see and do, but it also respects English tradition and knows that you're not touring the countryside for cutting-edge venues, although there's quite a bit of that as well. It follows the premise that you're in England to see where the lovely villages, the old stone manors, the country lanes, the old-fashioned tearooms, and the charming country houses lie. And throughout, there are accurate and very practical descriptions of the kinds of places that offer comfortable lodgings and good food in a wide array of price brackets. Within two or three more years, we will have explored every part of this wonderful country, using Frommer's England as our trusty compass. My husband and I have agreed that once we have completed this self-imposed "assignment," we'll start all over again, following the same trail originally blazed by us in 1969. With us, we'll carry Frommer's England, not just as a guidebook, but as a trusted friend who has never led us astray.
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