Lonely Planet London (Lonely Planet London, 2nd ed) (Paperback)

~ Steve Fallon (Author), Pat Yale (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

As usual the guidebook standard is set by Lonely Planet

-- Outside (USA)

Product Description

From the aerial view of St Paul's, across the Thames to the Globe Theatre, then back to the East End restaurants and the designer bars of Soho, London has never stopped evolving. This full-colour guide reveals the city's top spots, and includes:

Features: 25 detailed maps and plans of key sights; the city's best eating options, from fish and chips to tea at the Ritz; hundreds of places to stay, from budget hostels in Bayswater to boutique hotels in the West End; special sections on London's vibrant markets and cutting-edge contemporary architecture; day trips out of the capital, including Windsor, Cambridge and Brighton.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2nd edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 086442793X
• ISBN-13: 978-0864427939
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,463,980 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're going to LOVE BRITAIN! , September 23, 2004

By	Richard R. Carlton (Ada, MI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lonely Planet London: City Guide (Paperback)

I've spent a year in England and have made >30 visits all together.

Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for pubs, hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the underground and the double decker buses. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the city centre. When you get to be an old London hand, remember that the classic Londoners guide will always be an A to Z (zed) map and guide. If you want to go a bit beyond the central core of the city (perhaps to Windsor, Hampton, or further away) you really need the proper AtoZ to be able to find exact routes and streets.

Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for a return visit, September 30, 2000

By A Customer

Having used two editions of the Japan guide book I turned to Lonely Planet for another trip. The London book is a great guide if you want the occassional opinion and are looking for solid advice on the standard tourist sights and some insight on the less-well-known sights. It's also a good size - it fits into large pockets or easily into your backpack or camera bag. Unlike the book on Japan, the London guide is not long on specific directions on how to get places once you exit public transportation. Still, it has a broad listing of things to do and places to see, good maps, a reasonable but hardly exhaustive list of hotels and restaurants, and the quirky but entertaining point-of-view that characterizes all the Lonely Planet guides. The descriptions are arranged by topic and then by neighborhoods. I found this very useful when making general plans for each day - we could focus on one or two parts of the city and not spend all day riding back and forth on the tube. The guide includes interesting walks through parts of London and a good variety of day trips outside of London. In short, it's useful and well-worth the price.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT guide for seeing all sights in LONDON!, October 15, 2002

By	T. Regan "tburch" (Summit, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lonely Planet London (Paperback)

I just returned from a week stay in London and two books made the trip complete - this LONDON citymap guide and Lonely Planets guide to London. We were there to sitesee and all we needed was Lonely Planet to decide where to go (includes the TUBE stops as well) and for resturants and other out of the way location, we found every street we needed with this fold out guide. Lonely Planet gave just enough background on all the major sites and has a lot of information packed in a little book. I received about 4 other books from friends and none compared to these two guides. Save your money - you'll be all set with these two!