What book(s) would you recommend for London and enviorns?
thx, alan

Fodors for general tips, sightseeing, and a selection of hotels and restaurants.

Michelin Green for a lot of detail on history, art, and architecture.

Eyewitness for pre-trip planning and research, I find them too heavy to carry around while traveling.

Rick Steves's books if you want the abbreviated and budget-minded approach.


"Daytripsondon" by Steinbicker for,
yes, daytrips, including minimaps of town centers, walking routes, etc.

Zagat guide to London restaurants if you are a foodie and want to know a lot about restaurants.

There are also many good websites out there.

I have a file on London; if you'd like to see it, email me at
[email protected]

I like the Knopp guides.

For maps and graphics, the DK Eyewitness London guide is terrific.

Dave
[email protected]

The weekly edition of Time Out magazine for everything current by way of theatre, concerts, museums, galleries, etc. Also they have a new publication called "Cheap Eats" which is pretty good.

An "A to Z" street-guide is essential for getting around, and also has a tube map and a theatreland guide.

In addition, pick up a bus map at any tube station - the revitalized bus system is relatively inexpensive, clean, efficient and easy to use. A number of Londoners told me they were now using buses in preference to the tube because of (a) the improvements and (b) the potential of bomb threats on the tube.

Fodors, Frommer, and Eye Witness are all good books for London.

I will tell you one not to buy--The Unofficial Guide to London. I normally love the Unofficial Guides and have used other versions for other cities (New Orleans, New York, D.C.), but I found the London version to be quite lacking.

I recently bought a copy of the AAA guide that is just newly out and liked the map section because it had a lot of the "tourist sights" put onto the map. I have had problems visualizing where things are in relation to other things and that has really helped me. The DK guides are beautiful and Fodors and Frommers are wonderful for lots of information. I got the In Touch Cheap dining guide (I think that's right) and like that as well.

Have fun researching and planning!

Julie

For advance reading, David Piper's superb "The Companion Guide to London." For while you're there, "London Walks," which has a good deal of useful information in addition to suggested walks.

I found the AAA Spiral Guide to be the absolute best guide for London!

I always go for the Rough Guides because they tell it like it is!
I agree that DK's are great for graphics but I can't seem to get on with them. I prefer guidebooks in chapter form rather than headings that sometimes tend to be shallow and lack detail of what you really want to know. The Rough Guides tell you where and when to go and how much it costs. It also gives you info on what to avoid. I assume they are available worldwide, but if not they are readily available from the UK's arm of Amazon (Amazon.co.uk).

Alan, The best guidebook for London in my opinion is ACCESS LONDON. The ACCESS guides are wonderful- I never travel without them. They publish guides to Paris,Rome,Venice and Florence,New York etc. The guides are broken done by neighborhood. If you can't find them in a bookstore,you can order them at Amazon.com. Have a wonderful time in London...

With sites such as this, who needs an editor's opinion on what to see and do?

good point m_kingdom. Although I used the books and maps referenced in my message above for getting around, a number of my choices on where to go and what to see were based on advice from this forum. I cut and pasted what I found to be of particular interest and, in effect, created my own personalized guidebook.

We brought the DK top ten books with us to London and Paris. Both had decent maps and subway routes as well. Their full size versions might be a bit big to lug around. They included times and prices of attractions, info that really helped us plan and change plans once there.