Great Britain (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Michael Leapman

1 A nice idea but so very far from the truth
First of all, for all those who are not familiar to the UK (Great Britain)the Britain this guide try to show you has not excisted since the end of the 1950's. The images are buetiful, in fact I will complement it on selling such a romantic vision of contemporary Britain. But alas this is all false. Verging on 99.9 percent of the UK's people have never eaten cream-cakes or had tea and crumpets with the Queen in Buckingham Palace, likewise nobody in the country speaks like the Queen (sorry to tell it like it is.) Roads are concrete and Burger King & McDonalds lurk in every town. I can say as a UK citizen that this guide is giving out mis-information. I would recommend reading this book if you are planning on visiting the countryside or a museum but otherwise they are selling you a vision of Britain that has been dead for nearly 60 years. If you buy this guide, belelive what you read, and visit the country you will (and we see this happening on a regular basis in Britain) walk into the roughest and most run-down area of London for example, ask the first person you meet in a bar for scones and tea and then you and maybe your partner will be beaten to pulp and have your possessions stolen. By no means is Britain a hell-hole, but its far from the Britain shown in this Travel Guide. Sorry to tell it like it it.

2 A No Brainer Buy It - Excellent
Buy it!

I travel and have 20-30 travel books. I discovered this series a few years ago and own a dozen in the series. What is really outstanding are the visuals in these books. They have lots of details - as do most good travel books - but the visuals are stunning.

The color photos almost leap from the pages. Also there are lots of cultutal and historical facts with photos, cutaway drawings of famous buildings, and more. The historical part is excellent. Included are art galleries, churches, museums, special architecture, culture, political figures, maps, restautants all continuously updated so when you buy you get a current book not a book years old.

A common feature in the series (Eyewitness) is an introduction at the start of the book with a history time line with lots of photos and information on politics and things to see.

In addition it has the regular stuff in almost 700 pages such as detailed maps, accomodations and a comprehensive restaurant guides. My favourite books in this series are the city books so I would get the London book also.

With the beautiful photos it makes an excellent souvenir after you get back home.

Jack in Toronto

3 AN ANGLOPHILE'S TEXT BOOK
This book covers everything. I'm especially impressed with the History of Britain section. It goes through each time period, prehistoric, norman, tudor, georgian, victorian, each illustrated with a beautifully drawn diagram of a building of that period and wonderful photographs of artifacts from the period. It has a section, also illustrated by photographs, of English food and dozens of easy to read maps. This is invaluable if you are traveling to Britain, but also precious to the person who isn't, as it virtually enables them to from their armchair.

4 Big book...lots of info!
When I received this book in the mail, I was quite surprised at its size. It's thicker than some of the other Eyewitness travel books, but this should not discourage you! There is so much information that one can get very engrossed in reading and learning from it for hours on end. I found the maps extremely useful and the different sections divided up for easy referencing made locating places to eat, hotels to stay at, and things to see very quick and easy. What a wonderful guide! The pictures are superb and it really is a clever travel companion. I've found the Eyewitness travel books to be very smart and practical...a real asset to the frequent, casual, and even business traveler. I recommend it highly as a companion guide to other travel books you may acquire about Great Britain, however it could do the job quite well on its own also.

5 Britannafan--by Mason
I'm only 13, but collecting travel books is one of my passions. I've got 35 right now. The Great Britain book is one of the best! I was just there actually last month as an 8th-grade graduation present. This book is just GREAT! Cool history info, stuff about the country, cutaways and floor plans just bring Britain into my life. The LONDON section is the best, with "tube" stations marked and many cutaways and floor plans! GREAT BOOK, INDEED!

6 Great Travel Guide, Beautiful Coffee Table Book!
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Summary:
Every Dorling Kindersley Guide has been a great and interesting book... and delightful to have and use, even if you are not traveling to that location, but are only interested in learning more!

The Guides are well organized in a logical and easy to follow manner. They are beautifully illustrated, well developed with accurate information (it is unusual for hotel and restaurant information to be that accurate), have enough history to help the reader understand the people and cultural background, and have a lot of useful travel information and useable maps in the appendixes.

But, the really great attraction to this book is several fold; it is:
............Very complete
............Easy to read
............Beautifully and artistically completed
............Good shopping, safety and other tips
............Gorgeous photographs too numerous to list.

Summary Negative:

The country books are too general to really satisfy all your needs in any given location. So, if your entire trip is spent in Wessex, for example, you will also want to get the specific guide for that city (but, the London Section is fairly good)

Guide Specifics:

The guides are organized as follows:

How to use this guide
Introduction to Great Britain
............Portrait of Great Britain
............History of Great Britain
............Great Britain Through the Year
London, Area by Area
Great Britain by Region
............Southeast England
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............West Country
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Midlands
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............North Country
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Wales
........................Specific Cities / Towns
............Scotland
........................Specific Cities / Towns
Travelers Needs
............Hotels
............Restaurants
............Shopping
Survival Information
............Practical Info.
........................Police, safety, buses, trains, etc.
............Travel Info.
........................Maps, tours, currency, etc.
............General Index
............Phrase Book

Discussion:
The book begins with "A Portrait of Great Britain", including a complete map, a review of Great Britain, it's history, and Great Britain's History (very interesting), and Great Britain though the Year - including events, etc.,

Region with an "At a glance" overview, then has subsections of Cities / Towns, then specific locations, churches, historical monuments, bridges, galleries, etc.

Architectural reviews include various views, and cutaways; given greater understanding and better perspective. They are all attractive, if not works of art - honestly.

The travelers' Info. offers good and valid info. on prices, currencies, customs, important words, etc. I used the reviews on resorts, hotel's restaurants and nightclubs, etc. and found they were useful and accurate, and helpful with my touring and site decisions

The books are so well thought out that it has multiple maps, with various lookup tables, and the book's flaps are designed to be used as bookmarks for map pages.

Negative:
The country-wide guides are by definition more general than the specific city guides. So, if you are going to Scotland, get the specific "Scotland" guide (another great guide). If you decide to get the "Great Britain" guide for your 3, or 4 city tour of England, understand that this guide may be a little to general for all your local travel needs.

Conclusion:
As the President, CEO of an International Meeting Planning Corporation we have many resources and techniques to learn about places we have meetings / groups at as well as the cities and sights. But, as a traveler, this book really is top notch and I would recommend it to anyone going on a personal trip, or wanting to learn about a city, or location.

7 Excellent practical overview
This guidebook is essential for someone traveling to the UK, particularly for the first time. Of the 3 or 4 books I bought, this was the one I took along on the trip. Highlights include its detailed visual summary of all the major attractions, along with the practical info needed (hours/months of operation, etc) and detailed section on practical travel related topics (money, phones, modes of transport), contact info, and great area maps and overhead angled views of particularly interesting locations and buildings. The B&B and restaurant sections are also useful but need to be supplemented with the appropriate focused guides on those subjects. Color coded sections make it even easier to find what you're looking for fast. The only significant drawback is that it is heavy for its size due to the glossy, full color pages. These comments also apply to all the other Eyewitness Guides that I've seen.

8 Lush Photography and Thorough Coverage
When planning trips to Europe, I frequently consult Eyewitness travel guides, because of their great breadth of coverage and strong organization (regions in the specific country are divided into colors). It can sure make navigating through the pastoral Lake District and captivating city of London that much easier.

Of course, the strongest point is the massive coverage of London. There are about seventy pages devoted to this stunning capital. All the main sights are covered, with their hours, photos/remarkable drawings, historical insights, and all the other necessary information included. From there, this book goes off into all the intricacies of Great Britain, from Bath to Scotland. Coverage remains strong, be it Cambridge or Wales. This travel guide is a nice change from Fodor's dreary presentation on stark black and white pages; reading about and planning travel should be enjoyable, not like reading a textbook. This book, on the other hand, does a nice job of making that happen.

Another strong point, is the fact that the book is able to meld history, graphical representations, and all of the major sights, towns, and villages of Great Britain into its copious amount of pages. The introduction, with such information as a quick glance at British history and typical foods, is a nice touch. The countryside tours and stately home inserts are both informative and lavish, as are the "street-by-street" layouts, which are used for many of the towns and cities. This book disappoints, though, on the coverage of hotels; there is a rather slim representation of hotels available, especially in London.

Overall, this book is well presented, thoughtful, and edifying - a necessary guide through what can be the intimidating isle of Great Britain.

9 Great Supplemental Guide
This book lives up to its slogan: it shows you what the others only tell you. The pictures are beautiful and the maps are excellent--much larger than you would usually find in other guidebooks.The guidebook also covers British history, food and money. Because of the amount of illustrations and pictures, however, it would not be the only guide I would buy if traveling to Britain. I would recommend this book as a complement to other guidebooks from which you could get more detailed info on lodging and prices.

10 Beautiful and helpful book!
I bought this book not for travel but to help me visualize places I was reading about in various historical novels. It certainly helped it all come to life! The graphics and photos are wonderful. Since that time, I've also used the book whenever I want to do "armchair travel" - stimulates the imagination and provides hours of interesting reading.

11 Vast
There is enormous coverage in this book. Maybe that is its main drawback. There is just so MUCH to Great Britain, that it is impossible to go into great depth. HOWEVER, what it does it does extremely well.

The house style of the Eyewitness guides is very attractive - beautiful pictures, cutaways and good maps.

It is not the sort of guide that is very comprehensive in restaurant and hotel suggestions - but in the UK there is such a good network of tourist offices that you rarely need a huge accommodation listings book. Each tourist office will book accommodation in any price range or category.

I wrote a rave review of the London guide. I suggest if you are spending an extensive time in London, it is worthwhile buying that book instead. And if you are spending significant time in Scotland, consider that book.

12 Nice pictures but not organized and not enough content
When I bought this book at a local bookstore to prepare for an upcoming trip to Great Britain -- it looked like the perfect book. Nice bright glossy photos made it interesting to flip though, and get good ideas of where and what to see.

However, I'm now in the planning stages of my trip and find the book is falling short. It is organized by MAJOR area, but the smaller areas aren't labelled well and are hard to find. And then, for the most part, both restaurants and hotels AREN'T in the section that covers a small area, they are jammed in the back like an afterthought. This means if you are planning to stay in one area, you cant look to see where to stay without flipping to the back. There are simple 1/2 line descriptions, with an address/phone number, and a ballpark price. Outside of looking at price, there is very little indication that says, "hey this is a luxury hotel" or "that hotel is overpriced" or "watch out, there is no air conditioning in that hotel"

The book does have nice pictures which is important, I find myself saying, "Hey, Id like to go to see that!" So for getting ideas on where to visit, it's good. It also has some helpful travel advice on what to do and what to pack, etc It includes pictures of local food, which is good so you know what you might run into.

Although I'll probably bring this book with me on vacation, there simply isn't enough information to decide where to stay and where to eat -- and the information that IS there isn't organzied properly.

I used a Frommer's guide last year for London and for Ireland, and it was incredibly helpful for planning that trip. I recently bought a Frommer's England 2000 guide which is organized much better -- but only covers England so I'll have to buy Frommer's Scotland 2000 too -- but I'll have the information I need.

13 An excellent guide to London...
I wasn't sure if I really liked this book when I first got it, but after reading many other London travel guides, I could find none better than this one. It has become my Bible and will accompany me every step of my trip. One suggestion for the publisher: I would have given the book five stars if a pull-out map of all of London was included!

14 Great if you do not need practical information
This book features fantastic photos in high gloss and some great bits of information. But if you're looking for a travel guide with hotels and restaurants and practical information, stick to the Let's Go guide or the Lonely Planet guide or Rough Guide. All in all it's a beautiful book.

15 The best travel guide of Britain
Covering every imaginable spot of interest in Great Britain and packed with maps and color pictures, this is a travel guide you could enjoy just reading like a novel. The attractive layout and photos of locations and attractions really help you decide what to include in your itinerary. Color diagrams of museums, castles and sightseeing districts makes you feel more in control and less lost. With this guide and a car, we traveled for a month and were never disappointed.