Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am a long-time Lonely Planet fan. I even bought one about where I live for those moments I'm feeling touristy in my hometown. The London City Guide wasn't very useful at all. I have an upcoming trip to San Francisico planned, and I'm seriously considering trying a different publisher after this experience.
The guide has the Lonely Planet standards - maps, walking tours, tons of history about the city. But the index is terrible! If you're like me and you use the index to look up information quickly while you're walking by a landmark, this book won't help you much. Want to learn about Buckingham Palace? While Kensington and Windsor are listed in the index, Buckingham is not. You have to find a special section called "Palaces" in the back pages, and the page number for Buckingham is listed there. This is just one example of SEVERAL instances where I was unsatisfied with this purchase.
As another reviewer mentioned, there is no information on the Underground "Tube" system. They give you a map, but that's it. And the people working in the stations are of little help when trying to decide which pass is best for your needs. One of my travel companions had the Rick Steves London book, which provided detailed Underground info that helped us choose our Oyster card.
Also, the admission prices they list are WAY off. Of course, you can't really fault them for that. As soon as you print a book, it's immediately out of date. But my advice is to wait (if you can) for the next publication of this book, or look up the admission prices online before you go if you're trying to budget out your trip in advance.
Here are a few tips that I learned while visiting London that this book didn't teach me -
1) Always try to buy your attactions tickets ahead of time to avoid wasting time in line. We bought our tickets every morning at our hotel's front desk.
2) Try to stay in the Paddington Station area. Among others, Paddington has the Circle and District Underground lines which take you to pretty much any attraction. You can also take trains from Heathrow to Paddington, and can even catch a train out of the city, if that is on your itinerary.
3) Those red double decker "hop on and off" tour buses are overpriced at 25 GBP. At my time of travel, the US conversion made it over $40! While they help you get a lay of the land, it would have been a great cost savings just to use our Oyster cards to get to the attractions we wanted to see.
4) When converting your currency to GBP, it is better to withdraw the funds from an ATM rather than using those currency exchange places in the airport and train stations. In my experience, my bank gave me a much better exchange rate and didn't even charge me for the transaction!
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Lonely Planet LondonListen to Yeomen's yarns on a visit to the Tower of LondonClimb Parliament Hill for expansive views of the cityFind out why an Oyster is your best friend when it comes to city transportTake a walk on the culinary wild side at London's dozens of ethnic restaurantsIn This Guide:Three authors, 1800 hours of research, over 800 places recommendedSpecial day-trips chapter and color sections on London's architecture and the River ThamesLocals lift the lid on traditional pie & mash, the city's Blue Plaques and exclusive literary evenings
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