No comments about ZagatSurvey 2009 New York City Pack (Zagatsurvey New York City Pack).

No comments about Hagstrom Long Island: New York City Road Map.

5 comments about Fodor's New York City 2007 (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1. We looked at perhaps a dozen guidebooks for NYC when we first arrived in town, and liked this one the best. Many guidebooks seem to be a bit stuffy. This one was written with warmth and panache by people who seem intimately familiar with their subject matter. The authors also included excerpts from various on-line reviews/blogs and the like which are interspersed in the text and add to the hipness of the book.
   
   Sightseeing is particularly well covered in this book. It describes the various neighborhoods of NYC, their history, sociological quirks, as well as their architectural and cultural highlights extremely well and also includes detailed lists of restaurants and shopping opportunities in each neighborhood. The book also includes a number of interesting "field trips" which many travellers might not otherwise consider, such as a foot tour of the Brooklyn Bridge (one of the highlights of our trip), a tour of Harlem gospel choirs, pub crawls, best views, festivals, boat excursions, etc. etc. Major museums, such as the Metropolitan and MOMA are covered in great detail, and there is also an entire chapter on lesser known "niche" museums as well as detailed coverage of art galleries.
   
   Hotels are reasonably well covered, although online review sites specifically devoted to hotels will be more comprehensive and current than any general guidebook can be. This book also does a good job covering theatre, clubs, bars, and restaurants with separate chapters devoted to each. Again, however, the NYC restaurant scene, in particular, is so vast that hard-core foodies will also want to check out Zagat's guide and online review sites.



2. This Fodor's guidebook does a thorough job of breaking down the different neighborhoods of NYC (with helpful maps), and there are some unexpected extras, such as a full-color section on Central Park (with maps), a section on the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (with a gallery floorplan), and a detailed section on "Ground Zero." However, this book also seems to leave out "insider tips" that I found in Frommer's NYC guidebooks (such as Frommer's "New York City Day by Day" or the "Portable NYC" guide). For instance, while the Fodor's book does explain how to catch the free Staten Island Ferry, Frommer's "Portable" guide recommends that you sit on the right side for the best views of the Statue of Liberty. Despite all its break-out maps, Fodor's guide doesn't include a theatre district map. In addition, information on transportation options for getting to and from the area airports is shoved to the back of the guidebook like an afterthought. Finally, the organization wasn't the most effective for me; attractions are organized by neighborhood, so if you don't know, for instance, that the Empire State Building is located in the Union Square district, you have to use the index. It would be nice to have an overview of famous sites at the beginning of the guide to get oriented rather than have to start out "digging" for all the places you may want to see.
   
   Unfortunately, this 500+ page guidebook is just too bulky to carry around NYC. However, it does provide a solid overview for those people still in the planning stages of their trip. I plan to take this book with me to NYC, but to pull out the lengthy sections on "Where to Stay" (I already have hotel reservations) and "Where to Dine" (I've already made dining arrangements). I do think Fodor's complements the Frommer's guides because it (Fodor's) provides great maps and interesting historical information about some sites; however, I still prefer the portable Frommer's guides, which provide compact, but meaty information.



3. This guide was extremely useful, and I'm definitely glad I bought it. However, take the price listings with a grain of salt, they are often times very inaccurate. Don't plan a budget by it!
   
   The most useful aspect of the book, oddly enough, was the pullout map. We took it everywhere with us and didn't lead us wrong!



4. This is the one to buy. Most useful for preps and during visit. The others are too much, too little and hard to understand. This one is just right.



5. Fodor's 2007 helped me plan an excellent trip. Several maps make things really easy to find. I would have been completely lost travelling to the Big Apple for the first time, but I felt like I belonged there because I had studied Fodor's NYC 2007 before the trip! It was easy to get around, the book provided excellent choices for hotels, shopping, clubbing, and of course the best attractions. Its smaller size makes it easy to carry around, too. Now every time I go to NY, I don't leave home without this book.

1 comments about The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins.

1. When people think of the street names of Manhattan, they probably think of the grid and its numbered roads. WRONG! Manhattan, especially the older neighborhoods from Houston Street south to the Battery, are filled with twisting little streets whose names resonate with Manhattan's history. This is where you'll find out why Houston Street is pronounced "HOW-ston". Where did Maiden Lane get its name from? Who was Barclay? This book will tell all. My only complaint (which prevented from giving this five stars) was with the binding: it cracked almost immediately upon opening and, right now, several pages are precariously clinging to the spine. Maybe it was only the batch that mine came out of which is so weak.

   Still this is a very informative book. If only it can tell me why New Yorkers pronounce Avenue of the Americas as "Sixth Avenue".

1 comments about South Bronx (NY) (Images of America).

1. The presentation contains memorable pictures of
   important Bronx structures and scenes over the
   past two centuries. i.e.
   o Fordham Rd. Trolley of 1940s
   o St. Roch's Church
   o The Swedish/Finnish Lutheran Church
   o St. Joseph 's at East 178th Street
   o Hall of Fame for Great Americans now Bronx Community College
   o North Side of the Board of Trade circa 1890s - 1910
   o Cardinal Hayes HS at 1947
   o Christmas Dinner circa 1919 was $1.50 for
   1/2 boiled lobster, plum pudding etc.
   o Butterfly Zone at Astor Court
   
   This acquisition would provide very memorable pictures
   for people who have lived or worked in New York over
   the period of the last 100 years.

5 comments about The Hudson Valley Book: A Complete Guide (Great Destinations).

1. Travel's best kept secret is exposed: the Hudson River Valley. Evelyn Kanter has written a wonderful, concise guide to this beautiful and historically significant region. I should know. I live here.Her book has even enlightened me. The book is factual and full of terrific snippets of information. I'm going to keep it in my glove compartment for my lazy day trips around the valley. This book is a great reference for Heritage travel visitors and locals. It's an invitation to see, firsthand, where American history gained its foothold.



2. I love the Hudson Valley--from West Point's bastion of training young military leadership to Hyde Park's memorial to Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt to Poughkeepsie's CIA--that's the Culinary Institute of America, famous for scrumptious dinners. Ms. Kanter obviously loves the Valley, too, for it shows in her excellent research and writing. I highly recommend it for anyone who yearns to visit this lovely part of upstate New York. Wake up, Rip Van Winkle!



3. I'm thrilled. I bought the book and gave it to my husband as he has wanted to explore the region. He enjoyed Ms. Kanter's vivid descriptions and got inspired. He has planned a romantic long weekend.



4. I bought the book as a gift for my husband as he has wanted to explore the region. It turned out to be a gift to me as he was so inspired by Ms. Kanter's vivid descriptions he has planned a romantic long weekend get away.



5. Although this book is packed with lots of information, it is not organized in a way that is helpful to some one (like me) who is planning a drive through the Hudson Valley.

   Information on a given location is scattered through several chapters making it difficult to find places one would like to visit.

   For example, let's say you are passing through Red Hook and would like to know what's worth doing there. You have to consult five separate chapters on Lodging, Food, Arts, Mansions, and Shopping and look for Red Hook in each of these.

   For the traveler, it would be much better to have all this info collected under each location.

   This is an excellent reference book, but if you are planning a trip, find a tour book which has the info organized by locations.

No comments about Naser-E Khosraw's Book of Travels (Unesco Collection of Representative Works: Persian Heritage Series).

No comments about Best Bike Rides New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (Best Bike Rides Series).

1 comments about Notable New York: The West Side & Greenwich Village: A Walking Guide to the Historic Homes of Famous (and Infamous) New Yorkers (Notable New York series).

1. This is a remarkable book. The author has divided the western half of Manhattan, from Greenwich Village up to 106th Street, into four parts, and then further divided each part into sections of no more than a few blocks apiece. In each one of these sections, he has called out the homes of "famous (and infamous) New Yorkers" and given readers a few paragraphs of information about each. Clearly, a lot of research went into this volume -- and, I would assume, into its East Side companion as well.
   
   So much research, in fact, that although this book is only 250 or so pages long, I despair of being able to use it effectively -- or, I should say, extensively -- when I'm in New York a few weeks from now. On West 71st, 72nd, and 73rd streets between Columbus Ave and Central Park West, for example, Plumb identifies no fewer than 10 significant locations, ranging from the site of the house where General William T. Sherman died to the famous Dakota building where John Lennon lived and died and where, Plumb tells us, thirteen other noteworthy people also lived and where exterior shots of "Rosemary's Baby" were filmed. It's all fascinating stuff, but far from being a "walking guide," I think it would be more of a "standing-around guide" as you move slowly from street to street. I can't imagine that if you gave each site its due, absorbing the information the author gives us, you'd get very far in a day or two of touring.
   
   Which may not be a bad thing. In her books about England, author Susan Allen Toth advocates what she calls "the thumbprint theory of travel," in which you settle yourself into a small part of a country or region -- the kind you could cover with a thumb on your map -- and then instead of traveling far afield, concentrate on that area and get to know it as a local would. That may be the way to approach this guide as well. Don't try to absorb the whole city this way, but instead pick an area that interests you and stroll it intently. "Notable New York" may be tailor-made for that.
   
   Of course, if you already live in the city, then this and its companion would be, I would think, almost essential reference works. If, at least, you have any interest in who may have haunted those streets before you.

No comments about Notable New York: The East Side: A Walking Guide to the Historic Homes of Famous (and Infamous) New Yorkers (Notable New York series).