Fodor's or Frommer's?
 

Looking for good all-around travel guides for a first trip to London and Paris. I think I want either Fodor's or Frommer's, but which one? Any more seasoned travellers have a suggestion? Mainly want good coverage of major sights and dining.

Thanks.

Fodor seems more upmarket to me.

my advice is to go a library or book store & brouse before you buy.

And I prefer Frommer's, which I always thought was more "upmarket"! Lonely Planet are nice, too, just a bit more "off-beat".

So clacko has the right idea. Spend a few hours at a well-stocked book store before you buy.

And IMO out of touch as well. Therefore it is always a Frommer's for where we are going to form a general outline. My wife and I consider ourselves ying/yang travellers, one night it is the white tablecloth restaurant, the next it is the local dive, two nights at the Ritz, two at the HI. Frommer's seems to cater to our swings.

Fill in the Frommer gaps w/knowledge from FT, chowhound.com, friends and my travel agent.

I'll second Frommer's, as I have their Singapore and Hong Kong books right in front of me, and have used their Germany and France books, too (though I supplemented the last two with Rick Steve's books and Lets Go). I have not used city-specific books from them, so I would compare them side by side with whatever else is out there to see if they meet your needs.

I do have Rick Steves current London book, which has detailed museum touring maps, and covers London touring quite well, but it tends not to focus on restaurants, and the accomdations are generally in the budget price range.

I've always liked Frommer's best for European destinations. Rick Steves' "Mona Winks" is a streamlined guide to major museums and very good. I always cut up books into chapters and staple each, then can easily carry info around in my purse. Steves will replace Mona Winks for you if you cut it up to use! I also like the new Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Guides---the London and Paris ones are very good. Look for them at Costco. Do sample the books at a bookstore or library. Have fun on your trip.

Frommer's. I like those Eyewitness Guides too, but they're too darn heavy to take along.

Out of the 2, Frommers for sure. I evn have the 2001 Paris book for it, and it came in very handy when i was there. Overall though, I must say that Lonely Planet has the best all around info, and a wide array of destinations. It caters I think to both backpackers and upscale travellers. For "western" countries I think Frommer's is great, but for countries like Iran, Peru or Bhutan- Lonely Planet is you best bet.

"What's the best travel guide?" is one of those questions where there isn't a correct answer -- or, rather, that there are as many different answers as there are travelers.

The best guidebook for you depends on how you travel, so I think the suggestion to check out several different guides in a library or bookstore is a very wise one.

But as you look at the books about your destination, also try to find the same company's tour guides about where you live now or for some other location you're very familiar with. When you find one that you think is accurate and useful and tells you the things you'd want to know if you didn't already know them, then that's probably the line of guidebooks you'd want to look at for your travels.

Just to add confusion, how about Rick Steves' guidebooks? He specializes in Europe. Lonely Planet is good too (though I use them mainly for non-European destinations).

You can get a taste of Rick Steves' advice on his website www.ricksteves.com .

Kathy

I can’t answer your question about Fodors or Frommers as I have not used either. I do concur with others about Lonely Planet but it is not for everyone. Some of the Lonely Planet books have “on a shoestring” under their title and they are budget guide books. Others are all purpose guide books. I use Lonely Planet during 90% of my travels but 90% of my travel is to 3rd world countries.

When I pop over to Europe for a long weekend I usually use Time Out’s city guides. I have used both the Paris and the London Time Out Guides and I highly recommend them.

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The world is a book, and for those who do not travel, read only a page.
-Saint Augustine

I'm surprised that the Michelin Red and Green books haven't been mentioned. The Red book is the bible for hotels and restaurants. The Green book provides concise histories and descriptions of major attractions.

Gualt-Millau is a bit irreverent but provides more commentary than Michelin.

Gualt-Millau in it's Paris guide points out restaurants with bargain fixed price lunches and dinners. It's a great way to sample the best restaurants of Paris at reasonable prices.

I really like Lonely Planet because they pinpoint places of interest to sightsee which other tourbooks omit.

Generally, of the two I prefer Frommers. Fodors website is a great source of on-line information. However, for the Paris and London specifically I like Rick Steve's books. He has details of walking tours and self-guided tours through some of the museums, plus interesting little tid-bits of information that the other books often don't include. When I travel I often end up taking two or three books (Frommers, Lonely Planet, and one other if appropriate....) so picking only ONE book to take would really strain me.

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As an aside - my in-laws just made their first overseas trip (to England) and didn't want to buy a guide book (they are very frugal). My husband and I gave them a Rick Steve's book for London and a Lonely Planet for England and they were surprised to find information that they couldn't get off the internet, details about how to travel from one location to another, historial information, etc. They have been happily converted to using guidebooks. In particular, the really liked Rick Steve's London book.