Kim Atkinson (1)

I waited to review this until after a recent trip to New York, and I'm afraid that first impressions were right. It's not a guide that I can recommend.

To begin with, although there is the occasional nod to the other boroughs, this guide should more properly be called the "Forbes City Guide Manhattan 2010". And trendy, expensive Manhattan at that. This is a guide for people with money. Forget budget hotels; there are hardly any moderately-priced hotels suggested. The same is generally true of their restaurant recommendations.

But what really drove me nuts was the almost complete lack of directions. You can't tell a visitor to New York City that a restaurant is located at 541 Amsterdam Avenue. You've got to give the cross-street. And the guide doesn't tell you what subway line to take and which station you need. There's a subway map at the back, but it doesn't designate the lines! Come on! Everyone in New York rides the subway! I guess they expect readers of this guide to take cabs everywhere, which I would NOT recommend. Why would you want to pay to get stuck in Midtown traffic?

On the plus side, they're right about the M60 bus to and from LaGuardia (best bargain in town!) and TKTS (the discount theatre ticket service), and they have most of the major museums and cultural institutions. But those can be found also in guidebooks that don't have the drawbacks of this one.

I go to New York a LOT, and I found this guide terribly frustrating. It would be even worse for someone unfamiliar with the city.… (mehr)

Forbes 2010 City Guide Chicago (formerly Mobil Travel Guides) is a compact, attractive, and informative reference designed to be taken along on a trip to Chicago’s loop and near-in neighborhoods.

Like other travel guides, it contains an overview of the city and its history followed by recommendations for attractions/entertainment, restaurants/nightlife, hotels, shopping, and spas. It’s touted as witty and “insider,” and though I never noticed the wit, I did find the paragraph-long descriptions more evocative and helpful than any I’ve read in other guides. Each entry includes a street address, phone number, website address, price info and hours if relevant, and each two-page spread is accented by a color photograph (though the placement of the photos confounded me -- many are located several (or more) pages away from the text they illustrate).

The guide’s big disappointment is the lack of a good map. Though five are included at the back (overview of entire city; overview of CTA’s train routes; north side; south side; central/loop area), they’re very small ... their too-few streets are labeled with microscopic type in a low-contrast gray ... and they lack an at-a-glance visual that defines the city's neighborhoods (upon which the whole book is organized!).

The advantage of this Forbes guide is portability. My recommendation: Use the big, bulky guides when planning your trip, but then find a good map and slip it with this slim guide into your pocket or purse when you actually go.

(Review based upon a copy of the book provided by the publisher.)… (mehr)