Knopf MapGuide: London (Knopf Mapguides)

As a first time European visitor with a 13 year old daughter towing me about, I decided to purchase no less than 8 travel books prior to going. Doing most of our travel on foot, bus, or via "the tube," I found that my "light weight is better" tourist transformation completed with us carrying only this book, the "Travelling around Your Tube and bus map" (tfl.gov.uk) and the little guide book from the folks at "The London Pass." Being middle aged and of little brain, and lesser eyesight, this book has easy to read, has larger than normal print on the maps, and The Tube guide handily in the back. On top of it all, it is small, weighs only 4.9 oz (138 g - sweat soaked) and contains an index with such entries as "Westminster Abbey." The only thing that could have made it better would be to make the Tube map in one piece. This minor inconvenience was easily overlooked once the Pimms had set in.

I have been to London several times over the past 12 years and also lived there briefly. This book is great - it breaks out the city into neighborhoods (Mayfair, City, etc), has great unobtrusive folding maps, and also lists restaurants and sites in that particular area. The book is small but easy to read, is sturdy, and nicely produced. I recommend it to everyone who is planning on visiting the city. I think if you have this, and the "A to Zed" (which details every single street, unlike a regular guide book), you're set.

This is definitely not the book to use to plan your trip to London, since the descriptions of the attractions are little more than blurbs, but this is absolutely the best map you could have. It's compact, easy to read, and the maps have twice the detail of any other map I've seen. I threw out the map I got with Frommer's guide (Frommer's was largely useless anyway) because it only labelled the main streets. Knopf's labels almost every street, which was a huge help when walking around the city. It's wonderful to find the street you are currently walking down on the map instead of having to wait until you hit a major intersection to figure out where you are. If you're going to London, get this book. You'll be glad you did when you don't have to fold and unfold a huge street map over and over again.