- ISBN13: 9780756660819
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
DK Eyewitness Travel's full-color guidebooks to hundreds of destinations around the world truly show you what others only tell you. They have become renowned for their visual excellence, which includes unparalleled photography, 3-D mapping, and specially commissioned cutaway illustrations.
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides are the only guides that work equally well for inspiration, as a planning tool, a practical resource while traveling, and a keepsake following any trip.
Each guide is packed with the up-to-date, reliable destination information every traveler needs, including extensive hotel and restaurant listings, themed itineraries, lush photography, and numerous maps.
Tags: D.C., Brand New, Mark
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
We try to visit DC every couple of years, and next time we were thinking of paying for one of those guided city tours. We don’t need the sites pointed out to us, but those tour guides always seem to have good information and anecdotes about the sites that you don’t hear anywhere else. I thought that maybe we could save a couple hundred dollars if we could find a book that has that type of information. I bought the Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C., and I also checked out the Frommer’s Guide. They were very informative, but they didn’t get me excited about any of the sites. They were pretty much just reference books (with very limited photos). However, when I opened up the Eyewitness Travel book, I was blown away. The color photos and color floor plans/cutaways of the buildings are outstanding. It really got me interested in places that I wouldn’t have thought twice about if I had read just a text description.
The book also tells about the history of certain places and tells you what to do and where to go on three guided walks. It is a gourgeous and entertaining book that doubles as a tour guide (only cheaper). To keep up with the other guides, it also includes hotel and restaurant information.
I am not sure what the previous reviewer is talking about. I find it funny how some people politicize everything that they see, hear or read. I am into history, not politics, so this book was exactly what I was looking for.
The Eyewitness Guide to Washington, DC starts off with a brief introductory section that includes a history of the city, general information, as well as a summary of the major galleries, museums, and memorials. This section is almost reminiscent of a Frommer’s guide as it includes a best of list and a sample itinerary, which are both staples of that guidebook franchise.
Next, the book moves on to a section-by-section examination of the city. There are five geographical areas within the city as well as two more beyond that are broken down here. Each section offers a reasonable amount of information on major attractions. With the maps, photos, and 3-D style cutaway representations of some of the major buildings the Eyewitness Guide is far superior to others when it comes to giving you a sense of the physical reality of Washington. No amount of words can communicate as thoroughly what a place is like compared to these pictures. I found this invaluable in helping me decide which attractions were most important for me to visit in my limited time in the city.
The book also contains a list of hotels and restaurants but this is the weakest part of the guide. There are only the most basic descriptions and information and no ratings are offered at all. Another guide such as Frommer’s Washington, D.C. 2007 (Frommer’s Complete) or the The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C. (Unofficial Guides) will be far more helpful for this aspect of planning your trip.
Overall, I found this guide very useful for deciding what to do while visiting Washington, DC. It is nowhere near as helpful for choosing restaurants and hotels and I recommend buying a second guide to get more information of that kind. No one guide will have everything you need but this one will be a great start.
Another success for the DK Eyewitness series. Well thought out, with the excellent graphics that are DK’s hallmark. Well indexed, user friendly, and pocket sized. As a DC resident I own a lot of DC guidebooks; this is the one I’d recommend first, to both visitors and new arrivals alike.
I used this guide for a one day trip to D.C. I especially liked how it laid out all of the floorplans and highlights of the Smithsonians, and I appreciated the Metro layout. For D.C., I might recommend this as the primary guide, and not recommend getting both a Frommers type and one of these, which I do for larger cities.
There is tons to do in Washington DC and despite several trips there I have yet to see it all. This book has been invaluable in planning things from the obvious like the Smithsonian’s and the mall to the obscure like the international Espionage museum. I highly recommend its use for planning a trip in the area. Good DC Subway map as well as excellent recommendation on restaurants and hotels. The pictures are wonderful for understanding the various areas.
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