Rick excels at summing up history and dumbing down art, as well as helping you plan strategies for conquering a giant city. I would have liked "estimated visit time" for each attraction...I would have been able to double (or triple) it for museums. =) Worth a read, but don't be surprised if a favorite destination is left out entirely (William Morris Gallery, anyone?)

I love having all the handy interesting facts about each place to recall to the family while we’re out walking around, the self guided walking tours, and the neighborhood by neighborhood approach. We’re seasoned travelers but new to London so this was a much appreciated intro to the city so I don’t feel like we have to waste a lot of time while we’re there planning out our trip. We’ve discovered we’re a combination of Rick Steves & Atlas Obscura travelers, with the occasional super American thing thrown in to help curb homesickness since we’ve been gone for several months. I’ve mapped out where Krispy Kreme and Shake Shack are, two things we’d never dream of doing in London, but when you’re coming from France with kids, it is what it is.

There are some incredibly helpful 5 star tips in here but I wonder if I couldn’t have found most of them online. It’s a good tour book but much isn’t useful for the way I want to travel. There are various types of touring suggested and none of them appealed to me. Perhaps if I was returning to places and it wouldn’t be my first ever trip I’d have more interest. I can see this being a 5 star book for some. For me it was 3-1/2 stars.

Great book when planning a trip to London. Can’t go wrong with Rick Steves!

I love these books. The author always adds little alleys and historical points of interest along the walking tours and they are my favorite! The pub where Shakespeare hung out? The water pump that spread cholera and helped us discover germs? The home where Samuel Johnson once lived? My bread and butter.

Rick Steves is dorky, but his guide books leave you incredibly prepared and well-informed. He gives you a ridiculous amount of helpful information in his usual chipper demeanor.

Tons of practical info- I read the 2012 version which has information about visiting the Olympics site.

His enthusiasm is infectious! (I read the paperback, not Kindle edition, but don't feel like fixing that right now.)