canada

I just got back from a 4 day trip to Toronto with this book as my guide, and I must say it's one great book.

The format of this book is different from other guidebooks like Lonely Planet and Fodor's, but it's also the best part about it. The author breaks the city into 35 or so sections, and devotes two pages to each section. On the left hand page is a map of that particular section. These are great maps; they contain street numbers, locations of major sites, locations of restaurants, and locations of little things like convenience stores. On the facing page is a (unually historical) description about that section of town. Need to find out where you are? No need to break out a large, clumsy, fold out map of the city. Just figure out what part of town you're in, turn to that page in the book, and there you go.

The rest of of book contains usual guidebook info like listings of major restaurants, sites, how to get to/from the airport, more maps (the one of the subway is very useful) and stuff like that. NOTE: one thing the book lacks is hotel information. Nothing about budget accomodations, B&B's, fancy hotels. . .nothing. So don't rely on this book to get you a place to stay for the night, but you can rely on it for everything else.

I just got back from a 4 day vacation in Toronto. It was my first time there and I didn't have anybody to really take me around the city, so I had to rely on this book to get me around. My opinion of this book after all this: it's one great guidebook.

First off, I really like the format. This books divides up the city into about 35 different sections (Chinatown, Fashion District, Univ. of Toronto. . .). Each section is given two facing pages; the left hand page contains a map of that section of the city. In this way, it's easy to navigate because you just have to know the general area where you are in the city, turn to the appropriate section in the book, and there's a map for you right there. No need to constantly fold and unfold large maps to try to locate where you are. And the maps are excellent. Using them, I never got lost. The maps are also marked with street numbers, the location of restaurants, convenience stores, attractions, and that kind of stuff. The (facing) right hand page contains a historical description of that part of the city.

The remaining pages of the book are devoted to listing the top attractions in the city, restaurants, bars, getting to/from the airport, all the typical guidebook stuff. There are more maps too, the most useful ones being the map of the entire city and the subway map.

Note: There is NO hotel info in this book, no list of budget accomodations, no list of B&B's, no list of fancy hotels, nothing. So do not show up in Toronto and rely on this book to get you a place to stay, because it doesn't do that.

In sum, I thought this was an excellent guidebook. Great format, easy to use, perfect size.

I was so glad to have this book on my trip!