Fodor's Exploring Scotland

"Fodor's Scotland" is heavy on facts for planning and light on pushing the "wow" factors of tourism. This guide, the 21st edition of the series on Scotland, contains an enormous amount of updated and useful information for planning a trip to Scotland. The guide provides useful desriptions of Scotland's many natural and historical attractions, including breakdowns by region that can serve as the basis of a travel itinerary. The regional breakdowns include suggestions for accomodations and dining, along with price ranges. Travelers should note that Fodor's leans to the high end on accomodations. Inset notes include items of local history. The usual travel practicalities are addressed at the beginning of the guide, along with a calendar of special events by month. The latter is worth your attention, as the presence of a music festival or highland games can easily overwhelm limited local room and board facilities outside the major urban areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Northern Scotland has limited road and rail networks, few large population centers, and correspondingly fewer tourist accomodations. Visitors planning to enjoy the wild and beautiful Highlands and Islands should plan ahead carefully. The inclusion of website addresses for hotels and other facilities allows some useful comparisons. Fodor's Scotland lacks photographs or other illustrations beyound some simple map graphics of Scotland and of the various regions. Those seeking a sense of place and scale and an advance look at attractions should consult elsewhere. The maps themselves may be insufficient for anything but the most basic point to point travel. The level of detail even in a 400 page guide is necessarily limited. Travelers with particular interests such as hiking are advised to do additional research. Fodor's does not include the rating system for hotels, guest houses, and B & Bs already in use in the British Isles; these rating are normally front and center on websites and are a reasonably reliable comparison measure. This visitor to Scotland found them to be fairly accurate. "Fodor's Scotland" is highly recommended to the traveler intereste in a visit to Scotland and seeking the basic information to plan a trip.

The book was useful but some of the locations were a little off which resulted in more walking and searching

"Fodor's Scotland" is heavy on facts for planning and light on wow factor. This guide, the 20th edition of the series on Scotland, contains an enormous amount of updated and useful information on planning a trip to Scotland. The guide provides useful descriptions of Scotland's many natural and historical attractions, including breakdowns by regions that can serve as the basis of a travel itinerary. The regional breakdowns include suggestions for accomodations and dining, along with price ranges. There are inset notes about local history. The usual travel tips about traveling to and around Scotland are addressed at the beginning of the guide, along with a calendar of special events by month. The latter should be carefully consulted, as the presence of a music festival or highland games can easily overwhelm limited local room and board facilities outside major urban areas like Glasgow and Edinburgh. Northern Scotland has limited road and rail networks, few large population centers, and correspondingly fewer tourist accomodations. Visitors planning to enjoy the wild and beautiful Highlands and Islands should plan ahead carefully. The inclusion of website addresses for many hotels and other facilities allows some useful comparisons. Fodor's Scotland has no photographs or other illustrations beyond maps; visitors seeking a sense of place and scale should consult elsewhere. The level of detail even in a 400 page guide is necessarily limited. Travelers with particular interests such as hiking are advised to do additional research. Fodors does not include the rating system for hotels, guest houses, and B & Bs already in use in Scotland; these ratings are normally advertised on individual websites and are a useful comparison measure. This visitor to Scotland found them to be fairly accurate. This guide is recommended to the traveler planning a trip to Scotland and needing lots of basic information with which to plan.

It is pretty hard to cover the entire country, with travel tips, in only 400 pages, but Fodor's does an excellent job. Not many photographs, it is all business describing locations and sites. This would be an excellent book if you are planning to go to Scotland and are not sure what part (the Eyewitness Scotland guide is perfect for that also, and has a lot more photographs). Although I knew which part I was going to and had travel books for those specific areas, the Fodor's guide had information in it about those areas the other books did not. With Scotland, there are many side trips in all directions, and this book can give you some ideas. Well written, concise, informative: A great resource for the money.

My husband and I found this book extremely helpful- he was able to pick out the golf courses he wanted to visit, I was able to pick out the castles I wanted to see; the hotels the book recommended were excellent; and the practical advice about driving, eating, tipping and understanding the local accent was great.