Let's Go Britain: On a Budget

Great book to plan a trip with - very broad range of locations covered while staying true to the excellent "Let's Go" format & philosophy that they are known for.

Purchased this book right before my month long solo trip in Fall of '07; which covered all of the UK: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. I was quite pleased with the information I found in this book about hostels, sights, food, and travel. Along with this book I also picked up Rick Steves' Great Britain '07. I prefer Rick's books, but he only covers certain places, so I have found the Let's Go series to be a good supplement. Seeing that this book is now several years old I would buy the latest edition if you are new to the area. However, if you have traveled the UK before and want a good deal on a travel book, I'm sure the information in this '07 book is not too out of date. Happy Travels!

For my trip to Scotland, I purchased two guides: this Let's Go Britain guide and the Rough Guide to Scotland, 7th Edition. This one was much better. I purchased the Rough Guide because the amount of page space in the Let's Go guide that was devoted to Scotland seemed rather small. I was surprised, then, that the Let's Go guide, which smaller, was the much better book. The pricing information in this book is exact and very accurate. It was very helpful in planning our trip, and let us do much more than we would have if we had been spending all of our money on expensive food and lodgings. Also appreciated is the editorial nature of the guide. The authors are clearly passionate about their subject, and are open to the realities of travel and especially the limited time that is usually afforded on a trip. I am sure that all of the sites are great in their own way, but when faced with a choice, it is nice to know which one will be more exciting. I found that the opinions in the guide were well-matched to my own, and the exuberance of the descriptions heightened my own excitement. The logistical information was also top notch, and in combination with the Michelin map, I was never left wondering how I would get from place to place. Very good guide!

This encyclopedic guide to low-budget travel in the United Kingdom will have a broad appeal to students, backpackers, hitchhikers, and your average working-class Anglophile. It has guides to hostels and hotels so you have a roof over your head, restaurants and pubs so you never get hungry or run dry, sights you can see while you're in town, and even ideas for volunteering you can do and short-term jobs you can use to finance your peregrinations. And perhaps most important, it recognizes that its target audience isn't exactly rolling in dough. There are pointers on where you can get a good meal for five pounds, and the book gauges the value of hostel rooms. The writers direct you to where you can find theatre tickets on the cheap, and they inform you of which airlines will get you from London to Edinburgh or Cardiff for ten quid. Though the editors discourage hitching, they offer pointers on how to find cheap, high-quality tours by bus, train, bicycle, and even shouldering your pack and walking. Not so long ago, the instructions in this book would have been the exclusive territory of hairy bohemians and college students on holiday. But these days, when it's not all that notable to see backpackers on self-guided tours well into their fifties and sixties, this book will be handy for a broad and diverse constituency that wants to see the UK on a thin budget. Most large cities have maps in this book. The maps are of the downtown and the visitor-oriented areas, of course--the whole of London gets a map hit, for instance, but if you're trying to find your way around the Bayswater neighborhood, you'll need to buy the Michelin map. But because the maps point out the best accomodations, sights, and pubs, they are just what you need when you're planning your itinerary. And if you need to buy a second map, what the heck, they're not that expensive. This book covers the whole of the UK, including Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and just to round out the interest of the world traveler, it dips down into the Irish Republic to touch on Dublin. And therein lies its greatest problem. Like most encyclopedic texts, this one has to touch on each subject very fleetingly. If you intend to see the whole UK, or even a section of if, this is your book. If you intend to focus on London, this publisher has a better book for you. And if you want to see Glasgow or Liverpool on a budget? Well, there must be books for you. Still, from planning what you want to see on your trip to deciding how to get there and how to make your way around the country, this is a good book. It can help you both before and during your travel, and it recognizes the fact that you're making your way on a shoestring. Chances are, unless you're independently rich or on an expense account, this is the book you need, the best book you can come up with, and the one that will answer any question you might have.

I'm going to Britain this summer for a few weeks. I have read through this book and found it very informative. This book is perfect for college students and travelers in their 20's. It gives the traveler ideas of what to do in Britain when you have a limited supply of money. Overall it is a great buy for the young traveler.