Michelin Green Guide San Francisco (Green Guide/Michelin)

I have been a long-time fan of the Michelin Green Guides, finding them to be among the very best city guides of all. With their walking tours, clear maps and transparent organization, they are always useful, handy and effective introductions for new visitors and repeat visitors alike. I loved the Paris guide when I lived in that city, and love the San Francisco guide now that I am living in San Francisco.

I brought the Michelin Green Guide on a trip to San Francisco. It organizes the City and the Bay area into neighborhood and regional chapters, provides good historical background on them and list more sites than most travel guides. They give extensive coverage (for a travel guide) to museums, even providing collection floor plans. Michelin gives excellent driving directions to Conzelman Rd. in Marin County for postcard views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. The neighborhood maps are easy to read. I hope they add a public transit map to the general maps near the front in the next edition. It only needs to show cable car and other major transit lines. The Green Guides offer almost no hotel and restaurant info, but that's not what I look for in them. They made the right decision to stick to what they do best and not spread themselves too thin. Michelin doesn't fit into any travel guide category. It's not as visual as Eyewitness and Knopf (Gallimard);not off-the-beaten track like Lonely Planet and Rick Steves; and not as general, as Fodor's and Frommer's.