National Geographic Traveler: Great Britain Book

National Geographic is a beloved brand. My respect for their publications led me to grabbing this off the store shelf without more than a cursory glance. The pictures are fantastic (naturally) and the maps are... accurate. There is also a useful section on history, though the narrow scope (limiting the influence of England on pop music to the Beatles and Sir Elton John (whaaa??) was disappointing. The rest, however, is mostly useful as wrapping paper for very small presents.

There is one cardinal rule for all travel guidebooks - they should guide. By this, my thought is that they tell you what to see, when to see it. They also say what to skip and why to skip it. This book fails because it doesn't distinguish between the good, the bad, and the boring. It lists everything. And with so many listings it is beyond tricky to tell what's important and what is listed just for the sake of being a "complete" reference. It's very uneven in the writing, as well. So while it's chock full of content, most of it is unremarkable. Some of it is even suspiciously similar to the bits available on the websites for the sites themselves.

This guidebook reminds me of a joke we made of the little old Lutheran church ladies when they complained of a banquet "The food was horrible. And such little portions!" Not a whole lot to like here but there certainly is a LOT of it.