England, Wales and Scotland 2010: Exceptional Places to Stay and Itineraries Book

Useful, practical, accurate -- that's enough for 3 stars. This was a very practical guidebook that fit inside my jacket pocket, so it was the guidebook I carried around with me in Dublin. I find these 8x4 inch guidebooks very useful for quick reference during the trip, but less useful for reading in advance. The Rick Steves guidebook helped me decide my must-see sights in Dublin, this one helped me find them.

I often buy this guidebook for trips to new cities, and usually read their top 10 lists (best history, best shopping, best local experience, best with kids, etc.) while planning to the trip. Honestly, their descriptions are so brief that it is hard to use them to plan, but they do sometimes suggest something everyone else skips. But once having decided to do something, this is a very useful guide for getting there, both because of the useful maps and because it has a commitment to providing a picture of everything to help you recognize it. And, reading a series of listicles on a place does stick in my mind enough for there to be several times when visiting, for example, the National Museums, that I realized one of the parks they mentioned was right across the street, or that I was passing a shop they recommended.