Not For Tourists London 2010

Not for Tourists is a popular US guide series but this is only the second edition of the Not for Tourists London guidebook. They call themselves an "anti-guidebook" and the "ultimate little black book".

I think they may be rather bigging themselves up too much as it doesn't really impress me.

Not for Tourists London 2010 is the same small black book as the rest of the series but still far too heavy to carry around (are they all like this?) Sadly, the weight doesn't reflect the content as it doesn't really tell you anything. I didn't set out to be down on the Not for Tourists London 2010 guide, although the NFT London 2009 didn't impress me either.

They want this to be aimed at Londoners which is good as it wouldn't help a visitor discover much more about the city. But then I don't know a Londoner who would need 152 'neighborhood' listings for anything else than the map. And we all have an A-Z for that.

The listings with each map are very minimal and only include the name and address, no phone number, web info, etc. The limited listings would have you believe there is only one shop or even none in areas well-known for their shops (I'm thinking of the King's Road in Chelsea here) and you could be led by this book to believe there are no 'Landmarks' in most areas of London and few cafes except for the US chain they seem to love.

NFT have felt the need to regularly include the location of a Starbucks and we've all had enough of their dominance in London so don't need reminding of where to find them. It's like listing McDonald's as a 'restaurant'. It's just not necessary.

The listings do include Banks but all we actually need to know is where there's a cashpoint/ATM and then we don't care which bank it is as long as it dispenses money 24 hours a day.

There hasn't been a lot of updating from the 2009 edition and I've still never heard again of the Sand's End area. (I think I'm suggesting here that their 'neighborhoods' are rather subjective.)

I'm not sure who they think they are aiming this at as they use US terminology then say it's not for the overseas market. I just don't see who this would appeal to. There's not enough local information for Londoners and nothing to offer a visitor. Does this really work in the US?

(Reviewed December 2009).