[.ca] Access New York City (ISBN 0060834463)

Very disappointed in the newest edition:
First of all,let me say that I have always been a big fan of the Access series of books, and usually buy one for every city I am visiting. I live in Manhattan and my NYC Access book is used ALL the time, esp when visiting new neighborhoods or when I have visitors. I could always count on Access to provide great recommendations for places to eat and visit. I just purchased the newest edition and am extremely disappointed. I live on the upper West Side and the information provided for my neighborhood in the 2002 edition is SO OUTDATED and not useful. They list stores that closed more than four years ago, very few of the fun restaurants where the locals eat are mentioned and many of the "unknown famous landmarks" are no longer listed. My neighbors and I cannot figure out how they chose the restaurants that are listed. Since I know that the information for my neighborhood is full of errors and omissions, how can I trust it for exploring new neighborhoods? The new format is horrible. Previously, whenever friends moved into the city, my housewarming gift basket ALWAYS included the latest edition of NYC Access, but no longer. There are better guides available.

New York user's manual:
This book has undergone some big changes from the last edition, namely in the format which is less readable than before. But Access doesn't get bogged down in history like other guidebooks feel obliged to do, and the listings are snappy without being smarmy like, notably, the Rough Guides. There could have been more listings downtown and some of the gay listings are out of date but for restaurants and hotels the book can't be beat. Too bad the reviews can't be downloaded onto a Palm Pilot.

Glad I bought it.:
In preparing for 3 day sightseeing trip to New York City with my wife, this was the first book I bought. It helped me determine where to stay, some sights not to miss, & a couple excellent restaurants to try. I was very satisfied with the information I learned from this book & I'm glad I bought it. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy other books on NYC because I bought 3 or 4 others and I learned some addition things from each of them. For me, I don't know if I'll ever get back to NYC and I wanted to make sure I would see all the spots I felt would be important to me. Other very good books are "Eyewitness Travel Guide New York,", "Lonely Planet New York City,", & the "Zagat Survey on NYC Restaurants."

A tourist guide for natives:
The Access guides for London and for Paris are some of my favorite guides for those cities: I think the problem here is that New York is just too big. The overall city map in the book is useless, but Access concentrates on giving alot of detail for the individual geographic locations within the city. At the begining of the chapter there is a detailed map with numbers showing the locations of the places described in that chapter, mostly done in geographical order so they are listed as you would come upon them if you were walking. There are more restaurant listings in this guide than any other I have seen, and you will find small out-of-the-way stores detailed, as well as information on parks or buildings or statues you would pass as you strolled along. There is always an address and phone number listed, but hardly ever hours of operation or websites. Access is a walking guide. New York is such a big city that more than likely on your first trip or two in your going to hit Times Square, then subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then subway down to the Staten Island Ferry, then subway to the Empire State Building, and so on. If you are going to be taking time to spend a whole day to walk in the Village, this would be a good book to carry along. But because the city covers so much space, the effecitveness of this book is lost. This would actually be a very good book for someone who lived in or near New York City. It is hard to imagine how big the city is until you get there.

A Frenchman's New York:
I found this book to be an excellent guide for New York because it focuses on places to go, not so much the history of the place like other guidebooks. I don't know who comes to New York just for the history, anyway! (There's Paris for that.)But for restaurants, hotels, and even some clubs ACCESS was better than even my hotel concierge. Although there was no way to try everything mentioned in the book, every place I did go to, or restaurant I dined at, was current and good even though sometimes the chef was different. Maybe even more details on the downtown scene would be good, instead of pages on boring Upper West Side, etc., but overall this is a tres bon map to a good time to what is still the greatest city in the world. And that's coming from a Frenchman...vive le New York!