Lonely Planet San Francisco Encounter (Lonely Planet Encounter San Francisco) (Best Of)

Customer Reviews

• You really will discover more of the city, with less space used in your knapsack  Jul 31, 2007 (10 of 10 found this helpful)

  The Lonely Planet Encounter guide to San Francisco follows the snappy, concise format of the other books in the series--a highlight chapter, followed by sections (by neighborhood) on where to Shop, Eat, See, and Play, and a conclusion with page-long snapshot essays and details on transportation, history, and practicalities. The opening chapter is a list of 11 top excursions in the city, with parenthetical references to the page number where specific restaurants and sights are discussed. Even the back cover is a useful to six exciting adventures--vintage shopping, club-hopping in SoMa, writing Beat poetry, visiting the Mission, strolling bayside, and visiting foggy Alcatraz.
  
  As a Southern California resident, I visit San Francisco annually. I've used dozens of different guidebooks, and I thought I had a good handle on the city, but author Alison Bing has written about a treasure trove of smaller museums, shops, and entertainment options. This guide is especially useful for the traveler who has the lay of the land and wants to uncover more gems in the city. The closing chapter also has some great suggested reading titles for anyone looking to explore San Francisco a little deeper.

• If You Only Take One Book With You  Oct 17, 2007 (2 of 2 found this helpful)

  This book fits in a jacket pocket or a purse. Spot-on restaurant recommendations, useful maps, good itinerary ideas. Much more useful than my brother's Frommers. Very helpful overall. Every restaurant I ate at out of here was a palate pleaser. Only wish the maps could show where the hills are, have the BART routes, etc.

• Don't use this book as your only guide!  Jan 24, 2008 (2 of 3 found this helpful)

  This book is a nice complement to another guide. It's compact, short reviews and limited ONLY to SF (nothing beyond the bridges). Its reviews are short and sometimes not really self-explanatory. Overall, I'm not sure if I would buy this book but I might not have been the target of it (plain tourist with no or too old knowledge of the city).

• Basic guide to bring in your carry on  Apr 26, 2009 

  Lonely Planet usually gives you decent recommendations for sights, shops and restaurants outside the usual Fodors/Frommer variety and this is no different. I don't know if it's the recession or that this has been in print in 2007, but several of the shops listed have been closed. It's organized by neighborhood with numbered maps corresponding to the places reviewed. Coupled with a larger laminated map of town, I toured the city quite easily by bus, foot and cable car with this guide.