Used this book to plan what to see in a limited 3 day visit and was very pleased. Also bought Eyewitness guide, but this is the one I'll be taking along.

This book proved itself utterly invaluable on our recent American History vacation in and around Washington DC. I can say that this small investment brought at least 50 times its value back in cost and time savings. If you are planning a trip to the DC area, you owe it to yourself to pick this resource up and buy it at least six months in advance or preferably sooner. The currency of this book seems perfect and I found no errors in it whatsoever.

I used this book on a recent visit to see some friends in D.C. They work during the day so I knew I'd need to entertain myself. This book was great for info on tourist sites. I love that it gives the closest metro stop and other things to do nearby. The restaurant reviews were also helpful. It gave a great explanation of the metro system so I felt quite confident buying tickets. The maps were adequate (not spectacular), and I can't comment on the lodging info since I stayed with friends. My friend was so impressed with my info that she kept the book. I guess I'll have to borrow it back the next time I visit.

The first half of the book deals with background information, which is relatively unnecessary; while the second part is much more useful. You can plan which spots you are gonna visit and find out the hours and touring tips. If the book can focus on that, it will be much slimmer to carry.

What I liked: the review and description of the museums and the breakdown of public and tour transportion options. Other than that I feel I was missing out on a true city experience. The restaurant reviews were all over the place (and I think it could use more selection; or perhaps a map for the walking tourist to find great places to chow). No sense/description of the neighborhoods. How about good places for music/culture? Not included here. I would have also appreciated some pictures. All in all, it helped with a trip but I was disappointed.

Bought this book because I wouldn't go to Disney World without the Unofficial Guide. Several errors. Should have mentioned the Circulator. We took a family of 4. The review on several attractions - including the International Spy Musuem contained too much of the author's own political agenda. There were not enough family oriented and reasonably priced restaurants reviewed. I discovered I was only a couple blocks from a lot of good restaurants, but couldn't figure out, from this book how far they were. I would buy the other books before this one.

A good basic guide to travel in the District of Columbia, although the author (at least in the 2007 edition I read) seems unnecessarily obsessed with crime in DC (I traveled in DC mostly by myself this past week and felt pretty safe) and gives out some dangerous advice for dealing with crime (such as throwing your wallet at a thief and running in the other direction and shouting at the top of your lungs, which sounds like a great way to get shot or stabbed). Some details are also just inaccurate: a week pass for the Metro costs $32.50, not $11.00. The instructions on using Metro farecard machines are too detailed to do anything but confuse you if you've never used the machines before. There's a little too much space spent on getting oriented and not enough spent on what you can do for fun and excitement and interest once you've gotten oriented.

But the book does have some good descriptions of the basic tourist attractions (not much on attractions in the outer neighborhoods, though), along with some detailed and helpful advice on how to navigate the confusing DC area as a first-time visitor. All stuff you could find in other guidebooks, perhaps, but there are also some surprisingly good maps of the center of DC, and there's even a map of the Convention Center. The informal tone of the book is a nice change from the usual bland tone you find in Frommer's and other guides.

The Unofficial Guide to Washington, DC offers comprehensive information in a clear, concise style. There is plenty of basic information about how to get around in the city using the Metro, what time of year to go, how to stay safe, etc. In addition, you will find hotel ratings and detailed entries on all major attractions inside the city. The hotel section is probably the weak point of the guide. It offers a numerical rating system but only a few basic items of information on the hotel. There is no written description with the pros and cons of each hotel spelled out for you.

The section on attractions is where this guide makes up for the lack of hotel info. It covers all the museums, memorials, monuments, government buildings, etc. Each entry is highly detailed with full contact information, nearest Metro stop, tips on when to go, full descriptions, touring tips, and other things to do nearby. It is literally everything you want to know when considering a visit to one of the many tourist attractions in the city.

While planning my trip to Washington, DC I bought three guidebooks to the area. This is the only one that I used in the latter stages of planning and also the only one I used when I got to the city. It was easily the most comprehensive and useful of the lot once I had booked my hotel. If you're planning a trip to the capitol and can only buy one guide, get this one.

I really like these guides they provide detail information on anywhere you may decide to travel. I own 3 disney, las vegas and washington dc. I learned where to eat, sleep and tour.

The errors in this guidebook, let me count them.
(1) Information on the Mount Vernon tours was wrong. The departure times for the two touring companies were mixed up. (It's a good thing I thought to call ahead!)
(2) The phone number given for the National Archives was no longer in operation.
(3) Yes, it's true the subway doesn't go to Georgetown, but as of 2006, D.C. offers a bus line, The Circulator, that does.
(4) The Smithsonian National Museum of American History had already begun a staggered closing of many of its exhibits for a 2007 building renovation, something this guidebook never mentioned. (Thanks NMAH web site!)
I bought this title particularly because it was published in 2005 & it was the most up-to-date, well-reviewed title I could find, but I found a handful of time-wasting errors in it over a span of four days.
Being a first time visitor to Washington D.C. I would have appreciated a guidebook that had color photographs of buildings, monuments, & major art works, but except for the front cover this book has no photos. As for the book layout, I appreciated the subway & D.C. maps on the inside front & back cover, but I had a hard time finding sections of the book without laboriously using the index. This is not a guidebook to be looking through while you're on the go. The restaurant listings also seemed unnecessarily limited. I didn't spend much time sightseeing because I was attending a convention, or I, no doubt, would have encountered more inaccurate information.
After thumbing through several guidebooks before my visit, I would recommend the DK (Dorling Kindersley) Eyewitness or Top 10 glossy photographic guidebooks. You can probably find sites with hotel ratings & information just as easily on the web. And you can always look up phone numbers & addresses for attractions in your hotel's yellow pages, which you may have to do anyway with this book. I wanted to purchase a guidebook that was text-heavy, but that also increases the odds that some of the information will be wrong.
If you e-mail your U.S. Senator or Representative or visit the D.C. tourism website, they will send you free guidebooks with a Calendar of Events & descriptions of tourist attractions that are as helpful as what you will find in this book &, in my experience, more up-to-date. Three-and-a-half out of five stars for this guidebook. Wasted time is wasted money.

The errors in this guidebook, let me count them.
(1) Information on the Mount Vernon tours was wrong. The departure times for the two touring companies were mixed up. (It's a good thing I thought to call ahead!)
(2) The phone number given for the National Archives was no longer in operation.
(3) Yes, it's true the subway doesn't go to Georgetown, but as of 2006, D.C. offers a bus line, The Circulator, that does.
(4) The Smithsonian National Museum of American History had already begun a staggered closing of many of its exhibits for a 2007 building renovation, something this guidebook never mentioned. (Thanks NMAH web site!)
I bought this title particularly because it was published in 2005 & it was the most up-to-date, well-reviewed title I could find, but I found a handful of time-wasting errors in it over a span of four days.
Being a first time visitor to Washington D.C. I would have appreciated a guidebook that had color photographs of buildings, monuments, & major art works, but except for the front cover this book has no photos. As for the book layout, I appreciated the subway & D.C. maps on the inside front & back cover, but I had a hard time finding sections of the book without laboriously using the index. This is not a guidebook to be looking through while you're on the go. The restaurant listings also seemed unnecessarily limited. I didn't spend much time sightseeing because I was attending a convention, or I, no doubt, would have encountered more inaccurate information.
After thumbing through several guidebooks before my visit, I would recommend the DK (Dorling Kindersley) Eyewitness or Top 10 glossy photographic guidebooks. You can probably find sites with hotel ratings & information just as easily on the web. And you can always look up phone numbers & addresses for attractions in your hotel's yellow pages, which you may have to do anyway with this book. I wanted to purchase a guidebook that was text-heavy, but that also increases the odds that some of the information will be wrong.
If you e-mail your U.S. Senator or Representative or visit the D.C. tourism website, they will send you free guidebooks with a Calendar of Events & descriptions of tourist attractions that are as helpful as what you will find in this book &, in my experience, more up-to-date. Three-and-a-half out of five stars for this guidebook. Wasted time is wasted money.

I looked at a number of books dedicated to providing advice for travel to Washington DC. I purchased this one after reading the reviews and reading the sample pages. And I was not disappointed. I found the information here to be very accurate and readable. It provided the basic facts needed to plan a good trip. We spent a total of 5 days in DC, and though I've been there twice before, I relied on the advice from these authors. Never once was I disappointed. If I ever spend as much time in another city that the authors have researched, I will not hesitate to purchase that book as well. Too many first-time tourists whom we met during our time in DC did not have a good idea of what they were doing, and I believe they probably ended up wasting a lot of valuable time in a city that is chock-full of things to do. Several times I was able to make a quick decision in just a couple of minutes by looking the information up by using the handy index.

I do want to mention an earlier review of this book where the reviewer said that the book itself was too big to bring along. That's ridiculous. The book is not much bigger than a paperback and fits quite nicely in a backpack. My advice: Bring this book along with you while traveling around DC and you won't regret it.

Like the other Unofficial Guides we've used, this book paid for itself with the first piece of advice we looked up! After that, I scanned cover-to-cover, and by the end of the book we had a great sense of which attractions we wanted to visit and how to go about arranging our days. A gold-mine of tips for touring the places that are hard to get into in the post-9/11 era. It's also packed with information on neat things to see and do off the beaten path. You can't go wrong with this one!