District of Columbia Books

I would strongly recommend you look at other guides to Washington D.C. as Frommer's Washington D.C. with Kids was not helpful and actually was a hindrance. This book gave us misinformation and was completely out of date. I will just share two of our experiences from our first days in D.C. we disregarded the book and relied on our concierge from then on...

The Zoo: Frommer's emphatically advised to get there early (it 'opens' at 6:00) and that you should stop first at the information kiosk to get a map and the daily schedule for feedings etc. They also stated that the Animal Crackers Cafe was open for breakfast. Well, we got there about 8:00 and NOTHING is open until 10:00....not the information kiosk (so we were without maps or schedules and the place is huge), most of the animals were inside the buildings which were closed until 10, none of the cafes were open for anything to eat or drink until 10. What you WILL see before 10 is zoo employees driving trucks and golf carts around setting things up and watering plants. By 10:30 when the elephants were scheduled for their bath my husband announced that he didn't care if the elephants were going to do the cha-cha, he already done enought walking and was ready to leave. Also Frommer's should have noted that the Metro is a pretty long walk to and from the zoo.

The most blatant example of out-of-date information...The National Geographic Museum: Pages 191 and 192 must be from the 1998 guidebook because the permanent displays, interactive exibits, and videos the book describes have been gone (we inquired) for 9 years. No volcanoes videos, no touch and play mammals kiosk, no tornado to 'feel', no flying dinosaur, no orbital flight, no global access video games that "your kids will have to drag you away from", etc. What was displayed while we were there was China and it was good but not at all resemble what we had anticipated based on Frommer's description.

Save yourself $17 and a lot of aggravation and don't buy this guidebook. We are headed to North Carolina and I'll look at Fodors or Michelin.

This book was a tremendous asset in planning our family's first ever D.C. trip. This was our first real encounter with big city transportation and I felt really sorry for those families who were lined up at the Metro ticket machines trying to decipher them. Also some really great hints for "cheap eats"(Union Station has something for everyone & won't break the bank),beating the heat, and sight-seeing options when the "big attractions" were impossible to get to. This guide was invaluable in planning our days with children who range in age from 7 -16. Purchased Fodor's Around Washington, D.C. with Kids (Around the City with Kids)which was simple for my children to read and enjoy. Using the Fodor's book in conjunction with this Frommer's my family spent many enjoyable evenings over 4 months planning our trip.

I found this book to be very helpful and complete. The humor and affection that the author shows for the area and kids in general was very welcome departure from the otherwise stuffy travel guides I'm used to reading. I found her insights about timing visits, local restaurants to check out, and walking tours to be very handy. Reading her guide was like getting advice from a helpful Mom. It's sold me on the Frommer Kids series, and I'm looking forward to using them on my next trip!

I have four editions of this book and I would not consider going to DC without it. It is worth the investment to make sure that you are getting the latest and greatest information. I have NEVER had a problem with the information if the edition is current. A quick flip through the sixth and eighth editions shows how much info has been updated, plus almost every listing provides a web address (in addition to all the other contact information) so you can get more detailed information if you desire.

When we are in DC, this book stays in my backpack at all times. The maps are clear and conscise, and the authors helpful hints have saved us a lot of time. I have all the info from the washington.org and AAA and just about everything that it covered in scores of brochures and booklets is in this book. It truly is the only book you need!

This book is an excellent guide for things to do in the D.C. area with kids. We live in D.C. and were looking for new things to do, especially with our 3 year old in mind. We bought the book and learned about exciting locations and activites that we never knew about. For example the Doll and Toy Museum, Naval Observatory and Amazonia exhibit at the National Zoo.

The restaurant and dining guides though are way off, the do not include the best food (including child friendly) nor convenient, fun and affordable hotels, infact they recommend some of the worst! Of course we've gained this knowledge from living here for 6 years, still would expect better form a guidebook...for food dining and hotels I'd recommend Lonely Planet's guide to D.C. area.

Only other downer was driving to the Childrens Museum only to find it was closed until 2009. Still I have the 6th edition and the 7th edition hopefully is updated with this info.

I bought this book so we could plan for our first trip to DC this summer. I have a ten year old son. I have really enjoyed this book. It lets me know what thing he will like and possibly dislike. It has been helpful as there is so much to do and we only have 4 days. We want to make the most of our visit and this is letting us do that by helping us choose the best things for us to do.

I bought this new book because it was the most recently published and sounded great. It is not great for a number of reasons. First, it is heavily weighted toward trips with tweens and teens rather than younger children. I was planning a trip with children 6-8 years old. Most of the recommended places are recommended for tweens and teens. In fact, had I not known better from friends, I would have skipped the International Spy Museum altogether, because the guide recommends it for "older tweens and teens" and makes it sound beyond the understanding of a younger child. Having now been to the museum, I can see that tweens would be able to take advantage of many things they have there that younger kids can't really do, but it is a GREAT spot for younger kids. There is PLENTY there that they can enjoy. It is very fun for the whole family, actually, and was my husband's favorite spot we visited.
Another reason the book is not great is that it includes paragraphs on virtually every page of "Smart Stuff" for kids (mainly addressed to tweens and teens again), which is little tidbits of info or quizes that may be interesting. I think that may be helpful for a family with super bored kids or a family that is super boring and cannot otherwise provide information to their children, but it is (a) mostly for older kids, (b)not all that interesting, (c) really bulks up the book to the point that it's a pain to carry around with you and (d) apparently takes up so much space that important basic information is omitted.
This leads me to my next complaint: When planning our visit to the Air and Space Museum, I consulted the book. It gives very little information but says that the museum is so large that you need to plan your visit in advance because you simply cannot see it all in one day. Hello!!!!! That's why I bought this guide book - - to plan my visit! The entry on Air and Space doesn't even list all the galleries/exhibits in the museum or highlight the "greatest hits". They could have done that in two short paragraphs, and that would have been the most useful information. Instead, they include more "Smart Stuff" and a list of kids books to supplement learning on the subject. Great to have that, but not at the expense of the information I need to actually plan a visit to the museum.
In sum, this book frustrated me. It was somewhat helpful, yes, but unless you are going with older kids or have taken your kids before, it's not exactly what you need. I'm not sure there is a better guide that is up to date, but this one needs major improvement.

The book provides practical advice and suggestions. I found the comprehensive check list of all the things that must be considered prior to startup quite useful. Also helpful are the phone numbers and addresses for various MD, VA, and DC government and economic development offices.

The book is a great resource relative to making sure that you don't overlook things that could be critical to your business. For example, I found the section of hiring and firing enlightening relative to potential impact on a new company's unemployment compensation rate. Who would know that the IRS would make your company chargeable for the unemployment claims of an ex-employee who voluntarily leaves for another job and gets fired after a few weeks.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone starting a small business. It is well organized and a quick read. It helps you know what questions to ask and who to ask. It is not intended as an in-depth resource book.

This has good basic business startup information, but about 1% of it is specific to va,dc and md.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

The book seems to have little source's cited...the story of the German spy was first reported in the InTowner newspaper in the Historic Scenes column, but the author gave no mention of that, for example

I wanted a quick and easy book to read and this is it. It is loaded with terrific pictures with nariatives below each picture. It really tells the story of the Mayflower Hotel with outstanding photographs and comments.

This book could be 100 times better if there was half of the info and better organization. You buy this book to tell you "what are some good trips around the DC area" but it doesn't tell you that at all. YOU have to figure out where you want to go then this book gives you some basic info about every city or attraction in neighboring states. But I could get all that information from the internet! What I want is information organized by length (short trips, long trips), types of attraction, and "reviews" -- i.e., good or bad. There is almost none of that. It is just a catalog of every city in 7 states that has some tourist activities. No what is good or what is bad. What is good with kids? What about day trips? Or afternoon trips? Or trips with your dog? Nada. Kind of useless book, which is sad because a usefull book that was well organized would be great.

This guide is a great companion for anyone seeking unique and clever discoveries in the mid-atlantic region. The book dives into nature, history, unique facts and unknown charms that most travel guides hardly touch.

Good book for a short birding trip. Does not have all birds in Maryland. Peterson Field Guides are much more accurate.

Although I usually love detail in reading history, this book overwhelms with detail. I read 220 pages and then skimmed. It's true historians by profession should get more out of THROUGH A FIERY TRIAL, but for the average reader and lover of history which I am, this book is not for you.

Although this book has a lot of information in it, I was rather disapointed. The format of the book makes it hard to read, and there are very few pictures of the attractions. I don't think I would recommend this book.

It took 4 weeks to receive the book from the time I ordered it- almost too late to get it before my trip departure date. The shipping label appeared to defective and maybe that was the problem in the delivery time. Also, the book was missing the tear out map and many pages contained someone's underlining. That isn't a big deal but it wasn't described that way.

Needed the book in a hurry and they turned it around in no time.

The Index is very poor. I tried looking up the Spy Museum and Holocaust Museum. Nothing under Spy or Holocaust. I looked under Museum, and then looked for Spy and Holocaust. I also looked for National ... museum.

I went to the internet, and found that the full names are:

International Spy Museum and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

To my way of thinking, Spy and Holocaust should have been in the index. When I have to use Google to find something in a book's index, I think that the index is useless.