A few weeks ago I came across a guide book called Not For Tourists. They have guide books for: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, LA, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington D.C
What makes these guide books stand out is the complete detail they cover on each of the cities. Not For Tourists was nice enough to send me a copy of the Chicago guide book to review. I was in Chicago over the Holidays and the guide book made my trip a very pleasant one. Inside the guide book you are going to find out very well laid out maps that are broken down by basic areas (The Loop, North Side, South Side, Ect.) They are then further broken down by smaller areas within the parts of the city.
A feature I really like is how they’ve taken the most useful things you might need and added them to the map. You can find the closest Bank, Car Rental, Post Office, Places to eat, Parking. Being able to look at the map and find exactly what you need and see where it is is a huge time saver.
The guide book also has a wide selection of Restaurants to choose from. We ended up picking Maggianos from the guide book. This ended up being a really great place to eat for lunch. They serve really great Italian food, and was really affordable.
The guide book made the trip to Chicago a great one. The size of the book is perfect to carry around, and not so small it makes it difficult to read. The built in elastic book mark in the book makes it easy to keep your place if you need to revisit the same page over the course of the day. If you are going to visit any of the cities you need to get yourself a copy of Not For Tourists.