Karen Brown's England, Wales & Scotlands: Charming Hotels & Itineraries 2004 (Karen Brown's Country Inn Guides)

by Karen Brown and June Brown

Book Overview

Karen Brown's New England Charming Inns & Itineraries"A Pioneer and still leader in the category of high-quality small inns and bed and breakfasts." -- Gourmet "Books to dream over, but also to use."... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1928901492
• ISBN13: 9781928901495
• Release Date: January 1900
• Publisher: Karen Brown's Guides, Inc.
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Learn how to use Karen Brown before criticising

Experienced travellers are well aware that travel guides are specialized. Some are better for the overall experience of visiting an area for the first time (eg. Frommer and Fodor). Some are better at museums and suggesting places to visit (eg. Rick Steves). Most are good at some things and poor at others. Karen Brown is not good at describing the areas you may be considering, itineraries, etc. Rick Steves is lousy at inns and accommodations if you don't share his enthusiasm for going on the cheap and staying with local families. That doesn't make either a lousy travel guide. It just means they have certain fortes and you need to consult more than one guide. Karen Brown is in a league of her own at guiding the traveller to wonderful small inns, B & B's and charming small hotels. How do I know? My wife and I have been taking her advice for nearly twenty years without a single misstep. At every small inn we've stayed at on her recommendation in (mostly) Europe, New England, Bucks County, PA, the Pacific Northwest, etc. we're always asked by the proprietor, "How did you find out about us?" When we say "Karen Brown. She's never let us down.", the response is always, "Everybody says that." If you're looking for small, quaint, atmospheric places for a couple to stay, Karen Brown's guides are unsurpassed. Supplement her books by looking up the inns on the web. Look to Steves and Frommer for a broader look at new areas to visit (Tuscany, the Cotswolds, Brittany, etc.). Look to Frommer and the web for additional accommodation recommendations. Karen Brown is an extremely valuable specialist in the travel world and should be appreciated for doing what she does extremely well. The planning is part of the fun!

This guide is very useful - but get a country guide too.

My girlfriend tried using this guide, as one would Frommer's or Fodor's (see my reviews), and became a bit frustrated. Two issues `twisted her lemon', one was the paltry lack of information on important locations (Salisbury and its magnificent cathedral gets 58 words, Stonehenge a short paragraph) and the other was the difficult and demanding way the guide connects the hotel descriptions to the maps.Regarding the first point, the title of the guide is very clear about what it covers: Hotel's and Itineraries. It is not a country guide. Karen Brown's selections of hotels are excellent and her comments and appraisals are `spot-on. She writes as one who has actually stayed at each establishment, who has met the owners or managers, and one who paints a picture of what you will find and the experiences that you should have when using one of these select properties. Great. That said you should know before purchasing this guide that these hotel selections are some of the most unique and best in the UK. Therefore, they are not for those on a shoestring or moderate budget; but rather, as the financially well-endowed would say, these guides are for those with "discriminating tastes." Her website, karenbrown.com, is worth a visit and you can check out the various accommodations listing in greater detail. Besides top notch unique accommodations, the guide gives you nine extraordinary driving itineraries that wind you through the very best regions of England, Wales & Scotland. This is what the book is all about. Nada mas. I kindly pointed this out to my girlfriend. Regarding the second point, the guide is cumbersome. Karen Brown needs to make finding the hotels, which correspond to dot on her maps, much easier. Her driving itineraries are in the front of the book, and the recommended hotels in the last part of the book and there is no simple reference between the two. There are much better ways to set this up. Karen Brown needs to learn from the major guide publishers. They could help her a lot here. Also, her driving itinerary maps are very remedial and could be much better.If you have money, love to drive and you want unique, superior accommodations, get this guide, you won't be disappointed. This guide is very useful, especially when used in tandem with a good country guide, like Fodor's or Frommer's mentioned above. Recommended

The best book for finding great places to stay in Scotland

I carefully read over all the books for going to Scotland when I went on my honeymoon. This book is the most reliable one for choosing a place to stay. All the places I stayed at that this book suggested were great - something that can not be said for some of the other places I stayed.

Great little book

We're planning a trip to the UK and I found this book to be a wonderful little companion to bring along. Stock full of iteneraries and places to see and do it is a book any traveler cannot do without. My only complaint was the hotels and Inns. There just wasn't enough to pick from.