This travel guide from Fodor's covers a lot of ground (arts, science, and history attractions plus restaurants, night life, etc.). These are grouped first by the "best of" as selected by editors; then the book moves into an area by area division, including some sites slightly outside of the district. The book also contains some general tips for travel in the DC area and a handful of suggestions for accommodations.

This guidebook is a good pocket/purse size travel companion. It contains a fold out map (street level) plus smaller maps (metro and area overviews) in the front cover in addition to details map at the beginning of each section dedicated to a specific area of the district. For that reason, I could see this book being very useful to have on hand while travelling in the district.

However, this book makes me wonder how much the authors have traveled outside of DC. Perhaps I'm spoiled by living in a fairly urban area myself but it was really weird to see recommendations like IKEA for shopping and Five Guys for dining. I mean, why would I go all the way to DC just to go to such mundane big chains that I can easily access at home? Of course, for international travelers, there may be some more interest for these places, although it's still a bit of stretch in my opinion. For Pete's sake, the authors repeatedly mention Bed Bath & Beyond as an attraction. Really???

As is likely going to be the case with any travel guide that's a few years old like this one, several of the places listed have since closed, the "budget" hotels are now much pricier than listed, etc. That's just the nature of the game with these things though.

All in all, this is an acceptable guidebook that covered the highlights for me, providing enough information to jumpstart my planning process. Still, I think there are probably better options out there. ( )