Frommer's first guide to London came out in 1957.
This week, a long tradition continues as our newest guidebook on the city is released.
Out now in paperback and e-book and on sale at your favorite bookseller, this edition of Frommer's London looks nothing like any previous version we've published.
The book still comes with the same award-winning travel advice about great hotels, restaurants, and things to see. And there's still a free pullout map so you don't have to wander the city sidewalks with your face buried in your smartphone.
But for the first time, Frommer's London is in full color and packed with photographs.
From front to back, the guide brims with color images showing off the best of what we recommend, from interiors of our favorite hotel rooms to touring maps of the top museums to mouthwatering food.
Unlike so much junk travel advice out there, Frommer's guides are personally researched, and no one pays us to be included. You're either good enough to earn our recommendation or you're not in. That's why travelers trust us.
I've been writing Frommer's travel guides to London for the past 17 years.
That's a long time, and I've seen a lot of changes. For this particular release, I've seen more shifts in London than I've ever witnessed before.
The new Frommer's London has been fully rewritten following the lifting of Covid-19 lockdowns. Because Frommer's spends a lot of time researching the city, I was there in February and March 2020 to see the start of the crisis from that unique vantage, my notepad in hand.
When the city reopened, Frommer's was among the first travel publishers to return to work on a wholly fresh edition that reflects all the changes—now with more color and visual flair than ever before.
(Fresh paella at London's Borough Market)
Those changes are of the once-in-a-lifetime variety. In King Charles III, the United Kingdom has its first new monarch since 1952. What's more, the nation continues to fumble for economic stability after the U.K.'s self-exile from the European Union. By themselves, those are momentous transformations.
But even as the U.K. juggles those existential, epoch-redefining shifts, it's also dealing with the same troubles the rest of the world is, including challenging inflation, peak energy prices, and the aftermath of the pandemic. London is speeding into a new era, and even locals aren't sure where it's all heading.
Of course, many traditions in London never change. No one is rearranging the inside of Westminster Abbey, and the grisly history of the Tower of London remains as implacable as its ravens.
But if you haven't visited London in a while, or if you've always dreamed of going, you've got a lot of new surprises in store.
Among the changes covered in the new Frommer's London:
- • The new Elizabeth Line, opened last June, now connects neighborhoods of medieval narrow streets with affordable style and speed.
- • A crop of low-cost food halls is transforming the casual food scene.
- • Dozens of new skyscrapers are reshaping London's once-low skyline—and giving travelers new opportunities to sleep with a bird's-eye view of an ancient city.
- • Methods for saving money on West End shows have been transformed by digital platforms—we explain how to snag affordable tickets now.
- • The technologically masterful concert show ABBA Voyage, housed in a custom-built arena in East London, is an unexpected smash hit.
Our new guide tells you the best ways to experience all of these fresh changes, and much more.
We've retained our popular section about overrated attractions we think you can skip—Frommer's London is still the only international guidebook willing to be so honest about tourist traps.
Covering a changing world is what Frommer's was built on. When Arthur Frommer first trod London's lanes to write our first guide material on the city, Londoners were still conducting their lives amid the rubble of lingering bomb damage from World War II. Food rationing had ended only three years earlier, and the jumbo jet had just started delivering planeloads of international tourists with a volume and speed the old ocean liners could never match.
Frommer's is always here to help travelers navigate change—with a voice they trust.
The new Frommer's London is on sale now in paperback and e-book.
(The Ranger's House from Netflix's Bridgerton, now included in the Frommer's guide to London)
