Nft Not for Tourists: Guide to Los Angeles (Not for Tourists: Los Angeles, 2002)

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Summary: NFT in Los Angeles Magazine
Review: "The Not For Tourists guidebook publishers release an L.A. edition this month. Spiral bound and car friendly, it's not as detailed as a Thomas Guide, but more fun. Neighborhood maps are marked with such essentials as clubs, car washes, and video stores, but unlike New York's, no bagels."

--BUZZ CUTS, LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE March 2002

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Summary: NFT in Foreword This Week
Review: "Every year I come upon a new travel or city guide concept. NFT is one of the best and elegantly thought out sourcebook ideas--each designed in a format suitable for the city covered--listing major city resources for people who live there (where to get bagels or find a gas station in any NYC neighborhood, for instance) with great maps. So far they have Manhattan and Los Angeles. DC, San Francisco, and Boston are next."

-Eugene Schwartz, Foreword This Week 4/3/02

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Summary: NFT in Business Traveler
Review: "How often do you find yourself sitting in your hotel room flipping through the local restaurant guide, newspaper, yellow pages and the hotel's complimentary visitor guide? If the answer is always, then it's time to pick up the latest edition of the 2002 Not For Tourists Guide to Manhattan or Los Angeles--a complete information-packed city guidebook, helping you to navigate these two fascinating cities in no time.

"Partners Jane Pirone and Rob Tallia launched Not For Tourists in 2000--breaking the mold of ordinary city guidebooks--including essential information to spend your time most efficiently.

"Whether you are a resident or just traveling through, Not For Tourists offers readers up-to-date information on each neighborhood in Manhattan and Los Angeles, including boroughs. In addition to detailed neighborhood maps, the books feature subway and bus information, as well as essentials such as locations for post offices, 24-hour pharmacies, landmarks and even popular bagel stores.

"Facts about New York City including the Empire State Building's lighting schedule, airport information and maps, rail information, specific ATM machine locators, hotels and FedEx locations pack the 110-page guidebook. There's also a nifty subway pull-out map, so you can maneuver the city's underground system with no problem."

--Jaclyn Perlstein, BUSINESS TRAVELER Jan 2002

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Summary: NFT on American Airlines Lifestyle Minute on KFWB
Review: "Nobody walks in LA. It's a driver's city, ruled by the well-thumbed Thomas Guide. But a map can only get you so far. With daily commutes becoming more and more like road-trips, the recently published NOT FOR TOURISTS GUIDE TO LOS ANGELES seems like an answer to a prayer. While you won't find a guided tour of Hollywood Boulevard, you'll find the nearest bank, coffee shop or restaurant, which, for my money, is a lot more useful. In the back of the book are listings of dog parks, schools, area attractions, and even Fed-Ex locations. A zip code map along with a list of police emergency numbers adds to the utility of this small tome. Shopaholics will rejoice to find detailed descriptions of all area malls. With so much information, you might want to get out of the car and just read. Luckily, the public transportation section provides information on bus lines, airports and train stations."

--Anthony Diaz Blue
American Airlines Lifestyle MInute KFWB News980

Rating:
Summary: NFT in Los Angeles Magazine
Review: "The Not For Tourists guidebook publishers release an L.A. edition this month. Spiral bound and car friendly, it's not as detailed as a Thomas Guide, but more fun. Neighborhood maps are marked with such essentials as clubs, car washes, and video stores, but unlike New York's, no bagels."

--BUZZ CUTS, LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE March 2002

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Summary: NFT in Travel Holiday
Review: "Wouldn't it be great to be able to visit a city and get around like it's your own hometown? Well, now you can--in New York and L.A., no less. The 2002 Not For Tourists Guide to Manhattan and Not For Tourists Guide to Los Angeles are little black books that are the keys to these cities. The books provide information that is vital to anyone new to the city, and, as the titles suggest, are great toos for native dwellers as well.

"The Not For Tourists series is a new kind of guidebook. It combines the graphic functionality of street and subway maps with user-friendly information, like restaurant listings, shops, and sports arenas. The neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide lists pharmacies, gas stations, post offices, ATMs--the kinds of things you need to know to make the most of the cities."

--TRAVEL HOLIDAY MAGAZINE

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Summary: Not accurate
Review: All I can say is the Pasadena section is not accurate. Seems the editors just downloaded public information and dumped it on a map. For example, a hospital in the book is really an office building. No thought - just a data dump!

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Summary: NFT LA - Where have you been all my life???
Review: Finally, a city dweller's guide to the city! LA has been crying out for a publication like this for a long time. I have used my NFT LA guide on an almost daily basis since I bought it more than a month ago. The maps and icons have bailed me out on a number of occasions, particularly when I have been in neighborhoods that I am unfamiliar with - the gas stations in Pasadena are not so easy to find if you don't know your way around the hood!

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Summary: Too many errors and omissions. Save your $$
Review: I am a Los Angeles native who has lived on the Eastside (San Gabriel Valley) and on the Westside of our grand city. I was very excited to find a neighborhood by neighborhood guide. Unfortunately the beautifully slick graphics seduced me.

This "guide" (quotation marks because it falls so short of what it claims itself to be) was an inadequate effort by mostly New Yorkers. So a few of those New Yorkers transplanted themselves to LA. Many of these writers, editors frankly do NOT get LA.

I found multiple errors and omissions which are NOT minor. e.g., restaurant row on La Cienega in Beverly Hills was omitted. Hospitals which have closed long ago are listed. In the essentials section, where are the grocery stores or supermarket lists?!?! Wouldn't grocery stores take priority over gas stations?

Don't count on this for your life!

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Summary: Great Format/ Poor Editors
Review: I should have loved this book but can't help but hate it!!!!

Let's start w/ the good. The format and overall concept of the book are excellent. If you already have a Thomas Guide it's not at all redundant as they are good for different things. This book aims to get you up to speed quickly for a wide variety of neighborhoods throughout LA. It offers easily manageable maps along w/ the locations of gas stations, banks, restaurants, parks, landmarks, etc. So, your in Westwood and need to know where the Wells Fargo ATM is- no problem. The 90024 post office location- no problem. You get the idea......

Now the bad- although the book is titled "Not for Tourists Guide to Los Angeles" I can't help but think that it was edited by tourists as neither the the City Editor nor the Neighborhood Editors seem to have much insight into the various neighborhoods covered in the book. These guys may live here in Los Angeles, perhaps they've resided here all of there lives; despite this, in many cases they seem to offer little insight into the real good things that many of these neighborhoods offer. For instance, I live in Hollywood and the retaurant recomendations suggest that these guys are deffinitely "out of the loop". Now that's certainly very subjective, however, add to that mis-labeled maps and, even worse, factual information that is just plain wrong, e.g., the book suggests that Runyon Canyon Park was once Errol Flynn's estate- no Barney, I don't think so! Had you actually taken the time to familiarize yourself w/ the neighborhood you might have got it right (Errol stayed as a guest in the estate's guest house for a month or two immediately following his divorce- that was his only connection to the property, i.e., he never owned it). This is just one example. People who actually know LA well will no doubt find the book anoying due to the frequent errors and often bad advice.

Bottom line: I'm returning my copy. Despite this, I love the concept and format. A simple change of the City and Neighborhood editors could make all the difference in the next edition- I'm keeping my fingers crossed and waiting. This book could be killer if done properly!!!!