Product Description

Part of the "Best Drives" series, this is a practical motoring guide from the AA. Useful for car touring, it is not just for independent travellers but also those who wish to know more about the chosen region. It is also illustrated with colour photographs throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178786 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Customer Reviews

Very good but not comprehensive
The book does fairly well what it says on the cover but nothing more. It is about Britain's best drives and that's what it does - around 25 or so routes, most of them doable in a day, which all include an pleasant country road drive, together with several points of interest enroute.

The points of interest are described sufficiently well and the minimaps of the area in question for each route are good enough to be useful, however the more general map in the back is fairly futile.

As another reviewer noted, this is not a comprehensive book covering every county, or every town and village and that is not its purpose, either.

I also tried several of the restaurants and hotels suggested in the book and was generally very satisfied with the quality and accuracy of the recommendations.

It's definitely something to keep in the car for daytrips in the UK, however it probably falls short if this is to act as a sort of Lonely Planet substitute.

Disappointing Guide
Planning a visit to Northumberland, driving rather than walking, due to my husband's disability, I thought this would be an ideal guide for us. However, I have found no mention of that particular county - which seems very unfortunate as it has such a beautiful coastline. This is a far from comprehensive guide - surely it would have possible to include the best drives in each county, rather than choosing to feature just a few counties. There are huge chunks of Britain that are just not included in this book.
There was a truly comprehensive guide to the whole of Britain published by the AA during the 50's and 60's,called "The Illustrated Road Guide to England and Wales", with a description of almost every town in the country, including the very small villages. I have been waiting ever since for an updated version, but I think I might as well whistle for the moon, so in the meantime we will continue using that one, even though the suggested car drive maps are out of date!