Since I'm asking the worst period of the Spider-Man comics, I might as well ask about the best...
The contenders (which I'm picking due to a sense that people really like the material/ not as endorsements.)
The Stan Lee/ Steve Ditko run of Amazing Spider-Man
The Stan Lee/ John Romita Sr run of Amazing Spider-Man
With no other Spider-Man comics published at the time, these can be largely standalone.
Gerry Conway's Amazing Spider-Man: Also corresponds to Len Wein's Marvel Team-Up run.
The Roger Stern Amazing Spider-Man: Roger Stern/ John Romita Jr on Amazing Spider-Man, Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan on Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, and JM DeMatteis on Marvel Team-Up, and ends with Peter going off into the Secret Wars.
The Michelinie/ McFarlane Era: I'm starting with January 1988 with the first issues of Conway's run on Spectacular Spider-Man and Michelinie's run on Amazing Spider-Man, and ending with Acts of Vengeance, as that marks McFarlane's departure from ASM, and comes after the resolution of the Tombstone story.
The Clone Saga: I'm well aware it has its fans.
The Intermediate Era: Maybe you really like the post-Clone Saga, pre-Mackie/ Byrne relaunch era.
The JMS/ John Romita Jr Amazing Spider-Man:
This would include their run on the main title, as well as Jenkins and Wells' Peter Parker Spider-Man, and the Tangled Web anthology series.
The Brand New Day: This was the 101 issue run by two different writing teams, where the satellite books were replaced by more issues of Amazing Spider-Man.
The Big Time/ Superior Spider-Man: The period when Peter Parker worked at Horizon Labs, and Doctor Octopus swapped bodies with Peter Parker. This would also include Yost's run of the team-up titles.
Parker Industries: This would include Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man Volumes 3 and 4, as Peter Parker gets name recognition as a CEO. Other runs include Joe Kelly's Spider-Man/ Deadpool.
Note: I may refer to one title in the options, but the question is about that period of the main books.
For simplicity's sake, I'm not counting Alt-U spinoffs like Spider-Girl and Bendis/ Bagley's Ultimate Spider-Man, which were run out of different editorial offices. Spider-Gwen did touch on events in the main book more often so it's valid as part of the series.