California (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Dk Travel Writers


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1 Good guide
I like Eyewitness travel guides, even if I usually complement them with other, more "wordy" ones. This one, like all the other ones I own, is a good, relatively short (but heavy!) guide very helpful to give you good hints about what to see over an area as large as California. The nice pictures are always a big plus.

On the minus side, you will find only a few words about 95% of the locations described in this guide, so if you are looking for something deeper, of if you like historical anecdotes about the places you visit, this guide is not ideal. Another minus is the relatively scant number of hotels and restaurants listed in the guide, surely a result of the large area covered. Also, the information you are given on restaurants is almost invariably composed of 20 words or so. So, if good food is important on your trips, this guide is again not ideal. From the perspective of both real content and good food advice, I think the "Moon" handbooks are vastly superior to the Eyewitness guides. However, the few and B&W pictures in the Moon series will sometimes make even great places sound or look dull.

Again on the plus side, the maps are useful.

Overall, this a good guide to use as a starting point to plan a trip, but if you really care about what you see, you will probably have to buy other material too, and I would suggest looking for a Moon guide to have an ideal combination.
2 The Book to Buy - With Beautiful Photographs
I first came across these books traveling to Europe and I own almost 20 of these guides. This is a massive 630 page guide suitable to the large State of California, a state that has many places to explore and visit.

It has a comprehensive description of almost every area of California. An alternate book to consider is something like the Frommer guide that is about 700 pages. I prefer this book. Both have excellent maps and guides including street maps of San Francisco. They give lots of local information.

But many guides including the Frommer guide are a disappointment because they have almost no photographs. A picture is worth a 1000 words. So if you are buying just one book, then buy this book.

The photos are in bright stunning color and leap from the pages. There are history time lines, references to historical and political development, architecture, museums, surfing, culture, restaurants, places to stay. Very complete. Just a great book.

Highly recommend and makes for a good souvenir.

Jack in Toronto


3 Good for lazy travellers
I am never the type of hard working traveller who would dig into lengthy travel books to find out everything. I found this book very useful for me. It's all in color (so, it's a pleasure to read, though that makes it heavy), and it has great maps which highlights all attractions in addition to detailed maps in the end of the book. That keeps me focus on what I want in a very easy way, instead of searching for where that particular attraction is.

I went to San Francisco, and places as far as 3 hours driving to north, and 4 hours driving to south. For San Francisco part, this book even included different architecture style, which greatly enhanced my experience. As for others, most of the places they describe, they include pictures also. This helps me to know what to expect.

Though I don't like it to be so heavy, it's my favorite among my collection.



Monday, 06-Oct-2008 22:16:34 CDT
Quote of the Day:


... proper attention to Earthly needs of the poor, the depressed and the

downtrodden, would naturally evolve from dynamic, articulate, spirited
awareness of the great goals for Man and the society he conspired to erect.
-- David Baker, paraphrasing Harold Urey, in
"The History of Manned Space Flight"

"It's easier said than done."

... and if you don't believe it, try proving that it's easier done than
said, and you'll see that "it's easier said that `it's easier done than
said' than it is done", which really proves that "it's easier said than
done".