Average customer rating:
- My favorite Southwest guidebook
- great travel guide
- The Best Overall Guidebook to the Southwest
- Best single guide for the American Southwest
- An inside guide for any outsider
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The Rough Guide to Southwest USA, 3rd Edition
Rough Guides
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1843530805 |
Amazon.com
If you're traveling to the American Southwest, there are myriad choices to make, and Greg Ward's thorough Southwest USA can help you make them. First he considers the basics: how to get there, how to get around, where to eat and drink, where and when the annual festivals take place, and details on the cultural niceties of traveling in Indian reservations (a sensitivity missing from many a Southwest guide). Then the guide proper starts, covering the U.S. from southern Utah down to the border with Mexico, from Las Vegas east to where New Mexico meets Texas. Ward's guide is a wealth of information, with climate details, desert survival tips, accommodations, and many pages' worth of places to see, things to do, and roads to travel. He also offers engaging articles on the gunfight at the OK Corral, the formation of the Grand Canyon, and the Havasupai Indians. Southwest USA covers a large territory with ease, candor, and an abundance of practical details.
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
The Southwest is the most extraordinary and spectacular region of the United States. The splendor and scale of its scenery consistently defies belief - a glorious panoply of cliffs and canyons, buttes and mesas, carved from rocks of every imaginable color, and enriched here by groves of shimmering cottonwoods and aspens, there by cactuses and agaves. In addition, the Southwest is unique in being the only part of the United States whose original inhabitants remain in residence. Though century after century has brought fresh waves of intruders, somehow none has managed to entirely displace its predecessors, leaving all to coexist in an intriguing blend of cultures and traditions.
The area covered by this book roughly corresponds to the former Spanish colony of New Mexico, which has belonged to the US for a mere 150 years, and is now divided between the modern states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nevada. Though rainfall is scarce everywhere, not all the region is desert; indeed, the popular image of the Southwest as consisting of scrubby hillsides studded with many-armed saguaro cactuses is true only of the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. Towering snow-capped mountains rise not only in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, at the tail-end of the Rockies, but are scattered across Utah and Arizona as well, while dense pine forests cloak much of northern Arizona.
The most dramatic landscapes are to be found on the Colorado Plateau, an arid mile-high tableland, roughly the size of California, that extends across the Four Corners region of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Atop the main body of the plateau, further layers of rock are piled level upon level, creating a "Grand Staircase" of successive cliffs and plateaus. During the last dozen or so million years, the entire complex has been pushed steadily upwards by subterranean forces. As it has risen, the earth has cracked, warped, buckled and split, and endless quantities of crumbling sandstone have been washed away by the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Grand Canyon is simply the most famous of hundreds of dramatic canyons, and can seem too huge for the human mind to appreciate. No one, however, could fail to be overwhelmed by the sheer weirdness of southern Utah - the red rocks of Monument Valley, the fiery sandstone pinnacles of Bryce Canyon, the endless expanses of Canyonlands.
Though, to outsiders, such harsh terrain appears inhospitable in the extreme, it has been home to Native Americans for ten thousand years. These days, much of the Colorado Plateau is taken up by the self-styled "Navajo Nation", the largest of the Southwest's fifty Indian reservations. Until around 1300 AD, however, it was occupied by a people now remembered as the Ancestral Puebloans (the term "Anasazi" is no longer widely used; see p.520). Their magnificent adobe "cliff dwellings", squeezed like eagles' nests into crevices in soaring canyon walls, are now major tourist attractions, preserved in places such as the gorgeous Canyon de Chelly National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park.
The immediate descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans established new settlements to the south and west of the Four Corners, most notably along the Rio Grande valley of northern New Mexico. Many of their villages, as seen by the sixteenth-century Spanish explorers who first called them "pueblos", are still there today, with their architecture and ceremonial life all but unchanged. Visiting a modern Pueblo community such as Ácoma - the amazing "Sky City", perched on a glowing golden mesa - Taos, or the Hopi mesas offers a unique opportunity to experience indigenous American cultures in their most authentic surviving form.
The Spaniards, the Navajo and the Apache all carved out their own domains in the Southwest from the seventeenth century onwards, and have shared the region - not always peacefully - with the Pueblo peoples and other Native American groups ever since. They were joined in the nineteenth century by the Mormons, who through utter determination and communal effort colonized modern Utah, and by the Americans, who swiftly outnumbered everyone else.
In the early years of US rule, the Southwest was very much the Wild West; that era is now recalled in towns such as Lincoln, New Mexico, where Billy the Kid blazed his way out of jail, and Tombstone, Arizona, where the Earps and the Clantons fought it out at the OK Corral. The century since Utah, Arizona and New Mexico achieved statehood has been characterized by attempts to transform the landscape on an unprecedented - not to say unnatural, let alone unsustainable - scale. A series of monumental water projects - including the construction of the Hoover Dam, the damming of Utah's Glen Canyon to form Lake Powell, and the creation of a network of canals across hundreds of miles of the Arizona desert - has brought the region prosperity as the Sunbelt.
While the proximity of the wilderness remains the supreme attraction for most visitors, certain Southwestern cities make worthwhile destinations in their own right. Santa Fe is the best example, with its 400-year history, top-quality museums and galleries, and superb array of hotels and restaurants; Tucson holds an enjoyable combination of desert parks, Hispanic history, restaurants and ranch resorts; and Las Vegas, entirely and quintessentially a product of the twentieth century, is far too amazing to miss. Phoenix, on the other hand, is one to avoid; it's possible to have a good time there, but you'd have to have a very long vacation before there'd be much point bothering.
Though most of the region's smaller towns are best treated as overnight pit-stops, some have blossomed into appealing bases for a few days' stay. Moab is a welcome exception to the typical monotony of southern Utah farming communities; the college town of Flagstaff is a lively enclave within easy reach of the Grand Canyon; and Taos still has the feel of the artists' colony that attracted Georgia O'Keeffe and D.H. Lawrence.
Customer Reviews:
My favorite Southwest guidebook.......2005-06-23
This is the mother of all Southwest guidebooks, and as one reviewer stated, it is most useful because it covers multiple states (New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah, and Southern Nevada).
The maps inside are second-to-none. I always trust these maps, especially when I need to get off the major highways to a less-traveled road.
This book has medium-to-small type and thin pages, so they pack a lot of information into a small space. This is great for the traveler who doesn't want to lug around a huge and heavy book.
Every town has a good description, history, and information, followed by a list of practicalities like where to eat, where to stay, where to get more information. The Indian reservations are covered in great detail, and this was essential for my trip.
Love this book and I highly recommend it to anyone driving through the Southwest.
great travel guide.......2005-05-17
We recently travelled in the Grand Canyon-Southern Utah area, and found this an invaluable resource. None of the reviews was off-base... although some of the prices are outdated at this point, it's to be expected. One thing that's nice about this guide is that it's pretty durable, so after several weeks of use in the planning of the trip, 10 days of being tossed about in backpack, car and luggage, and being used as a reference in my post-trip write-up of our travels, it still looks fairly new. I could probably sell it used, but I think I'll keep it for when I head back that way in a few years.
The Best Overall Guidebook to the Southwest.......2004-10-30
I travel in the Southwest frequently and have a diverse collection of guidebooks to the region. Rough Guide is my favorite, with the intelligently written descriptions and opinions. The other guidebooks are drier or shallower in comparison (Moon, Lonely Planet, Let's Go, DK, and Frommer's).
Best single guide for the American Southwest.......2001-12-23
I usually carry multiple guidebooks on my vacations, but during my recent trip to the American Southwest I relied exclusively on this book.
One of the reasons I recommend this book is that it covers the Southwest as a single region, so it includes New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorodo, southern Utah, and Las Vegas. Most other books are State-based, so it would take multiple books to cover the entire region.
Another reason to pick this book is that it is opinionated. It lists top ten sites in various categories (national parks, museums, etc.), so that you can plan your time effectively. The auther even recommends against some things, unlike most guidebooks.
I am picky about maps, and the maps in this book were uniformly accurate and reliable. Driving tips and recommended routes were quite useful.
You will also find this book compact and light. While some other books are loaded with pictures, I find these books best enjoyed at home, before and after my trip, because they are too heavy to lug around during my trip.
Finally, I stayed in 5 hotels, all recommended by this book, and they were all safe choices. If you are looking for a splurge, I recommend Goulding's lodge at Monument Valley, especially for fans of old movies. To my surprise, I enjoyed the museum on site. Also, I used the inroom VCR to watch Stagecoach, and this was the perfect setup for my Monument Valley visit the next morning. At Canyon do Chelly NM, I would recommend not staying at the overpriced, dreary lodge. It's cheaper to stay at one of the places just outside the park. In Santa Fe, the El Rey Inn is convenient, friendly, and has a Route 66 feel.
An inside guide for any outsider.......1998-05-19
On our recent trip through the grand circle of national parks in the four corners area, we carried several paperback guides, but quickly discarded the others in favor of this excellent book. We started reading it out loud as we approached each new town because of its wry observations, but quickly came to trust its preview of each new stop. We were never disappointed when we chose a non-chain motel from its recommendations, and we never got a bad meal wherever it said the food was good (and this was a budget trip).
It isn't perfect -- things change too fast. For instance, there are many new motels within easy distance of the Grand Canyon, easing the squeeze many travelers have experienced, and more are under construction. And they didn't warn us to avoid the grossly mis-named Kodachrome state park. But wherever I travel next, a Rough Guide will be with me, you can be sure.
Customer Reviews:
Never leave home w/out a Rough Guide.......2007-01-13
Finally, I got to throw away my outdated copy of Seattle's Rough Guide. And that's only because the company issued an update last summer. It keeps current with newly opened cafes and restaurants. It is accurate on prices and descriptions. If you are traveling carry-on style to Seattle, take this one and leave the rest at home.
Book Description
The Rough Guide to the USA is your definitive state-by-state guidebook to this vast and fascinating country. From a baseball game in Chicago and Yellowstone’s National Park to the towering Washington Monument and the astonishing southwest desert, the full-colour introduction highlights all the âthings-not-to-miss’. There are insider reviews of all the best places to stay, eat and drink, both on and off the beaten track, with the new âAuthor’s Pick’ feature highlighting the very best options. There is plenty of expert advice on a multitude of activities, from hiking in the Grand Canyon to experiencing New York Coty nightlife. The guide takes a detailed look at the country’s history, culture and people and comes complete with maps and plans for every region, state and major city.
The Rough Guide to the USA is like having a local friend plan your trip!
Book Description
Comprehensively covering New Mexico & Arizona, and stretching into some highly visited parts of Nevada (Las Vegas) and Southwest Colorado (Mesa Verde National Park), the Rough Guide to Southwest USA covers the region not just as a collection of states but both in the manner people tend to visit and by defining what the Southwest means. The area is one of the great road trip destinations in America, full of scenic national parks, unusual geological formations, unique cities like Santa Fe, vintage Americana, and Wild West towns. There are great features on Southwest movie locations, native peoples, adobe architecture and the like, and plenty of practical details and descriptions for hikes and other outdoor activities.
Customer Reviews:
Covering the Southwest in Small Print.......2007-06-10
I recently traveled through the Southwest, and picked up this guide as well as three others to prepare for the journey. I agree wholeheartedly with the previous comments about the disdain Greg Ward showers on his subject matter as well as his fixation on a certain chain of budget motels. (I actually stayed at one of his recommended motels in Benson, Arizona - it was like most other budget hotels in the USA.) The book is also bulky, with the typical small print of the Rough Guide series.
However, for all its faults, it appears to be one of the more comprehensive, current travel guides available for the Southwest region. As long as you also refer to other materials and insights, this guide book will serve as a good foundation for your trip across the Southwest.
A comprehensive guide with a disdainful tone for the subject matter.......2007-04-05
I recently made a road trip across the American Southwest and purchased both the Lonely Planet 4th Edition (December 2005) and the Rough Guide 4th Edition (October 2006) as my guides for the week-long adventure. The Rough Guide, while still far above Frommer's or a Mobile guide, just does not compare to the Lonely Planet guide. This Rough Guide is oversized (nearly twice as thick as its competitor), but doesn't offer any significant additional information for all that bulk.
The author has a clear distaste for the Southwest, referring to the desolation and hum-drum nature of many of the Southwest outpost towns. Clearly, anyone buying this book already chose to spend time in the Southwest, so the haughty attitude about what could possibly carry a visitor to certain towns, or about the availability of only chain motels, wears thin fast.
The big selling point of the Rough Guide is the additional historical and contextual information provided along the journey. For example, I learned that Smokey Bear does not, in fact, have "the" in the middle of his name, and one is best to remember that before visiting Capitan, New Mexico. The guide also has hundreds of black and white photos scattered throughout the text, some of dubious utility to the reader.
Best Guide so far.......2007-02-15
This is the best guide I have found on New Mexico so far. It has definitely helped to narrow down the list of things to do on a trip. Also this guide listed the free admission days for museums, which is great if you have a tight budget. It even had an awesome reading list of fiction and non-fiction books to read before or on your trip. The best part of this guide is that I will be able to re-use it for other trips to Utah, Arizona, and southwest Colorado.
The other thing I recommend is to write to the National Park Service for their brochures on the National Parks, Forests, and Monuments you want to visit. They will send you a bunch of related brochures to give you ideas of what to do in the area.
The Rough Guide to Southwest USA 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).......2007-01-11
Excellent help in planning trip to the south west USA.
We intend to take a two week auto trip in the area and it has some great ideas for the visit.
Book Description
The Rough Guide to San Francisco is the complete travel handbook to CaliforniaÂ's fabled city by the bay. Now in its seventh edition, the guide is jam-packed with details on of all the best places to stay, eat and drink, catering for every taste Â- and every budget. Along with thorough accounts of San FranciscoÂ's top tourist areas, from Downtown to Golden Gate Park, the guide also takes time to explore less well-known but no less deserving destinations, from the Mission districts colourful murals to the relaxed charms of the Richmond and Sunset neighbourhoods. There are four in-depth chapters exploring the Bay area, including information on Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, Marin County, Napa, Sonoma and the Russian River Valleys. The guide looks at San FranciscoÂ's interesting, history, culture and literature, and comes complete with detailed maps and plans for the entire city and Bay Area.Â
Customer Reviews:
great, comprehensive guide for a SF newbie.......2007-01-05
I brought this on a trip to SF in the summer. Found it chockful of info and insight (just as much as the Lonely Planet guides). I pretty much roamed all of the city and Napa with this book and a map. It's a great buy. Almost like travelling with a friend who's a native.
Amazon.com
A remarkably complete -- and compact -- travel guide to the entire United States. I scrutinized pages for two cities I know intimately (New Haven, CT, and Seattle, WA) and one I just visited (Palm Springs, CA) and can honestly say that this book does a very good job of capturing the essential feeling of each place, and of describing the high and low points of each locale. As is inevitable for such a copious compendium, there are entries for establishments that have gone out of business (The Unicorn and Costermonger), or entries I wished they had included (The Museum of Toasters). But on the whole, it's hard to imagine a more comprehensive and useful volume for the perennially peripatetic US traveler. Two suitcases up, up, and away!
Book Description
The Rough Guide to the USA is the most comprehensive and colourful guide to the fifty states available. There are lively accounts of every region and attraction from the bright lights of Broadway to the vast open plains of Wyoming. The guide gives refreshingly opinionated reviews of the established sights and landmarks as well as uncovering many of the lesser-known gems, allowing the visitor to make the most of their trip. There are feature boxes that provide information on a variety of subjects from the Delta blues to the geology of the Grand Canyon. There are also maps and plans to help you navigate around the major attractions, inner city streets or interstates
Customer Reviews:
Buy another guidebook instead!.......2006-05-01
I've been using different Lonely Planet guidebooks and I wanted to try another guidebook, so I bought The rough guide to the USA, but I'm very disappointed over The rough guide to the USA.
Compared to Lonely Planet The rough guide is:
-less informative
-not so funny to read
-of poorer quality (the back went broken in a week)
And worse: The maps are really bad, if they exist at all. And they do not point out sights, hotels, restaurants etc with numbers like they do in Lonely Planet guidebooks. Also it lacks on historical background which is very annoying for a person who have never been to the states. The section on dangers and annoyances is far from comprehensive. Distances are in miles...
I can continue with more annoyances but I think you'll get the point.
The only positive I can say about The rough guide to the USA is the price, it's cheap!
Excellent road trip bible, served this traveller well.......2005-07-04
The Rough Guide series has proven to be the best choice when traveling; this edition is no different. I recently completed a six week auto journey of the Western US--from South Dakota through California and finally back to my home in North Carolina. I couldn't have had a better guide to point me along on the journey. The information is honest and the attitude contemporary. The book covers the US national parks at the same level of detail and high energy as the country's grandest cities. I have--and will be--consistenly be traveling with the highest caliber guidebook on the planet. Very nice work and my congratulations to the Rough Guide authors & staff.
Mediocre at Best.......2005-06-16
This guide does not include half the details I was looking for. It lacks on historical background, demographics, maps, neighborhood information and totally leaves out several cities. It lacks major cities in the details that it does cover. I had high expectations, and was left very dissapointed. I felt this guide was mediocre at best.
A Great Guide Book marred by political idealogy.......2002-02-07
I like this book, as I find it an interesting prospective of looking at the USA as a place to travel from the outside view of Britons. They cover all the states, and do a good job of all the highlights.
My main problem is that the author does not hide his political idealogies. A travel book that calls Rush Limbaugh a "blow-hard"? Various cutting remarks on Confederate die-hards? I found that disconcerting.
Missing some crucial information.......2000-10-08
I just completed a 2 month trip through the US and Canada. I'm afraid to say that the Rough Guide was not always very helpful in the process. It does contain all the basic information on a lot of places, all right. And I guess it is to be expected that some of it is quite superficial as you cannot not cover everything. However, the book has some important shortcomings:
- Maps are few and poor. More often than not I found that major streets were missing, making orientation a hassle. So you have to juggle the guidebook and a separate map when walking through cities or driving around. Also, it would be very helpful to mark the recommendations on the maps in the book (which is rather rarely done), so you don't spend hours locating the addresses on the map.
- The guide does not always indicate price ranges for restaurant recommendations (especially in large cities). It is quite annoying if you travel across town to a restaurant (and spend some time on it if you don't have a car) to find that the dishes are... and up. For budget travelers, this guide might be difficult to swallow.
- There's some inaccurate info on hostels and their opening times. So you need to call ahead before you end up in front of closed doors. Also, price ranges for motels are way off.
- There is no section on dangers and annoyances for cities, a section that could be very helpful (although it sometimes warns of some dangerous areas in the text).
Also, the rough Guide might want to consider a better binding, as the book came apart after six weeks of usage. Overall, next time I'd rather go for another guide than this for a trip to the US.
Book Description
The eighth edition of The Rough Guide to California explores the state in its entirety, from the urban hotspots of San Francisco and Los Angeles to the natural beauty of Yosemite National Park and the Lake Tahoe area. The guide includes practical details on camping and hiking in Sequoia, Death Valley, and the other great National Parks and also covers highlights to the east, including Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Throughout there are critical reviews of hotels and restaurants in all price ranges, and the lowdown on the coolest clubs and bars. The detailed contexts section provides background on the state''s history, wildlife, and reviews of the best books and movies on California.
Customer Reviews:
Very Useful.......2007-08-09
I loved the story like approach of this book. Very informative and a very nice read. This was my first rough guide and I don't think I will buy any other kind of travel guide again.
Rough Guide worth while.......2006-08-18
This is the third Rough Guide I have bought to help me plan my trips. And as usual it offers very good guide to the best places to have fun while staying on budget. The chapter about San Diego is especially good and I urge you to follow the books guidance and go to the Cheese Shop. Great Sandwiches. All in all a good travelling companion and introduction to California
Perhaps the best travel guide for California I've seen.......2006-05-20
It may seem a bit strange, but I am a californian and I have flipped through a great number of travel guides on california. It's a long story, but basically, I was trying to see what series were the best and most trustworthy, and what better way to test this than to see how accurate it is about places I know very well? Without a doubt, this one was the best of all of them. Occasionally it's recommendations for restaurants, etc, were not the ones I would have recommended, but when it came to places to see, things to do, and etc, it never went wrong.
It was especially good when it came to the things that are often overlooked or not mentioned but are a thousand times better than the usual tourist traps.
Please... Anaheim?.......2004-09-04
I don't know anything about this book, but please... Anaheim?
I have lived in California for 20+ years, and in my opinion Anaheim is one of the worst cities in California and should be skipped completely. Barstow is head and shoulders above Anaheim...
If you really want to see the best city in California, however, visit Bishop...
guide book gives an unfair review of anaheim,CA.......2002-03-03
I think the book has some strange opinions. It actually likes Barstow,CA better than Anaheim,CA. Very strange. Purchase not recommended.
Customer Reviews:
Good overall timeline.......2006-02-22
For a rough guide it is especially good (some rough guides are better than others).
clearly written and covers the whole broad spectrum.
Book Description
The Rough Guide gets under the skin of this historic city, with lively accounts of every attraction from the smart streets of Beacon Hill to the Revolution-era sights around Boston Common. Throughout there are critical listings to suit all tastes and budgets. The authors'' selection of ''things not to miss'' range from bustling Harvard square to shopping on Newbury Street which houses hip cafes and colourful boutiques. It also covers neighbouring Cambridge, Plymouth, Salem, and Cape Cod''s Provincetown. The contexts section provides insightful background on the city''s history, architecture, people and literature.
Customer Reviews:
Shows Lack of Knowledge of Boston.......2006-06-11
As a native of Boston, who routinely entertains friends who visit and spend time in the city, I am constantly looking for the best guide to recommend to our guests when they are out and about exploring. Unlike many guidebooks to Boston, this one lacks actual knowledge of the city. I question the author's time spent in Boston. I wonder if he simply read Fodor's Boston and wrote his own version full of comments manufactured to make you believe he had spent a considerable amount of time here. It appears he never ventured out of the tourist areas of downtown and he missed a large part of the city, which makes Boston so unique and provincial. On top of this his analysis of downtown, the Common, and Back Bay give you no insight, and would not help a tourist go beyond what they could learn about Boston from a tourist information booth. He speaks of various parts of Boston at times with even contempt.
He includes inaccuracies (such as the fact that Dorchester Heights is in Dorchester - actually it is in South Boston) and paints whole neighborhoods in just a paragraph (what he groups together as the south part of the city). This only glosses over or misses the great charm of such areas of the city as Centre St. in Jamaica Plain, Jackson Square, Franklin Park and the Forrest Hills Cemetery, the ethnic foods and stores of Dorchester and Roxbury. He actually goes as far to recommend you avoid much of Dorchester and incorrectly describes south Dorchester as a place your life may be in danger, which is just factually incorrect (and beside this much of the crime exists in the northern parts of the neighborhood and parts of Roxbury where he suggest people visit). Why discuss neighborhoods in such a negative light, with no actual knowledge of them, intentionally deterring people from going there who would not have gone there in the first place?
This is one of the worst guidebooks I have read about the city of Boston... And I would not recommend it to any of our friends if they were visiting.
Book Description
The Rough Guide to Los Angeles is the definitive handbook to the USAÂ's second biggest city. Now in its fourth edition, the guide is jam-packed with up-to-date listings of hundreds of the cityÂ's restaurants, bars and hotels, as well as reviews of all the best clubs, shops, cinemas, and live music venues. Along with a thorough look at LAÂ's top tourist areas, from Hollywood and Beverly Hills to Santa Monica and Disneyland, the guide also takes time to explore less well-known but no less deserving destinations, from DowntownÂ's burgeoning arts district to Santa Catalina Island off the coast. There are chapters that look at LAÂ's colourful background, from the landmark architecture and local history, to the rise of the Hollywood film industry. The guide comes complete with plenty of maps to help you plan your trip to this free-spirited metropolis.Â
Customer Reviews:
Lives up to the Rough Guide reputation.......2006-05-05
The fourth edition of the Rough Guide to Los Angeles lives up to the outstanding reputation of the travel publishing company. One of the best features of the Rough Guide is its crystal-clear yet fine type, printed on durable and thin pages, so that a ton of information get packed into a compact format. This is all accompanied by a glossy front section providing an overview of the highlights of the City of Angels.
The Rough Guide sticks to a tried-and-true format, starting with the basics, then providing detailed coverage of ten sections of the city (including Orange County, which probably doesn't want to be considered a part of LA). Inland coverage extends only to Pasadena, so this is a better bet for coastal travel than it is for going into the eastern portions of the Los Angeles area. The last third of the book contains listing for accommodations, restaurants, bars, shopping, and activities. The selection of budget motels is a bit limited (beyond Motel 6), so anyone looking for a good deal on accommodations should head towards the Internet for a search. The restaurant and bar listings (organized by region and also indexed by type) are comprehensive and provide a good starting place to finding the spot to fit a traveler's mood.
The book concludes with contextual information about Los Angeles, including history essays, references to LA in film, and books set in LA. As a reader, I appreciate that the basic must-have facts are in the front, with the optional history section relegated to the back of the book. The maps are second to none, with exquisite detail and major areas of interest well-identified.
The Rough Guide to Los Angeles is a worthwhile investment for any pleasure-seeker, business traveler, weekend tourist, and even the hardened local who would like to know a bit more about the multitudes of activities LA has to offer.
Books:
- The Rough Guide to Southwest USA, 3rd Edition
- The Rough Guide to Wales 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
- The Rough Guide Venice Map (Rough Guide City Maps)
- The Rough Guides' Barbados Directions 2 (Rough Guide Directions)
- The Secret Art of Boabom: Awakening Inner Power Through Defense-Meditation from Ancient Tibet
- The Secret of Overcoming Verbal Abuse: Getting Off the Emotional Roller Coaster and Regaining Control of Your Life
- The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2007 (Unofficial Guides)
- The Unofficial Guide to London (Unofficial Guides)
- Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone (Top Trails)
- Trail Atlas of Michigan: Nature, Mountain Biking, Hiking Cross Country Skiing (Maps & Atlases)
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