Pacific

We have just returned to the mainland from our first ever trip to Hawaii. We stayed at a wonderful B & B on Oahu, where we found the Frommer's guide to Honolulu, Waikiki and Oahu along with many other guide books, but we found it to be the best. This book was a fabulous guide, with all the maps and notes of places to go and things to see. We used it like a bible. It helped to make our trip very memorable.

My wife and I recently visited San Francisco, and we absolutely fell in love with the city. One of the main reasons we loved the trip so much is because we received expert advice from this little book.

First, it helps shape the genre of the trip by advising you on what to avoid. For example, unless you want your trip to be completely filled with dime-a-dozen memories, the book honestly advises you to stay away from places like Fishermans Wharf and Alcatraz. The pulse of the city is not to be found there. It also tells you how to avoid wasting time on inefficient transportation and wasting money on touristy restaurants that have a lot of press without the goods. In other words, this book is not afraid to say to you, "Hey, don't go to that restaurant because (a) it's overpriced and (b) the food stinks." In a city that's as diverse as San Francisco, we found that having advice about what to avoid was just as helpful, if not more so, than advice about what to see.

Second, it tells you what to wear. We went to San Francisco in late July/early August, and you would be surprised at how you need to dress for San Francisco weather during these "summer" months.

Third, it gives you an insider's perspective on what is truly distinctive about San Francisco's city culture. As such, we were able to visit places that we ordinarily would miss if we were to plan our trip solely by the other city guides we had in our possession. For example, there are many restaurants, shops, cafes, and entire neighborhoods which are the delight of San Francisco locals, and we were really pleased to be able to soak up some of that local mood. This feature is what we found most valuable about Frommer's Irreverent Guide.

Finally, a word of caution. Frommer's Irreverent Guide is not meant to be a complete guidebook. It is best used as a supplement to another San Francisco guide book that gives the fine-print details. That said, however, the Irreverent Guide is great at what it aims to do-viz., to help set your frame of mind and plan the mood of the trip to be truly San Franciscan.

This compact travel guide is packed to the gills with excellent information for the novis or perennial pilgrim to Las Vegas. It contains loads of new information for those who own other editions as recent as the 1999 version. Herczog's comments are informative and reliable--you can tell if you'll want to go to a particular restaurant or casino from her descriptions. This guide is indispensable to me (since I always run out of time to see all I want to see in Las Vegas). It's a great complement to Saehler's UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO LAS VEGAS. Also this year, see an excellent chapter of webs sites at the end of the book. (I believe your photo shows the 1999 edition, however.)

I recently took my family to Las Vegas. With young children we were not able to spend time in the casinos. I bought this guide and it helped me to plan the vacation which included details on nightlife, shows, and celebrity restaurants. The guide was easy to carry around and offered options that could fit into any budget. We found out that there was more to do in Vegas than gamble!

Frommer's has always created great guidebooks. The San Diego 2000 guide is no exception. First, you open it to find 16 pages of colored photographs of San Diego--this alone wants your vacation time to come sooner! Something that Frommer does that almost none of the other guides do is to give you actual prices rather than "1, 2, 3, or 4 $ to indicate price and then you have to refer to a chart to get the PRICE RANGE." This feature is worth it's price alone! They also supply you with a pull out map--like you can get at a gas station or AAA. It also gives you the entire phone # and not zip code is XXX for all areas. This can be frustrating. Also, it groups food by category. AND gives you websites for more information. A truly EXCELLENT guide!

With the use of this guide, we were able to find the inside scoop on all the favorite family attractions, ranging from Fisherman's Wharf, to the Exploratorium, and even the cable cars. The author obviously had children of her own and knew all the hot spots for families. The planning guides, colored maps, and reviews on hotels and restaurants made our first trip memorable!

Seattle is like Portlands bigger little brother. it is a younger city but it grew larger quicker than Portland. It has the space needle and some really nice landmarks. Portland in contrast is a bit smaller and has no nationally reconized landmarks.

I have spent a great deal of time in both cities and I find that Portland is my favorite. Hence I there. This guide will take you to most the best places in both cities, but if I where you I would also get a guide dedicated to each city individually. Oh, and take it from someone who knows. Do not try to drive in rushhour in Seattle, infact dont drive at all in Seattle, stay across the straight and take te fairy over.

In Portland just take Trimet. Do not get on C-tran it will take you to Vancouver WA which is boring and out of the way.

Overall good book

Yosemite is one of my favorite places. I fall in love with this majestic park on my first trip there, and try to spend at least several days every year hiking Yosemite trails. I also like Sequoia and Kings Canyon, which are great parks for hikers and backpackers. Since I am not new to these parks, I was curious how the judgement and advice of this book would agree with my own impressions. I was pleasantly surprised. In this book, Frommer's made an outstanding example of how good a pocket-size guide can be. It has only 170 pages on three parks, and yet all essentials are covered - how to get there, what to see, where to stay, it has maps of the parks and of the hiking trails, it has lists of the best views accessible from the road and ratings of hikes, it has information for backpackers (based on the personal experience of the author). In my opinion and experience, the ratings of trails are very accurate, and descriptions of hotels and restaurants are unusually unbiased. In fact, I could not find a single one which I would not agree with. All ratings/descriptions maintain positive attitude, but it is very easy to read between the lines, e.g., if the book says that a certain restaurants has "a simple but adequate menu" and does not give it a single star, it means that it is a crappy and overpriced snack bar, but it will help you to survive until you get to a better place; when it says that the place is excellent and gives it three stars, then it is really good. One can surely find more detailed books on day hikes or backpacking in Yosemite. However, no other travel guide gives so much practical information and good advice in a condensed form. If you are planning to visit Yosemite for a day or two and do not know where to start, I cannot think about a better book to recommend.

Rhoda Blumberg brings in the many aspects, peoples, andcultures involved in building the transcontinental railroad, andconsiders it from many view points. A wonderful way to learn about this important part of American history.

A great book for anyone with kids in Oregon. It will keep us busy for years. It has details about local city parks to large well-known attractions like Crater Lake. Plus there are extra tips on lodging and kid-friendly restaurants. We found a park with an old train engine in our own city I didn't even know was there.