Customer Reviews

1001 Natural Wonders: You Must See Before You Die (Barron's Educational Series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Given the enormity of the task of identifying 1,001 of the world's greatest wonders, the authors did a pretty good job. But they were clearly biased in their selections. This book was originally published in England. Not coincidentally, 54 pages are devoted solely to the British Isles. This represents about 6% of the book. This may not seem like that much until you consider that the Britsh Isles have about 0.2% of the world's land mass. Likewise, about 170 pages were devoted to Western Europe ... 19% of the book for 2.5% of the world's land mass. Other sections of the book seemed to be given disproportionate coverage as well. 10% of the entire North America section was devoted to New Mexico. The whole of Canada barely got more coverage than this. The enormous country of Russia got just 7 pages. New Zealand - an incredibly scenic country - got just 13 pages. The breathtaking islands in French Polynesia got 2 pages of coverage (and they completely ignored Moorea Island).

All of this being said, this is still a fairly impressive book that can be used to get a general idea of places you might like to visit. It has nearly 1,000 pages, so even with the disproportionate coverage, it still provides a pretty good glimpse at a lot of the natural wonders around the world. And there are some pretty nice photos, though I do wish there was a photo of every place, rather than a photo of about 1 in every 2 or 3 places. Photos can say more about a natural wonder than a couple paragraphs of text. Hopefully, the authors will someday come out with a new edition with more photos and less biased coverage of places throughout the entire world.

Bought as a Christmas Gift for our family. The book is printed on high quality glossy photo paper with maybe more than 400 gallery-quality photos of the wonders around the world. Many are truely breathtaking. I was tempted to read it from cover to cover at the begining and it soon proved to be a daunting task to cover the 900+ pages. So I was content to flip from page to page glancing at the photos and occasionally read the descriptions, which are simple and to the point. This is truely a wonderful book to own. I'd keep it close at hand on a coffee table or a bed-side table and once a while pick it up and let myself wander among the wonders.

I love to travel and thus peruse lots of books to explore and plan my future trips. I liked "1000 places to see before you die" as it did decent job in describing places worth visiting in all countries and continents. This book is a very weak copycat.

It seems that the criteria for choosing "natural wonders" was their proximity to US and south US in particularly and/or availability of the pictures. For instance, the book has tons of places in Texas, Arizona, etc. Not that these places are not nice, but the book completely ignores Moorea in Pacific, New Zealand has only marginal coverage and there are only couple of places in the whole India worth mentioning.

The book does have nice pictures, so it would qualify as a coffee table book for people who do not travel further than nearest McDonald yet like to dream or talk about faraway places. But do not take it as a guide for places you must see before you die: you will miss much of the world then!

buy this book! quality book, full of breathtaking photos of incredible places around the world. whether you are a dreamer, traveler or adventure seeker, you will love this book. i purchased it as a gift but am keeping it for myself and ordering another one.

Some of the world's leading explorers lend their contributions and advice to the extensive travel reference 1001 NATURAL WONDERS YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE, which holds very nearly 1,000 pages packed with photos and descriptions of such wonders. From Loch Ness in Scotland to Lake Natron in Tanzania or Daisetsu in Japan, the world's wilderness places are all under one cover, with extensive descriptions charting why they stand out. While some of these places pepper other books, no other coverage is so extensive - or so well laid out, blending modern color photos with cultural and natural insights. Very highly recommended indeed; way above any other 'natural wonders' guides, and perfect for both armchair travelers and travel planners alike.

I gave this book as a gift! It has great photos, unlike other 1001 Places to see before you die with out ANY photos.. How can you want to go somewhere if you have to look up photos. It is a great coffee table book!

We found the facinating, with places we never knew existed. An atlas of we you would love to go. Presentaion and place descriptions are first class.

This book was amazing... I wasn't expecting it to be 3inches thick! It is chock-full of beautiful pictures and helpful discussion on destinations all over the world. A must for any curious traveler!

I'm reviewing on the 2005 version of this book, the one with a mountain overlooking a purple sky on the cover...

Whoever thinks most of the natural landscapes are destroyed due to human civilization needs to see this book! There are many wonderful places that still remain, and the "wonders" include lakes, rivers, mountains, craters, rain forests, and islands. I don't know what the content in other editions is like, but this one lists places around the world. The countries with the highest number of natural wonders that made it into this list are Australia, China, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, and United States. But there are plenty of natural wonders listed from other countries.

Not all of the 1001 natural wonders have a picture to accompany the text. However, the pictures that are included in the book are absolutely breathtaking. For those who will not be able to go to most of these places, it can still be a lot of fun perusing through this book and enjoying the photographs. The natural wonders are are categorized by the continent they are in, and further broken down by country and province.

I think this book could have been a little bit better if the natural wonders were ranked, at least by the type of landscape or the location. The book is about the world's 1001 best natural wonders, but it doesn't tell which is #1 or #999. And I'm not sure how accessible some of these places are, since some of these locations have almost no human inhabitants. If this book is for someone who is seriously planning to visit these places, some notes on accessibility would have helped. Other than these two ideas, though, this is an excellent book!

A companion book to '1001 Escapes Before You Die' is `1001 Natural Wonders to See Before You Die' (edited by Michael Bright of the BBC's Natural History Unit) and while this huge, 960-page volume has a slightly different stance, it only serves to pique one's curiosity about even more places to add to one's proverbial `bucket list.' The obvious difference between the two books is that since less of the locales in `Natural Wonders' are promoted as `businesses,' that it's quite possible that in many cases their entire existence might be missed if not for this book. `Natural Wonders' is an updated version from a 2005 edition with a new emphasis on eco-ism, species behaviors (check out Kenya's famed Mara River Crossing) and other environmental factors provided by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) whose World Heritage Sites are given a special designation throughout the book.

Both books showcase many of the most amazing places on each of the seven continents (not to mention a trip to space on Virgin Galactic's airship) through stunning photographs (though not of all attractions) and cogent descriptions and while some may argue over the inclusion of one destination over another, it's hard to diminish the coverage that these two books offer when viewed together. All destinations are also reviewed for cost, ease of travel, accommodations and so on as well.

WIthout a doubt, before you even think of booking your next trip, we urge you to pursue these pages first as you will definitely find hundreds of interesting alternatives to the more standard fare that you'll graze across at a travel agent's office or website. And, if for $35 you end up finding the trip of a lifetime, it should certainly be well worth it.