Customer Reviews

AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Philadelphia: Four-season Guide to 50 of the Best Trails in Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

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I've hiked Pennsylvania for 30 years so I know most of the trails in the area. All of my favorite areas are represented in this book along with a few which were new to me. Directions to the trailheads are clear and concise and include GPS coordinates. The trail descriptions are well written and mention all the points of interest and offer at least some background information on the area. All in all, a fine up to date reference for hiking in the Philadelphia area.

I thought this would be a great book for a year I'm spending in Philadelphia but think someone should do each hike and come up with a second edition. Most of the hikes are not within a distance of Center City that can be accessed by public transportation, some up to a few hours drive. The first hike we chose, Pennypack Creek, was a 1 hour drive despite it being within the city. The portion of the hike listed in the book was kinda sketchy. We ended up driving to the north end of the hike (the turn-around point) and hiking further north. This took us out of the city and into Montgomery County, but it was more scenic and quite a delightful trip. The second hike chosen was at Cape May, NJ. I thought it would be a perfect day along the Jersey shore, and in a bird sanctuary none the less... Well, I probably should have realized they wouldn't actually let dogs in the sanctuary, but there were two additional sections of the hike through the state park and along a beach. The book listed the hike as dog friendly, but NONE of the three sections were dog friendly. Thankfully there's a beach just to the north that was accepting of our best friend. Long story short, I'm not impressed. After trialing just two of their many hikes, I believe I could do better by thinking outside their box.