The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Best Tent Camping) [Paperback]

Tom Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2005 | Series: Best Tent Camping

From Zippel Bay State Park's birch-jack pine forest, overlooking the incomparable Lake of the Woods, to the Blue Mound prairies of southwestern Minnesota, The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota is a guidebook for tent campers who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites. Whether you are a native Minnesotan in search of new territory or a vacationer on the lookout for that dream campground, this book unlocks the secrets to the best tent camping that Minnesota has to offer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...criteria for the perfect tent spot: beauty, quietness, privacy, cleanliness, spaciousness, security...road accessible...most protected visually and audibly. -- Chris Niskanen, St. Paul Pioneer Press, August 14, 2005

From the Back Cover

If you subscribe to the opinion that televisions, Japanese lanterns, and electric guitars are not essential camping equipment, The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota should be your constant companion.

Each campground profile includes:
Detailed campground maps
Key information such as fees, restrictions, and dates of operation
Driving directions to the campgrounds
Ratings for beauty, privacy, spaciousness, quiet, security, and cleanliness

From Zippel Bay State Park's birch-jack pine forest, overlooking the incomparable Lake of the Woods, to the Blue Mound prairies of southwestern Minnesota, The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota is a guidebook for tent campers who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites.
Whether you are a native Minnesotan in search of new territory or a vacationer on the lookout for that dream campground, this book unlocks the secrets to the best tent camping that Minnesota has to offer.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press; 1st edition (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897325737
• ISBN-13: 978-0897325738
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great information - could be better organized, September 5, 2005

By 

W. J. Hochmuth (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Best Tent Camping) (Paperback)

The information presented in the book is solid, with great detail provided about each of the campsites. We look forward to seeing many of them. The book could be better organized though. In order to find a particular site, you need to follow a 3-4 step process through maps and keys. This shouldn't keep anyone from buying the book, but we hope the next edition is a bit easier to digest.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Site-by-Site Review of Minnesota Campgrounds, June 12, 2006

By 

R. Harrington (St. Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Best Tent Camping) (Paperback)

If you're the type of camper who keeps a little notebook noting the best campsites in the campgrounds you visit, this book is for you. Tom Watson does a site-by-site review of 50 public campgrounds in Minnesota, noting the best ones, the sites to avoid, and a general description of the campground and some of the activities.

It is true, as others noted, that the map and indexing system is cumbersome: it would be nice if the numbers corresponding to the campgrounds on the map could lead you directly to the review in the book. Instead, you must first find the name of the campground on the map key, then find where the campground is listed in the book (and they're not alphabetical).

Nonetheless, the information is solid (we were familiar with several of the campgrounds). We are looking forward to visiting the others.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good place to start narrowing down all of the camping options., May 2, 2011

By 

Mason2528 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best in Tent Camping: Minnesota: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Best Tent Camping) (Paperback)

I do not have great deal of vacation time, so I try to gather as much information and determine the best places to visit, eat, camp, etc... This leads me to using guidebooks to supplement what can be found on the internet.

This book provides decent information on the camping areas selected. A more accurate title would use "Great or Good" instead of "Best," but I am understand the marketing angle. I am sure there are camping sites that are as good or better than some of the ones listed in this book, but I am looking forward to checking out some reviewed sites that I doubt I would have ever come across. It would be interesting to see which places did not make it into this book.

The organization is not user friendly, but isn't too difficult to navigate. There is an error in the numbering on one of the maps (Itasca and Lake Bronson are interchanged).

Overall, this book provides some good, basic information that can provide direction on where to go camping in MN.