The Best in Tent Camping: Southern Appalachian & Smokies, Third Edition: A Guide for Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos [Paperback]

Johnny Molloy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best Tent Camping | Publication Date: September 1, 2001

If you subscribe to the opinion that televisions, Japanese lanterns, and electric guitars are not essential camping equipment, The Best in Tent Camping should be your constant companion. The Best in Tent Camping: The Southern Appalachian & Smoky Mountains is a guidebook for tent campers who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites. It's the perfect resource if you blanch at the thought of pitching a tent on a concrete slab, trying to sleep through the blare of another camper's boombox, or waking to find your tent surrounded by a convoy of RVs. Painstakingly selected from hundreds of campgrounds in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, and western North and South Carolina, each campsite is rated for beauty, noise, privacy, security, spaciousness, and cleanliness. Each campground profile provides essential details on facilities, reservations, fees, and restrictions, as well as an accurate, easy-to-read map making the campground a snap to locate.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Molloy's pleasant, relaxed style lends a great deal of readability to an otherwise utilitarian text, so that the reader is encouraged to explore all of what there is to offer before embarking. His recommendations for great trails and good fishing holes are based on first hand experience, rather than just local hubbub." Foreword Magazine, May 1999

"Clearly familiar with the ATC maps and guides, but carefully avoiding obvious duplication, Molloy offers an excellent tent camping guide more for the car visitor, though the overnighters will satisfy those backpackers who do so infrequently." Pontiac Appalachian, October 1999

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 should be your constant companion. The Best in Tent Camping: The Southern Appalachian & Smoky Mountains is a guidebook for tent campers who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites. It's the perfect resource if you blanch at the thought of pitching a tent on a concrete slab, trying to sleep through the blare of another camper's boombox, or waking to find your tent surrounded by a convoy of RVs. The Best in Tent Camping: The Southern Appalachian & Smoky Mountains will guide you to the quietest, most beautiful, most secure, and best managed campgrounds in the Southern Appalachian & Smoky Mountains. Painstakingly selected from hundreds of campgrounds in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, and western North and South Carolina, each campsite is rated for beauty, noise, privacy, security, spaciousness, and cleanliness. Each campground profile provides essential details on facilities, reservations, fees, and restrictions, as well as an accurate, easy-to-read map making the campground a snap to locate. (6 X 9, 192 pages, maps)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press; 3rd edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089732403X
• ISBN-13: 978-0897324038
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,243,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Smokie Guidance, April 24, 2001

By 

Anne P. Robinson (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best in Tent Camping: Southern Appalachians and Smoky Mountains: A Guide to Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Paperback)

I bought this book and, first try, camped in the nicest campsite that I have ever driven a vehicle into (still can't beat some backpacking sites, but backpacking sites are not the subject of this book). Besides a descriptive narrative for each recommended campsite, there are very helpful "Key Information" and "To Get There..," sections. Use this book once and it will be worth the money.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Buy This Book If ..., February 26, 2001

By 

R L "Bonehead" (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best in Tent Camping: Southern Appalachians and Smoky Mountains: A Guide to Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Paperback)

If you like noise, crowds of people near your campsite, large RV's with cable TV, or think the best thing about the Smoky Mountains is Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, this book is not for you. If the your ideal vacation includes none of the above listed things, you will enjoy Johnny Molloy's guide to exploring and enjoying the Smoky Mountains. Well written and well researched, this book is the best I've discovered on finding off-the-beaten path campsites in the nation's most visited national park.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, with a couple of reservations, March 26, 2005

By 

Fanshawe (SC, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Best in Tent Camping: Southern Appalachian & Smokies, Third Edition: A Guide for Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Paperback)

I've read several of Johnny Malloy's books, and his Best in Tent Camping books are a great resource for those who want to avoid the RV parking lots that many campgrounds have become. Other reviewers echo my feelings here. However, a couple of things about this particular book could be improved upon. Firstly, the others in this series that I've read by Malloy have maps of the individual campgrounds after each review, which I find to be very helpful in orienting myself, particularly when he recommends certain sites. For some odd reason, this book does not. Secondly, I was unhappy with the amount of material lifted verbatim from his "Best of Tent Camping: The Carolinas." I already own that book, and found that all of the reviews for campgrounds in North and South Carolina were identical in both. I understand that perhaps a lot of new material might not be available to add to/improve upon the descriptions. But had I known this, I might have just purchased his guide to Tennessee and Kentucky instead, since they probably would have overlapped and covered everything in this volume, plus more (with the exception of a few in Georgia). That said, I would still highly recommend this book if you aren't planning on purchasing others in the series covering the same areas.