Customer Reviews

Frommer's California 2001 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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

 

 

This is a massive 700 page guide suitable to the large State of California, a state that has many places to explore and visit.

It has a comprehensive description of almost every area of California and has excellent maps and guides including street maps of San Francisco. You will not be disappointed with this book as a guide. You will be disappointed with a lack of photographs. A picture is worth a 1000 words and this book has virtually none. So if you are buying just one book, then buy Eyewitness Travel Guides DK - California which is almost as big - 630 pages but has stunning photos. If you are buying more than one book, consider this Frommer guide.

As a california resident for 15 years, I bought the guide because I had been amazed at the detail of Frommer's guides during my travels. Perhaps I expected too much, but I find the Frommer's California to be worthless.

For example, to say that this guide covers "san francisco's hippest resturants" is a bit of a stretch. They list about 10 old standards, in a town with about 4000 resturants - a good start, but nothing particularly hip. The guide focused on north beach and fisherman's wharf. San Francisco's bar and music scene is huge - about 6 places are listed, none particularly cutting edge.

The strength of the guidebook is probably out of town - Yosemite, Gold Country, Eureka. Even there, I found the information didn't really have the bite it should. Focus was on toursity stuff, not the really fun stuff.

This guidebook needs a top-to-bottom revamp, instead of a yearly update to make sure the phone numbers are correct.

For san francisco especially, get smaller more focused guidebooks.

This book covers the entire state in one easy-to-carry book. Whether you're looking for romantic bed and breakfasts in the Wine Country, the hippest restaurant in San Francisco, or the best beaches in LA and San Diego, this book is all you'll need. It covers hotels ranging from a beach front motel in Santa Monica to the best places to stay in Yosemite's camp grounds.

My wife and I bought this book in preparation for a week-long trip down the California coast in August 2006. We started with a couple of days in Napa and Sonoma and visited a number of wineries, including several recommended by Frommer's. The recommended ones (including Schramsberg, Artesa and Chateau St. Jean) were all highlights of our visit, and we found ourselves wishing that we had gone to some of Frommer's other starred wineries instead of less impressive ones that had been recommended by friends, magazines, etc. Frommer's restaurant listings were also dead-on: the recommended ones were all fantastic, while we agreed with the "overrated" assessment of another.

From then on, having realized that we could trust the book's advice, we found ourselves relying on Frommer's more and more when choosing restaurants and other attractions. From a small Chinese restaurant in Carmel to an outstanding barbecue place in San Luis Obispo, we never had a bad meal while following the book's suggestions. We also felt that the section on Big Sur, though a bit brief, steered us to the most spectacular sights and hikes and helped us make the most of our drive down that wonderful stretch of coastline. The hotels we stayed at in San Simeon and L.A., again at the book's recommendation, were just what we were looking for. Finally, at the end of our trip in L.A., Frommer's guided us to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, a fascinating and worthwhile attraction that we would not have known about otherwise.

Because this was the only book we brought on our trip, I have no basis for comparison with other California guidebooks. I am sure there are other books that are equally accurate, but as someone who travels a lot and has used many different guidebooks--both good and bad--I was genuinely impressed with the amount of accurate and helpful information that Frommer's managed to cram into this book. From fine dining to cheap take-out, luxury hotels to motels and B&Bs, and big-name attractions to off-the-beaten-path finds, this book guided us through a well-rounded California vacation while helping us avoid tourist traps. Highly recommended.

This is the kind of book which asks to be read for hours and hours AND then you go on double check on the internet. E.g. the list of hotels in Santa Cruz refers to the type of traveler who loves to spend more than $250 per night - tripadvisor.com offers a different picture...

While planning a tour I'm looking for a tour guide which gives me distances on the map, smaller maps with an overview about an area or town (not only for SF or Yosemite) and more background information than the frequent use of adjectives ("breathtaking" "the world's most spectacular").

There is a lot in this book BUT...