Customer Reviews

Frommer's California 2009 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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

 

 

I needed to plan a 3-day visit to the San Francisco area, and this book proved to be perfect for that. Far better than random information available on the web. I chose a wonderful small hotel from the book and loved it. Also chose restaraunts, grand and small, with excellent results. Chose a variety of sites to visit as a tourist from the book's descriptions. Also charted a 1-day trip through Sonoma valley from the guide, ending up at the Point Reyes Pacific coast and beautiful views. The book also provides site addresses (wineries, for example) useful for tapping into the GPS navigator in the rent car. Too large to carry on a walking trip, but otherwise absolutely a perfect guide for my needs.

I was born and raised in California and live here with my 2 school-age kids. I bought this book for ideas for summer day trips and longer weekend excursions. Somewhat favors Northern California in its thoroughness, and it does cover No. Calif. very well. Good coverage of Los Angeles and surrounding area, with a lot of good notes on places a little more off the beaten path, as well as the "must-sees". Orange County is completely glossed-over -- as if it consisted solely of Disneyland and the beach, with trite references to out-dated stereotypes. Coverage of San Diego and the So. Calif. Desert are covered, but definitely not with the same level of attention devoted to No. Calif. areas. Still a good overview of the state, but if your trip is solely within Southern California, this probably isn't the book for you.

California is so varied from South (San Diego, Anaheim-Disney, LA) to North (San Francisco, Muir Woods) to in between (Tahoe mountains, Monterrey coast, wine country), so a comprehensive travel book may seem impossible. Still, this is a great collection of Frommer's top (and not so top) choices from each region of the state. The maps are a nice perk. This book includes enough information to last travellers many vacations around California.

I also purchased Frommer's San Francisco 2008 and I tend to have similar tastes with those authors. Since the San Francisco excerpt of this California guide was written by those authors, I highly recommend that section. However, my tastes greatly diverged from those of the author/authors of the Monterey and Carmel-By-the-Sea sections of the book. Their reviews of attractions and restaurants did not lead me to fun excursions or delicious meals.

Really good, but usually Frommers gives tips os what to do if you have 1, 2 or 3 days in the city, like aa Itinerary and this one hasn`t.

I have lived in CA all my life and this book helps me find new great things! I highly recommend this book for those who love to find the best things about our great state.

I love Frommer's travel guide and this is another excellent book. It is great value as you only have to buy one book instead of multiple books (LA, San Diego, San Francisco ... etc).

Highly recommended !!

This fat book will give you all the details you want to know about California. Very good value for money.