Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

Very touristy. Very average.

There are better books out there if you are going to Hawaii for the first time. Look at the higher rated reviews of the blue books.

This book is a good,practical guide for those who have not ever been to Hawaii. The maps are good and some of the recommendations were good, but sometimes we wondered if the writer had been bought off, as we did not agree with several of his recommendations and the prices are inaccurate for some things already and it is only April, 2009. I would research the internet before paying for the book or buy it used.

Very well written and informative. Helped to make a lot of decisions as to where to stay and what to do on our upcoming Hawaiian vacation.

While using this guidebook in Oahu in January 2009, we found many inaccuracies. One restaurant told us their menu had changed three years ago, they informed Frommers two years ago, yet the information is still listed. This ocurred repeatedly for restaurants and tour information. Even the maps are outdated! (you cannot drive completely around the west side of Oahu in a car) The guided tour to Shangri La, Dorothy Duke's former home, isn't incuded in the book at all. You need to book that tour up to 3 months in advance so visit the website: http://www.shangrilahawaii.org/

Frommers needs to get someone who lives in Oahu to correct the errors and update the information. We found it very frustrating to use and ultimately could not trust any information in the book. The free tour guides we picked up at the airport on arrival proved the best guides.

good/informative ~~ *may be out of date for some stuff (that is likely to change, like prices, some attractions/festival & celebration dates, population, construction, economy...)

I'm usually a fan of Frommers travel guides. But this one contained only the most basic information and virtually nothing that couldn't be found on the internet. I also agree with other reviewers that the author gives some very biased opinions and promotes certain businesses to the neglect of others. For example, she sings the praises of the Trilogy snorkeling company to such an extreme it makes me wonder if this business wasn't secretly "greasing her palms". Also she says only stay at the Royal Lahaina Hotel if you can get a cottage rather than a tower room. This seems odd, as nearly every Royal Lahaina customer I have communicated with (including family members) says to get a tower room as they have been renovated and now no one wants to stay in the cottages. Based on this it seems that Royal Lahaina would have a vested interest in guiding tourists towards their cottages (as they have so many vacant units) and the author may simply be doing the hotel's "dirty work".

I liked some of the maps. But, overall, I would encourage folks to look for another guidebook. I also have the Lonely Planet travel guide and it is much better. It's packed with useful info and, unlike some LP books, it is not only good for backpackers but people of all travel styles and budgets.

Full disclosure: I have the previous year's, but it is the same author. Hawaii can't change that much in a year...
I found this guidebook worse than useless. I left it in the airport when I left. Perhaps I was frustrated because I had had such awesome guidebooks for South America, Africa, and Europe. We ended up using my buddy's iPhone for everything. This book is extremely poorly organized. You'd need to devote hours studying it to find anything you were looking for. Her writing style was annoying and superfluous (who needs half a page for each hotel describing how utterly delightful it is?). There was little to nothing for students/ budget travelers or thrill seekers. The maps weren't helpful.

Save your money and get something else. Perhaps this one is OK for families or older tourists, but not for me.

The only useful sections were the few listing suggested itineraries and "top tens".