Customer Reviews

Frommer's National Parks of the American West

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My husband and three children just spent three weeks driving across the country to California and back. We stopped at Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and a few others. I purchased this book one year before the trip to help me plan, but it was equally helpful as a quick reference. The maps are great, the directions fabulous, and the reviews of restaurants and accomodations right on point, except for the prices, which of course are now higher. The descriptions of the hiking trails and points of interest are worth the price of the book alone, but there is much more than that. I would categorize this as a "must-have" for anyone visiting one or more of the western national parks. By the way, everyone needs to see these places!!

This is the most impressive book dealing with visiting National Parks I've read! The only drawback is that it doesn't include the American East parks.

The value of this book is that it refers to an abundance of resources that the novice and/or experienced traveller can utilize. My favorite feature? Thumbnail synopses of the hiking trails - when to go, how to get the most out of it, which ones to tackle if you have only a short time, etc.

If you intend to EVER go to a Western US National Park, do yourself a favor and get this book!

This book is mostly excellent... The park reviews and information about the hiking trails are very accurate. But the restaurant and lodging info is oudated, some by as much as five years! For instance, the book lists a phone number for a Best Western in Estes Park. The number leads to a hotel which lost it's Best Western affiliation back in 1998. One wonders why... In other places, the book lists restaurants which don't exist and other grossly incorrect information. One would expect much more from a Frommer's 4th edition guide dated 2004. Use this book with another guide, and you'll be all set.

This is a nice guidebook. If you are planning a trip to the Rockies and are a first time visitor, this book is a valuable aid.

In addition to descriptions of what there is to see at the National Parks of the West, the book abounds in useful and practical information. There a driving guides, a very helpful "If You Only Have One Day" write-up, places to stay and a lot of helpful advice. I particularly appreciate the "..One Day" part, since it helps focus on the most interesting things to see for those who are making a whirlwind tour of the area.

This book is neatly organized and very accessible. I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone planning to take in some of our Western national parks.

This is the best book out there, by my beleifs. It not only covers the parks themselves, but many interesting activities surrounding them. The detail of information is amazing and extremly useful. Not to many illustration's, but a great read anyway. Ranger's tips, season climates, activities, lodging and much more is what is to be found inside this wonderful book.

I bought this along with some other park books for a 2 week roadtrip I recently took. It was by far the most useful of the guidebooks I bought. If you are going to one specific park buy books specific to it, but if you are roadtripping and plan on visiting a few, it is far easier to get this book and not have to hassle with a car full of books. Frommer's guidebooks are by no means the best guides every written, but they are quite adequate. The information was pertinent and useful. 3.5 stars for the quality of the content (uninspired but useful), 5 stars for convenience. 4.25 stars overall.

This book contains an amazing amount of relevant information. We first used it to get preliminary info on a trip we made this summer to eight National Parks and the book proved to be accurate and very helpful. It is an excellent overview and yet has enough depth to be valuable both before and during a trip.

An excellent guide for organizing data generally available from the NPS sites, but the data there are all in each parks own format. So Frommer's provides the data in a consistent format, very readable, and gives information on the services in the surrounding area that is usually not available on the NPS sites.

I bought this book in order to have an informational book about all the National Parks along my road trip from Seattle to San Diego. I have used several guide books and mostly purchase hiking, camping, climbing and fishing books. This was a guide book like those I purchase for international travel and I felt that it served it's purpose well. It gave me the basic rundown on each park, the highlights and where all the important sights were, which is perfect for roadside National Park visiting. It includes maps (although not detailed if you want to do more extensive hiking), lists of campgrounds, some highlight hikes and locations, places to stay and some extra stuff around the park (i.e. towns, eating, hotels).

It seemed to be just enough to get us by and the only time I wished there was more was when I wanted to do backcountry hiking/camping but that isn't something you get in an all around National Park book unless you want it to to be 1,000 pages long with topo maps to boot! I suggest going to the Visitor Centers for more indepth information, park maps and hiking information. The centers are always great resources, along with the roadside and trailside signs, you just have to take the time to read when you are interested.

Excellent resource for detailed and descriptive information regarding every national park it covered. I used it for Yosemite, Zion, and Bryce Canyon. It is the only book you need regarding informative coverage of the western national parks. I bought three (This Frommers, National Geographic, and National Parks of America), but the others were not well written comparatively, however they did have color photographs that enabled me to get a sense of what the parks in questions looked like. Frommers is best for the information, but the others for the photographs. Overall, the best book. If you are doing a western National Park vacation, absolutely get this book.