Hidden Southern California 8 Ed: Including Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Palm Springs [Paperback]

Ray Riegert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2002 | Series: Hidden Southern California

Including Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Palm Springs; Hidden guides combine unique travel choices, outdoor adventures and little-known locales into a guide where vacations meet adventures. Each guide includes detailed maps, complete internet information for each listing, highlighted author favourites, suggested itineraries and walking and driving tours. With so many famous places and hyped attractions, it's all too easy to get caught running (well, driving, actually) all over Southern California from one spot to the next. This guide tells how to get off the freeway and explore the boulevards and side streets of Los Angeles and San Diego as well the coast roads and inland desert highways. Hidden Southern California combines traditional attractions, including seven historic missions and eight theme parks, with outdoor adventures, including 123 beaches and parks, 270 hiking trails and 105 surfing spots. It provides selective recommendations for lodging in the city, along the coast and even in desert and mountain parks, including 15 beach cottages, 77 coastal inns and 13,193 campsites at 350 campgrounds. The author offers opinionated reviews of local restaurants including 14 Mexican, 14 Italian, 13 American diners, 8 California, 8 French, 7 bar and grills, 6 Japanese, 6 Chinese, 5 hamburger joints, 4 Thai, 4 Continental, 3 Indian and 2 Jewish delis, as well as Vietnamese, Caribbean, Columbian, Korean, Greek, Salvadoran, West African, Cajun, soul food, fresh seafood, Mediterranean, Argentine, Persian, Belgian and vegetarian (and that's just the first chapter on Los Angeles). The guide also contains special features on Los Angeles' historic Mexican public markets, Hollywood film making in action, the ultimate side trip south of the border and old-time Hollywood, including 15 historic theaters and a driving tour of old mansions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Ulysses Press; 8th edition (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569752826
• ISBN-13: 978-1569752821
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,632,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide to Southern California, June 13, 2001

By 

M. Wright (Lansdale, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Southern California (Paperback)

This guide gave me all of the information I needed to have a wonderful vacation. The information was candid, and thoughtfully presented. There were many tidbits of information/ sights I would never had thought to see if it wasn't for this book. My vacation consisted of renting a car at LAX touring along the coast (stopping at places recommended in the guide) Heading down to San Diego and then returning to LAX by traveling inland and seeing Temecula etc. It was a fun filled 10 days and all I used was this guide. If you just want the basic tourist jargon, buy a Frommers guide, not a hidden one... :-)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for the tourist or a new resident, August 22, 2001

By 

Algernon D'Ammassa (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Southern California (Paperback)

This guide book covers all the bases, and even includes interesting historical digests of various districts in the Los Angeles area, the high desert and the low desert. The information is organized to assist tourists on short or longer visits, includes lots of "hidden" opportunities to eat, sightsee, or shop away from the beaten path, and is even helpful for a new resident to the L.A. area, who may not be sure where to start digesting this incredible city or the landscape around it. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really useful, June 24, 2010

By 

R. G. W. Brown "Physicist & Flutist" (Tustin, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hidden Southern California (Hidden Travel) (Paperback)

If now a little dated - this is a really useful overview of lots of places to visit in Southern California, many of them well-away from the hordes of tourists who come here. As one who lives here, I use this book a lot, and value it highly.