Customer Reviews

Insiders' Guide to Glacier National Park: Including the Flathead Valley and Waterton Lakes National Park

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

 

 

I was looking for a guide on Glacier National Park. This book enticed me by its title. Insiders' guide to Glacier National Park, however it should be renamed: Insiders guide to the Flathead Valley and one chapter on Glacier National Park. If you're interested in finding waterslide parks for the kids, 100 miles from the park entrance, this book is for you. If you're like me and would like a good book about exploring the national park itself, find another book.

A good source of info on accomodations in and out of the park. Great insight into the different campgrounds which will allow you to "get a feel" of different parts of the park before you get there -- a good planning tool. But the hiking and recreational info is [not great]. It's still worth buying for the accomodation info. Get Vicky Spring's book on "Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park -- A Complete Recreation Guide" if you can still find it -- excellant hiking info.

I returned this book after two days. It tries to cover too much territory, especially on the towns around the parks and all their hotels and restaurants. I was much more interested in the parks themselves, not the "Wild West" towns in the area. Offers only cursory information on plants and animals and nothing worth noting on hiking, etc.

If you're planning a trip to northwest Montana, this is the book to buy! This became my bible planning my family's vacation, and included all the information I needed including accommodations, activities for kids, area events and recreation. The book includes a history of each area,which I found of special interest. It made planning my trip so easy to do...I highly recommend it!

There is some interesting stuff in this book, but if you are trying to plan a trip, and want to look something up, well, it can be a challenge to find the information you want.

Part of the problem is that this book if full of weird stuff.

For example, there are two pages on nursing homes in the area.

The section on antique stores in the area around the National Park is several times as long as the section on hiking trails in Glacier National Park.

And the section on hiking trails in Glacier National Park is not in the section on Glacier National Park.

Much of the text is devoid of content, so that I did not enjoy the time spent browsing through this book to find the information we needed.

I also found this book to be poorly organized. Every restaurant, lodging, attraction, etc. is "fantastic". With no critique whatsoever, one would think this book is written by the local chamber of Commerces. Almost worthless without this information.

This book is worthless. I have spent 2 months combing this book trying to find something to help plan our trip. I finally went out and bought Frommer's Guide to Montana and Wyoming and it gave me all the information I was looking for in 1 chapter. It answered all my questions with ease. This Insidier's Guide did not even have trail names listed. The Montana/Wyoming 2-state book with several national parks covered had all the trail names of GNP listed. This book should be taken off the shelves!!!

This book provides a great review of the Glacier Area - if you are interested in Moving there. It even dedicates an entire chapter to relocation. It does provide an interesting list of area museums, curiosities and accomodations. The author includes narratives on local history and wildlife. However, there is no information on trails and hiking. This is a good overall book if you do not plan on leaving your car and are planning to see the area including numerous local towns. I returned this book and plan to purchase other guides with provide more practical information on what the park offers.

I returned this book after 20 minutes of reading it. 1) It is took dense...they try to cover too much territory and for a dummies guide for somebody who has never been there before - they don't organize the information too well. I had trouble figuring out what I should read and what I shouldn't. 2) It really doesn't provide opinions on anything - most of the verbiage here is stock and doesn't provide any true insight into a hike, hotel or activity that is a can't miss or totally skippable. 3) It is really boring...I needed to return the book for another one to get excited about the trip. Mainly, it is just really hard to find information that is relevant. As a case in point, one of the areas of the park is famously both in Canada and the US. I was curious if you need a passport, need to go through customs, etc. After the fifth long paragraph, I gave up. The other guide I purchased had the information easier to find and apparent and yes - you do need to go through customs and the whole nine even if you are in the middle of a hike. And, you need to purchase the Canadian version of the park pass. All fundamental things not found in this book.

Two stars because there is a lot of information in there about the surrounding area, but overall there are better guides out there.