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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I tried, but I just couldn't like this book, April 19, 2009
This review is from: Lonely Planet California Trips (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)
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I'm a native Californian, and have lived in the state for, er, several decades. I was hoping this book would offer people wanting to visit California some ideas for good itineraries, even if they would need a more detailed guidebook on the area chosen to plan a trip.
Unfortunately, no. Perhaps the first clue should have been on the cover, where it says "68 themed itineraries". Too many of the trips are thematic rather than realistic trips. The worst are in the first section, called "Iconic Trips". Here there are such absurdities as "trips" that list beaches or surf spots along long stretches of the coast. A literary trip has four locations in the LA area, a long drive up the coast, then eleven more around the bay area. A culinary tour has two stops in the LA area, a long drive through the central valley, then ten stops in the bay area. Perhaps the worst is "A Burrito Odyssey", which hits five burrito joints in San Francisco, five in Los Angeles, and three in San Diego, with many hours on the I5 in between. Surely no one would ever make such a trip?
Where time is the theme, there are "48 hours" trips for San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. As I know the latter two much better, I'll assess those trips as pinball passes through the cities, hitting some obvious tourist spots, and a lot of places that leave me thinking "huh?".
Some themes are cutesy, such as "Yosemite Aquatic". It's aquatic because some of the features are waterfalls and lakes, you see. (If you are planning a trip to Yosemite--and if you've never been there, you should be--buy a real guide to the area. It's one of the most spectacular on earth, and the trip deserves some good planning.) Their trip to Santa Barbara wine country references the movie "Sideways" of course. I visit the area often, and would offer very different recommendations than this guidebook.
Each "trip" description averages five pages or so, including a one or two page summary of things to do, places to eat, and places to stay. The information is minimal, and not what you would expect from a good guidebook. Because I didn't find information that was just wrong I'll give this book two stars rather than one, but it may be the least useful guidebook to California I've seen.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too little info for such a big state., April 23, 2009
This review is from: Lonely Planet California Trips (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)
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If Lonely Planet's aim is to take you to the road less traveled, you'll be disappointed to find many well-worn paths leading to some of California's most obvious stops, with some perplexing omissions.
I have lived all over California: northern, southern, inland, coastal, and was surprised to find a sometimes superficial, anecdotal coverage of areas I'm familiar with. Case in point is the section on SoCal surfing. There is so much (too much) information out there re: classic surf spots, some of which are better known than others. But to tell a surfer that a "must" stop is Surfrider Beach in Malibu is like telling a tourist in Paris not to miss the Eiffel Tower. I know this book doesn't aim to be an exhaustive tome of all things California, but there is so pitifully little good surfing information here, it's rather useless. San Diego is sick with surf spots, yet the only mention goes to Black's Beach.
One of the many themed trips in the book is the "Burrito Odyssey." a pathetic sampling of 13 random restaurants in San Francisco, LA and San Diego. That's right- in the entire state, they choose three major cities and leave it to a couple of bloggers to reveal their favorites. I've had some of my best burritos in some of the smallest California towns, agricultural towns where migrant farm workers shell out a few bucks for homemade tortillas stuffed with heavenly spiced meat, beans and rice.
This book tries to do too much and tells too little. Its many authors may be the reason behind the convoluted assemblage of information. I got the feeling that no one at LP really knew what this book was supposed to be about. This is the second LP book I've gotten that seems just too random and superficial to be of any real help. Their best books are on single countries, where there is time to delve into the logistics, the culture, the food and the people.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Many oddities, some major omissions, April 20, 2009
This review is from: Lonely Planet California Trips (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)
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The Lonely Planets California Trips book includes 68 themed itineraries and 1147 places to see. In my 30 years as an adult living in San Francisco, I have not seen all 1147 places. Indeed, there are some of which I'd never heard -- even places in San Francisco --, and others about which I learned new things.
The maps are useful for providing general ideas of the relative location of sites mentioned. I wouldn't use them to drive, however. And many of the "themed itineraries" are totally unrealistic as itineraries, cobbling together a southern California and a northern California itinnerary (which means a map of the state).
Throwing up so many oddities, the compilers have passed over what I consider some of the most major places, including the Getty Villa in Malibu, the Los Angeles County Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum (next to the San Francisco Public Library) and Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Pinnacles National Monument, the Beach Chalet (SF) the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena (which is mentioned in a Pasadena day trip paragraph), and the Huntington Library in San Marino (no indexed, but in a grab-bag of "Astronauts, Hotrods & Cowpokes"). Or arboretums in Arcadia, Claremont, Davis (UCD), Fullerton, and San Francisco (the last is mentioned in a paragraph on Golden Gate Park on the Highway One itinerary).
I can vouch for the accuracy of the literary pilgrimages included. I find the Hitchcock itinerary misleading in confusing the hotel in which Scotty in "Vertigo" received Madeleine from the sinister one in which she was staying (that has been torn down). I find it strange that La Taqueria is included in the "48 Hours in San Francisco," but not in the Burrito tour, and that Can-Cun, the perennial reader's choice burrito purveyor is not. And even more the identification of the burrito thoroughfare being 24th Street (from Mission to Potrero) rather than the Mission/Valencia corridor from 16th to 24th streets. (My current favorite is La Paz, a Mexican/Salvadorean restaurant, across from SFGH on Potrero just south of 22nd street.) El Farolito? Not a contender in my view!
The style is breezy, trying to sound hip. The index is not entirely reliable. (I looked at "art galleries" for the museums that shocked me by not having entries, and did not find them there, either. Ditto in "public parks and gardens" for the missing arboreta.)
CALIFORNIA TRIPS is a good source of ideas, but not a practical guidebook like the Lonely Planet guides to Southeast Asian countries that I have used. And there is little detail even on the places that do receive capsule descriptions.
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