Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Coastal California (Regional Guide)

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

 

 

I lived in Southern California for 18 years (I moved in '02). On a trip back in Winter '04/05, I decided to take a friend on a "grand tour" of all of Southern CA and then the world famous Pacific Coast Highway 1 (or as we called it, PCH). While I'd bought the big Lonely Planet (LP) California guide for hitting the lesser known spots on the way back (we planned to only take PCH one way), I thought I'd cover all my bases and try out this "Coastal California" edition, especially since it had a different author and maybe had a different perspective.

I regret this more specific version is not worth it. The writing was actually less in depth on the areas it covered than the bigger all-CA guide. They also used different maps in key locations. As regular LP guide users know, the maps are one of the most useful elements of the LP series. After a while, I realized that some of the maps in the Coastal California edition were the inferior maps. Midway though my trip from LA to Eureaka I tossed the Coastal California book in my bag and simply stuck to the much larger but in depth LP California guide.

The price between the books is not big enough to really warrant not buying the much longer and more indepth full-CA version. You might as well pay the extra $5 or so and get the whole shebang.

Finally, a minor quibble: Inexplicably, this book is oriented for a trip from North to South. I don't know many people who enter CA from the far northwest corner.

To conclude: this guide isn't bad by any means, but as an LP guide it's not quite up to snuff -especially when there's another LP guide that covers the same areas but better.

Happy and Safe Travels!

Lonely Planet are always the source I go to when looking to research a new vacation spot. Their books are informative and helpful and they are compact enough to take with you if nessesary.

The featured highlights in the book are places like Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Hearst Castle, Point Arena Lighthouse, Griffith Park and Queen Mary - so they have the main points covered. They show you various detours you can make if you are travelling by car so you can see other places that may normally not be seen by you. They go into the usual information that they normally do such as History and Culture, and then it's broken up into sections like North Coast, San Fran and the Bay Area, Central Coast, LA Area, San Diego Area. I find that by the time they talk about restaurants and hotels and tourist spots in each town, there is pretty much nothing uncovered. For this reason, I highly recommend this book. It gives you plenty of places to think about when making your travel plans.

This book was really helpful. Without it, we would have missed out on a lot of cool things that aren't advertised. Definitely the best resource on our San Diego to Seattle roadtrip.

We used this guide on a recent trip to California. It is a good solid guide that helped us with hotel selection as well as helping us navigate. All the major sites and landmarks are noted. Maps of highways and downtown area were helpful. Recommendations for hotels and restuarants were good.

We explored Laguna Beach and walked the paths along the cliffs and shoreline. The parks are well kept and are immediately across from the Laguna business disricts.

When in Los Angeles we visited the Petersen Car Collection in downtown Los Angeles. This collection includes historic cars but also a vast collection of modified cars for drag racing. We also visited a second car museum, the Nethercutt Collection, which was established by the owner of the Mary Kay Cosmetics fortune. These two car museums were not included in the Lonely Planet book but they are exceptional collections for car enthusiasts.

We spent the night on the ocean in Santa Monica and took a long evening walk down Venice Beach, certainly an interesting stroll. The next day we went into the Santa Monica Mountains. There are literally dozens of National Park Service areas spread across the Santa Monica Mountains. I strongly suggest going to the State Park District Headquarters and obtaining maps and advice on the numerous hiking opportunties in the mountains above Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. We selected the Rancho Sierra Vista and Satwiwa Trail, both of which were excellent hikes.

We stayed at the El Prado Hotel in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is upscale with expensive shops and restaurants throughout the downtown area. Lonely Planet recommended we get a hiking map, which we did, and they also recommended the Hot Springs Loop. A fellow at the hiking store told us to ignore this and take the Cold Springs Trails instead. We enjoyed this hike with its canyons, overviews, and waterfalls. Throughout the mountains above Santa Barbara are mixtures of mansions and farm houses. Several blocks from downtown Santa Barbara is the El Presidio de Santa Barbara, which is undergoing reconstruction and shows the life of a Spanish fortress in colonial California. Outside of town is the impressive and beautiful Santa Barbara Mission and gardens.

San Luis Obispo turned out to be delightful with a massive impressive downtown mission and more moderate hotels and restaurants and shops than Santa Barbara. At the advice of Lonely Planet we spent the night at Petit Soleil, a wonderful bed and breakfast where each room is decorated in some theme from the South of France, the food is fantastic and the staff were exceptional, even helping us plan our hikes around the area. We selected the hike to Bishop's Peak. This is highly recommended. The hike circles a volcanic mountain, one of 9 in the area, and offers exceptional views in all directions.

We then went to Hearst Castle. Lonely Planet is very diplomatic in their description of this site. The home and the guest houses are exceptional but seem to be monuments to an enormous ego. The guides and the orientation film are too glowing in their praise of William Randolph Hearst and they make his efforts to build a vanity castle seem like an accomplishment like the Panama Canal or the Statue of Liberty.

Point Piedras Blancas just north of Hearst Castle is a treat. We saw hundreds of elephant seals sleeping in the sun on the beach and rocks. as you drive north from this point, the road climbs and climbs high above the Pacific as you near Big Sur. This is an amazing part of the USA with many spectacular views of ocean cliffs. Be ready for twists and turns and narrow roads. Redwood and Lupine forrests line the east while the Pacific stretches out to the west. We spent the night in a cabin near Pfeiffer Beach, which we found after some searching. Lonely Planet helped but some local folks showed us the almost hidden entrace to the beach. We also hiked in the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park with its enormous Redwood trees and Lupine stands. The hike to Pfeiffer falls is cool and moist and short.

Carmel by the Sea is another up-scale village with expensive stores and restaurants. On the edge of town, Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo had stone walls, towers, and an attractive garden courtyard. We were not impressed by the 17 Mile Drive because it is small in comparison to the spectacular views on Highway 1 going through Big Sur. We did see Pebble Beach Country Club along the 17 Mile Drive. This is where the famous antigue auto restoration competition takes place. Downtown Monterey was very nice and we took the walking tour of Portola Plaza, Monterey State Historic Park, and Custom House Plaza where we saw many colonial homes and buildings still in use.

This book was more than adequate for helping us navigate along coastal California.

I bought this book along with a Disneyland guild for our trip to Orange this May, usually im more then pleased with LP's books but the title of the book tricked me. After a week at Disney we are headed to the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa which is the best place to stay in the area, that place didnt make the book, in fact Huntington Beach (Surf City USA) takes up less then one page. Another shocker was no mention of Catalina Island where we are gonna spend a day. This book has way too much junk in there about the northern part and it gets worse as it heads down the coast. I wish i would have opened it up and at least skimmed threw it at the book store, i wouldn't have bought it other wise. LP burned me pretty good with this book.

If your planning a trip to Los Angeles... or further south.. Dont Pick Up This Book.