Lonely Planet USA (1st ed) [Paperback]

James Lyon (Editor)

Book Description

Series: 1st ed | Publication Date: March 1999

Contains coverage of all 50 states, hits the main tourist spots, as well as off-beat and out-of-the-way possibilities for the adventurous traveller. Also includes invaluable pre-trip planning advice and itinerary suggestions, insider tips on alternative methods of transport, and options to suit a range of budgets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 992 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0864425139
• ISBN-13: 978-0864425133
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,347,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Use Any Other Guide, July 14, 2000

By 

R. M. Calitri (California,USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet USA (1st ed) (Paperback)

Do you want to see if America is still out there? Then this is the book to avoid. I've used Lonely Planet Guides before and really wanted to like this book. The truth is, you'd do well to purchase instead Jamie Jensen's Road Trip USA (avail thru Amazon) which is the best guide out there right now.

Typical of Lonely Planet, only very pronounced in this volume, writers' comments are often riddled with sarcasm and condescension, and worse--are too often incorrect. These writers will have you looking for places that may have existed years ago, and it is now clear to me that their reissues are not carefully updated, but reprinted with new covers. If you've used Lonely Planet Guides before, you've probably noticed these qualities, and while a travel guide cannot be perfect in all directives, it surely can be much less rude and lazy than this one. I left their East Africa book in Tanzania as its lack of accurate information was a complete joke, and although the book made for a pretty coaster, it became a burden.

The purpose of a travel guide is to guide readers to highlights of each place and to inform and educate at the same time. One quickly learns to read between the lines (for example, if a particular hotel is given rave reviews, it will probably be crowded by others with the same travel guide), but it is difficult to forgive L.P. writers their holier-than-thou attitude. I found in this volume that they are too quick to insult and degrade even the most sacred places. Stay away from this book--unless you just want to see a lot of pretty pictures, which is the primary reason I gave it the one star. They do make one of the best travel series on televsion. Maybe they should apply some of those talents to their written guides. It's been a long time since I noticed them being conscientious in their travel guides--which is a real shame, especially for such an expensive guide. There are a lot of better, more accurate guides out there.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't rely on this book for everything you need, August 31, 2001

By 

D. Reis (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet USA (1st ed) (Paperback)

Recently, I took a cross-country trip for six weeks and used this book along with several others to help plan our itinerary. It is informative and has some decent city maps, but gives very limited options for lodging and provides little detail on quality of hotels, motels, etc. Many prices and phone numbers are outdated- an unpleasant surprise!
I would recommend using this guide only as a supplement - it has some good suggestions on things to do and see, but you'll definitely need other books along with it. For the money, there are better options out there.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So thick and yet so uninformative, May 22, 2001

By 

andrew lorken (Bellevue, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet USA (1st ed) (Paperback)

To date I have 20 old and new Lonely Planets. I am a big fan but this obviously rushed to print, unedited and factually incorrect book is enough to stop my LP loyalty in a New York minute.

Without going into the many many examples where this book is factually incorrect and outdated let me say that I haved lived in the US (east and west coast) for a year now and have on my weekends journeyed to various parts of the country - I have yet to find this book helpful or correct.

Try Frommer's USA and (in agreement with Robin - see review) Jamie Jensen's Road Trip USA.