Customer Reviews

Mississippi Off the Beaten Path, 5th (Off the Beaten Path Series)

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

 

 

When you live in Mississippi, you are immensely flattered when you discover that someone has written an entire guide about your state. Although I have never understood why, the travel industry seems to have ignored the wealth of things to do here.

This book is great because it's extremely detailed and also provides the history (or what I like to call the "back story") on alot of the sights and attractions in the state.

The book divides the state into sections, giving meaty attention to each part of Mississippi. At the end of each section, Kirkpatrick provides a list with contact information for each attraction, hotel, and retail outlet discussed in the section. Bits of state trivia are also interspersed throughout the book in little shaded boxes. This helps to liven up the reading, and is fun and educational, to boot.

Living in central Mississippi, I can definitely vouch for the veracity of that section. Kirkpatrick hits all of the highlights (and some of the lowlights!).

If you're interested in visiting the REAL Mississippi, not just the casinos and the antebellum homes (though Kirkpatrick certainly covers those, too), buy this book.

I have found Mississippi to be a beautiful state with warm people, fun food, rich history and lots to offer. If you have time to read entire chapters of this book before your visit to Mississippi it will certainly provide helpful information. The book provides back stories and insider tips. However, this guide is not well organized or efficient to use. There is no easy summary of must sees - or quick ways to find a particular destination. Also, it can be difficult to find sites highlighted in the book if you are not familiar with local roads - you almost need to plan ahead of time and prepare mapquest maps. While the authors did tip me off to some very worthwhile diversions that augmented my visit (e.g. the Natchez trail is fantastic) and gave me back-story on some of the towns which I appreciated, it was often more work to get at this information than I would have hoped for from a travel guide.

This book lives up to its name; after just one evening of reading, I had learned more about secret, quirky Mississippi destinations than I thought there was to know. The book is helpfully divided into regions to give the reader a starting point, and there's a lot of detailed specific information about destinations and lodging within each section. Because the book is written in a narrative style there's a little hunting around to find specific towns within each region, but that's my only quibble, and I think any paper guide might have to make tradeoffs in organization. I liked this book a lot and was ready to change my vacation itinerary because of it. Good for daytrippers and vacationers alike - undiscovered destinations await.

For those who ride on motorcycles in the state of Mississippi, this is a great book to have in your saddle bags. It gives interesting insights into who, what and why things occured.