Customer Reviews

Moon Handbooks: Texas (4th Ed.)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used this book extensively during the three years I lived in Texas. I liked its mix of history and practical where, when, and how information.
Organized regionally around the major cities, the Texas Handbook also includes numerous towns and sights of interest in the surrounding vicinity and places between. It does a remarkably good job of covering such a large state.
Hopefully a new addition is in the works. Because it was published in 1998, most prices will be out-of-date, but it's so easy to now get hours & admission via web sites, that it's not that big of a problem once you've used the handbook to identify all the interesting places you want to visit.

I live in Houston and bought this for info on the Hill Country. I can live with most of the entries being uselessly brief. I can life with his hotel recommendations in the Hill Country that consist of standard chain motels that I probably am intelligent enough to find without buying a guidebook But even though this is a 2004 edition, I found lots of info for both Houston and the Hill Country that is ten and sometimes 15 years out of date. Much of the Houston restaurant section is unchanged from the earlier edition, and includes restaurants that have not existed for at least 10-15 years. This also applies to some of the hotel and 'sights' listings. In the San Marcos section the book talks about the amusement park/show/hotel on Spring Lake; this was taken over by the university in the late 1990s (ten years ago!) at which time all of that info (retained here in the 2004 edition) became useless. The restaurants listed for San Marcos mostly have been out of business for years, and even his listing of cheap chain motels -- the only lodgings included -- are out of date by a decade.

The information on Big Bend is excellent. It's useless, waste of money, for everything else.

If you have never tried Moon Guides, you should. They provide a somewhat funky view of the traveling adventure. If generally stay at the finest hotels in the best resorts, then Moon Guides are probably not for you. If you want to get off the beaten path and have adventures, then these guides are for you.

We travel by RV and are looking for some of the more out of the way places. This is particularly important in a BIG state like Texas. The Moon Guide provides great stuff. They have little tours for if you have a few days, a week, a couple of weeks.

Overall, this book is well worth it!

We had an older version of this book so decided to purchase a more up to date copy for our holiday in Texas. We found the 3rd edition even more comprehensive than the older copy we already had. It is by far the BEST guide book for Texas and includes many places that other guide books miss out and more things to do once you arrive somewhere. Information about accommodation and places to eat also accurate.

We found this very useful on our trip, finding great spots to visit that we may not have otherwise found.