Customer Reviews

Moon Minneapolis and St. Paul (Moon Handbooks)

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

 

 

This is a fine addition to the fine Moon line. It is also the most recent Twin Cities guide, and thoroughly covers the cities and a bit of the outlying region. Very accessible and navigable and likely useful both for the visitor and the resident looking to expand their knowledge of their hometown.

I lived in the outer suburbs all of my life and wanted a nice guide to finally explore Minneapolis and ST Paul. This guide was exactly what I needed! especially the sights, and museums.
That it covered excursions to Duluth, and a few other historic towns. was a definite plus since visiting Duluth is another of my future interests.

This is the first time I have used Moon Handbooks. I am a big fan of Frommer's. I think this handbook did a good job of getting us the most out of our long weekend to Minneapolis. A great list of day walking and what one must see. The sight maps are also very easy to read and detailed. The handbook could do a little better job of getting you where you are going. Frommer is so specific of twists and turns and getting you to a destination with a bit of hand holding. Completely trustworthy restaurant recommendations!

I bought this more for the things to see or do. I lived in the Twin cities all my life but never knew about much of Mpls-St.Paul. This book has given me many great ideas of what to do when my kids come to visit. or just new experiences to enjoy with my girlfriend. some of the excursions sound interesting too. Wonderful guide for people who don't know much about the Twin cities.

I want to start by stating that I don't intend to sound mean. Having said that, despite the author's claim of having lived in the Twin Cities (TC) for nearly 12 years, I'd say she needs to go out more and explore the cities better.
This guide is as slim as the author's sense of adventure. It looks like she only goes to stuck up, snobby, "not extremely ethnic" places for the most part.
For instance in the eating section, there is only one African restaurant listed, very good by the way. None of the rest awesome ethnic places on University Ave. are listed (like the best Thai - very close to the State Capitol). Not to mention establishments over Cesar Chavez St in Saint Paul.

For bars, two major and personally insulting omissions are TOWN HALL and The HERKIMER. There are so many breweries in the TC that deserved a separate section, but no, no mention, deeply deeply sad. And those are not ethnic at all. Over Saint Paul the Muddy Pig is not mentioned either.

There are almost no clubs listed. The four mentioned are all lumped together. There is no separate section on other dancing options, such as ball room, square, or latin, so I assume the author doesn't care or like shaking it. There is however a separate gay club part, but I can only guess is as limited as the rest of the guide.

Barely any mention on public transport. I can only imagine the author wrote this guide targeting other tourists with cars. Despite the bus and lightrail systems are very weak to say the least in the TC (sorry, buses running as frequent as one hour outside of six or seven routes going Downtown is WEAK public transport), there is no mention on how to get places if you don't own a vehicle. I guess this fits with the author's mentality of catering to not-adventurous not-diverse folks. Do we like to bike in the TC? Why isn't a mention to bike routes? Or the Metrotransit routes? Maybe the author assumes all her readers carry wi-fi phone with them. Oh wait! I could google TC places for free! The maps in the guide are pretty. But with GPS in our cars, who needs them?

It would have been nice to see a price guide to whatever is mentioned. Is probably due to the "you will drive everywhere and therefore you want to pay a ramp" assumption.

Are those all the festivals? For real?

Movie theaters? Not talking about AMCs, but what about TC traditional Lagoon Theater or Edina? No, didn't see them. Maybe "not-outside of Hollywood" adventurous sense? The Minneapolis Film Fest in all fairness is mentioned.

I could go on writing more, but you get the picture. I hope there is a seriously revised second edition with a better open mind set. I wouldn't mind paying for more pages if it means having better and more complete information. Hey, I'm suppose to do everything with my car right? I wouldn't even have the excuse of portability.

One the bright side for Moon and the author, there isn't any other guide to the TC this "large". Maybe if Lonely Planet or Frommer's come up with theirs we could aspire to something better. But for the time being, just this one. But if you are as insulted as I am for not seeing Town Hall in the guide, an all time favorite, don't expect to get a full TC experience. Better ask your friends for many of the untold TC secrets, as this guide is like a few hours of web browsing. Why two stars? I did find a couple of new places, but many of my friends new of them already. Is sad when a foreign living here for two years has more to say than a 12 year resident.