Customer Reviews

The Most Beautiful Villages and Towns of California

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book as a "thank you" gift for a friend in Germany who had visited many of the Coastal towns of California during a vacation long ago. He loved the book and marveled at all the places he remembered from time spent in "The Golden State". Plus, pictures of towns that he hadn't visited were so interesting to him that I'm sure they'll give him ideas for any upcoming visits he may be planning.

The photographs are beautiful and the commentaries interesting. While it doesn't highlight the rugged beauty of places such as Yosemite or the California Coast, it serves to reinforce the down-to-earth beauty that can be found in simple, every day towns.

This book is filled with colorful lush photographs of California towns and villages. It is for memories and admiration, not information. The photos are carefully posed for the most romantic interpretation and atmosphere. Some of them present an illusion.

I live in one of the towns and had to laugh. In one group of photos, if the photographer had simply turned 180 degrees you would have seen a 4 lane boulevard heavy with semis, trucks and cars on weekdays and tourists on weekends. In another series of pictures just up the road, the 101 freeway was less than 50 feet behind the photographer. It is choked with cars at all times of the day and night and comes to a standstill if there is an accident.

Still, the book presents a lovely picture of a California that exists as a Shangri-la. It is enjoyable with the above caveat for those of us who live here.

Great coffee table book. Very unique and beautiful images, a great showcase of pictures throughout California. It also has a great index to all the finest hotels and restaurants..

A book worthy a beautiful state! Images of glitzy LA or cosmopolitan SF frequently overshadow the many other destinations featured in this book. Of course being an overview, the towns listed here are given as cursory highlights without much depth. Nonetheless, the book tantalizes like a plate of appetizers. The diner will have to follow up with his own entree should he want to savor a particular site.

I agreed with the author about the towns spotlighted in the books, they can be very pretty and interesting looking. However, it would have been nice to have included actual photos of the towns. For example, for the town of Julian, there is not a single photo of the town. Kind of the same for St Helena, there are several photos of things around town but from this book you will have no idea what the town looks like.

Overall, it's a great pictorial of some of California's pretty sites but not really a great pictorial of towns and villages.

California is beyond just San Francisco and Los Angeles - there are plenty of beautiful coastal and central towns in the state that are plentiful in physical beauty. This picture books gives a view into other locations in California that reflect the geographic splendor for natives and visitors alike. California shares the choice destination distinction with Hawaii as one of the most desired places in the US to be in. This book shows you why.

Was a gift for my husband and he was thrilled. We both loved the photography and reminisced as we had visited alot of the places in it. Can't wait to return. This is a great book for those who think that California is just freeways and clogged cities without charm and visible beauty.

Nice book with good color photographs of CA villages and towns. This is a neat series of books for a trip souvenir or a gift, etc.

This is a nicely photographed coffee table book that highlights some of the less well-known parts of California as well as the more famous and iconic spots in the state. I bought the book as a transplanted Californian who wants to remember the place as it was "back in the time". The nicely produced volume does do that visually. It's less substantive in its text.

What I especially liked about "The Most Beautiful...." were the sections on towns in the north of the state, where things really haven't changed as radically as they have in the south. One of the few entries for the far south, San Juan Capistrano, was really little more than a photo layout of the old mission in that town. There's truly not much else to present although it's a pleasant enough suburb.

If you've traveled down Route 1, done the Wine Country or toured the Gold Country, you would certainly enjoy owning this book as a momento of your travels. Before such travels and looking for info about interesting stops, this isn't going to be much help, other than a visual preview. I'm happy to have the book in any event.

I purchased this book as a gift for a close relative who travels around CA often. I looked it over first and found it to be a beautiful pictorial with very nice narratives. Don't know how it was received as a gift as yet but I expect it will be very useful and get a lot of use. - Paul