Customer Reviews

Newcomer's Handbook for Moving to and Living in the San Francisco Bay Area: Including San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, and Palo Alto (Newcomer's Handbooks)

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

 

 

THE NEWCOMER'S HANDBOOK FOR MOVING TO AND LIVING IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA is a great guide to San Francisco and its environs that has been completely update for 2010. The radio station list is totally new, reflecting the changes that have happened since the book was last published, and there is also a detailed discussion of every town and region in the area. This book discusses all the moving, dining, house-hunting, shopping, nightlife, sports teams, outdoor things, educational opportunities, and renting and home-buying issues that people moving to the area need to know about, in order to make the move a smooth one. However, anyone even remotely interested in the West Coast will find this book indispensible.

Why am I being asked to review this book again?
I reiterate: This is a verbatim repetition of the 3rd edition book of the same title, authored by Sabrina Crawford.

This 4th edition, "authored" by Scott van Velsor adds nothing new to the observations already scoured 4 years ago.
...It would seem consequential to reference the continuous rise in rents and housing costs in light of California's bankruptcy and the nation's ubiquitous economic decline.

I bought this as a gift for my in-laws who were new to the Bay Area. They loved it and it was a perfect mix of information. A fun read without being too detailed but yet had valuable information. Highly recommend it as a gift!

This was the only handbook I found with useful information about specific cities on the peninsula. Some useful information, and it's helpful to pass around to other people when they're moving to the bay area. There's also a pretty good preview on Google Books if you only need a bit of the information. I've found it helpful to have the entire book around for reference, though.