Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide (Explorer's Great Destinations) [Paperback]

Christine Bailey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Explorer's Great Destinations | Publication Date: November 17, 2007

"Consistently rated the best guides to the regions covered...Readable, tasteful, appealingly designed. Strong on dining, lodging, culture, and history."—National Geographic Traveler

With more than 13 million visitors each year, the greater Phoenix area is home to some of the world's most prestigious spas and resorts, as well as a hub city to some of the world's greatest natural wonders.

Distinctive for their accuracy, simplicity, and conversational tone, the diverse travel guides in our Great Destinations series meet the conflicting demands of the modern traveler. They're packed full of up-to-date information to help plan the perfect getaway. And they're compact and light enough to come along for the ride. A tool you'll turn to before, during, and after your trip, these guides include:

• Chapters on lodging, dining, transportation, history, shopping, recreation, and more!
• A section packed with practical information, such as lists of banks, hospitals, post offices, laundromats, numbers for police, fire, and rescue, and other relevant information.
• Maps of regions and locales.

Black-and-white maps and photographs throughout

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Discover the art galleries, museums, outdoor adventures, world-class resorts, shopping, cuisine and stunning vistas that help make sunny Phoenix, Scottsdale and Sedona such hot destinations. Bailey's fully-revised, updated, and full-color second edition is packed with helpful new information--including details about little-known gems, sidebars by local experts on topics like family-friendly Phoenix and Arizona's wine country, up-to-date maps including the Phoenix light rail and tips on how to use valuable online resources. Travelers, Arizona residents, and newcomers alike will find this engaging, enlightening book to be a priceless resource. Let it help make your Arizona experience a memorable one. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Adventure is waiting for you in Central Arizona... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Countryman Press; 1 edition (November 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581570449
• ISBN-13: 978-1581570441
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christine K. Bailey is a published author and freelance travel writer who specializes in writing about the Southwest and her adopted home state of Arizona.

Bailey is the author of the first edition and second full-color edition of the travel guide Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona, (The Countryman Press, 2008 and 2011) and the iPhone travel application Sedona's Scenic Red Rocks (Sutro Media) and co-author of the travel app Phoenix for Fun (Sutro Media). She is currently working on a dining app for Greater Phoenix and writes for local, regional and national print and online publications, including: PHOENIX Magazine, Arizona Bride, The Arizona Republic, Meetings Arizona, 202 Magazine, and Southwest Meetings + Events Magazine. She is also a proud member of The Author's Guild.

She is a wife, mother of two wonderful boys, and a life-long adventurer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Phoenix: The Big City..., October 19, 2009

By 

D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide (Explorer's Great Destinations) (Paperback)

Christine Bailey's "Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide" is an unusual entry in the world of modern visitor guides. Although it includes the standard reference material found in any good guide, this book is actually meant to be read by the traveler. Its conversational tone reflects the author's living experience in "the Valley of the Sun" as well as the necessary research.

Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country, and one of Bailey's challenges is to do justice to a cityscape and metropolitan area spread over a couple of thousand square miles of high desert central Arizona. It turns out there is a lot to see and do beyond enjoying the warm, dry climate: everything from golf to professional sports. Bailey succeeds in providing a honest sense of history and character in detailing the recreational and touristing opportunities. Her narrative includes a broad swath of recommendations for places to eat, sleep, and shop.

This reviewer's one complaint is a shortage of detailed maps that could tie together a geospatial sense of a sprawling metropolitan area. A supplemental map of Phoenix is recommended to go along with this guide, itself highly recommended as an introduction to Phoenix and central Arizona.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Only buy if you want info about hotels and restaurants, June 8, 2009

By 

Janet N (Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide (Explorer's Great Destinations) (Paperback)

If you want lots of info about hotels and restaurants then this is your book. If you want more information about sightseeing and things to do, this is not the book for you. I was highly disappointed and thought I should have stuck with Fodor's or the like.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, well-organized, easy to follow, February 22, 2011

By 

1wino - See all my reviews

This review is from: Explorer's Guide Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona: A Great Destination (Second Edition) (Explorer's Great Destinations) (Paperback)

This is a handsome, well-organized, easy-to-follow full-color guidebook with exceptional writing that is conversational and breezy without being informal. Maps abound, making it a snap to follow up on great suggestions for things to do. I highly recommend this book even if - or perhaps especially if - you're a local. I guarantee you'll read something new even if you've been here a while, and if you are a recent transplant, the book is invaluable. Instead of talking up just the must-do tourist spots, Bailey delves into where the locals go and what they do. There are a lot of good restaurant recommendations, too.

I also enjoyed how Bailey weaves the history of each area through the narrative along with what is going on currently. (In full disclosure, I contributed a sidebar to this book, but I do plan to buy more copies for friends and family because I think it's so useful.)