Customer Reviews

Road Trip USA

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Just last week I returned from taking several of Jamie Jensen's road trips in the USA, and I can attest to the high quality of his book. We set out with Lonely Planet's USA guidebook which greatly failed us. Typical of Lonely Planet's laziness (their television series greatly outranks their travel books),their USA book was wrought with so many errors and outdated information that we quickly reverted to Road Trip USA thereby enhancing the remainder of our 8,200 mile trip around the USA and making it a truly educational, one month drive. We really saw the USA from beautiful back roads and will never regret it. Instead we owe a huge debt of graditute to the author and his editors.

I've used almost every travel book available when traveling, so I have absolutely no doubt that this is the best book available if you are considering taking a drive in the USA. We drove 3 of the major trips in this book--including Route 66, The Oregon Trail, and The Great River Road--and if we had depended on other books, the truth is, we would have missed almost every great site Jensen points out. He and his editors have accomplished more than I'd have ever hoped from a mere travel guide. If you use this book for even part of one road trip, you will see the real USA.

The book provides indepth coverage of eleven road trips in a lively, knowledgeable, and educated format highlighted with many great photographs and asides in the margins of corresponding trip narratives. All routes are readable from either direction one chooses to drive them as we found driving the Great River Road from south to north instead as outlined in the book--from north to south--and we had no problems whatsoever because Jensen has thought of every angle for us.

Road Trip USA is jam packed with hints, "secrets," history, gossip, lore, and myths, in addition to advice on great places to take photographs of unique sights, best spots to find perfect pie, local radio stations to tune in for local flavor, and out-of-the-way lodging and camping information that other books will not even mention. If you prefer the superhighway, this is not the book for you. If you want to see the America you hope is out there, this book will help you find it. I give it my highest recommendation. As far as I can tell, he didn't miss a thing! And I can now say without reservation, this is a beautiful country. END

This is an excellent, excellent book for anyone who wants to take a road trip as a vacation and see the country like you've never seen it before. I used this book to see so many funky pieces of Americana: everything from a miniature Stonehenge in Missouri to the world's largest ketchup bottle in Illinois. I traveled Rte. 66 and stayed at a great little motel in Missouri (Munger Moss) recommended by this book. That motel is a must for any Rte. 66 fans: its gift shop is filled with Rte. 66 memorabilia. And it's cheap!! $25 a night with clean rooms. The whole idea of this book is to get people to see that America isn't all the same, though it seems that way when you stay on the highways. It's filled with great road trips to take wherever you are in the country, north or south, east or west. It's really an amazing country we live in and you'll find out that you can have a great vacation traveling endless roads that provide new discoveries.

You'll get a whole new perspective on areas you may have visited. And the author offers suggestions on places to go to get a local flavor. So instead of eating at a McDonald's or Denny's for breakfast, you can try a diner in Memphis that Elvis used to frequent.

A couple of my Chicago-based colleagues were very impressed when I told them I ate at Berghoff's and Lou Mitchell's in downtown Chicago. They said nobody from out-of-town would have gone there.

It's like having a knowledgeable traveling companion with you wherever you go. I enjoyed every town and city I visited on a two-week trip thanks to this book.

I've looked at other travel guides and they don't compare to this book. High praise to Jamie Jensen for creating such an informative book, packed full of useful nuggets. This book was never far from my fingertips on that trip.

I'm planning a motorcycle road trip in the near future and will definitely have this book along. I only wish I had more time to take more of these road trips.

Enjoy and happy motoring.

After my first trip across country, I wanted to write a real road trip book. All of my US guide books give good information about big cities but little about small towns and back roads. The real gems I found on cross country trips were a cheese factory in Wisconsin or an ice cream shop in Iowa. Luckily I found this book before my second cross country trip. It was really great. It gives about 8 different 2-lane highway routes usually stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic or from Canada to the Southern tips of the US. It doesn't cover everywhere I want to go, but it's great if you're going on a long road trip... or if you live near one of the 2-Lane Highways in the book. Although it gives information about large cities along the way, you may want a supplement if you plan on spending lots of time in big cities. This book focuses more on the interesting places between those major cities.

Organized primarily around 11 coast-to-coast (some north-south, some east-west) trips, you may not find your current location covered. But if you're thinking of taking a long drive, or if one of the pinpoints you visit by airplane is on a route covered within, "Road Trip USA" will provide you with things to do, places to eat, people to see and a good helping of local history with which to orient yourself.

The authors' emphasis is on the unusual and the local, which means you'll find out-of-the-way cafes, odd museums, classic tourist traps and more.

Perhaps this books biggest drawback is that its nearly 800 pages is bulky, making it a bit cumbersome to carry. But then, if you're travelling by car, this isn't really a problem.

One of a few essential books I consult before heading some place new (or revisiting some place old).

I rode 6600 miles through the US on a motorcycle, with most of the routes chosen from this book. This book made my trip great. The restaurants, hotels and roads are well thought out and have clearly been visited first hand by the author and his team. Don't take a road trip without this book.

A great, great guide. This book "gets it" in a way no Frommer's ever could. It's the trip, man, not the destination. :-) The places it suggest visiting are interesting, generally inexpensive, and honestly portrayed. This is a great book for people who think bus trips and interstates are a terrible way to see what America is really about. The author understands what an adventure a road trip can be. Very cool.

We started at a concert at Tanglewood (MA), hit the road, and never looked back. We opted for US-20 to get us to Portland, OR, and we couldn't have had a better time! This book is packed with amazing B&B's, fun, quirky diners and tons of funky roadside attractions. All of which immersed us in the local culture and gave us a view of all of the diverse parts of America. The true flavor of each place is brought out by Jamie Jensen in this guide. We made many friends who are locals to the towns we passed through. Between this book, and the people we met, I learned so much about American culture.
It was the time of our lives - and we owe it to our compass: Road Trip USA!
ps- if you like chili dogs - YOU MUST check out the cafe on page 581!

I have the first printing of this book, and indeed, many of the places listed were interesting to visit, if not for their excitement then at least for their quaintness.

On a trip to Yellowstone, NP in 1997, I was able to stop at the Big Q cafe in Quasqueton, IA for breakfast, off of US-20. If it wasn't for this book, I would have probably spent most of that morning hungry.

This is a good overall guidebook for a long trip; however, if you plan on really exploring an area, than no book of this size can do it justice. Treat yourself to a more thorough collection of guides for that specific area. Some of the information is repeated from other Moon guidebooks; this is not a bad thing. I found the layout very inviting and the information helpful.

The book is helpful with good information but it could have been better organized for easier reading and finding of information. For example, using headers to block out specific areas. Also it could use more lodging and eating information. It would be nice if there was more information on side trips off the covered routes to major destinations.

But, there is no other book like this that I am aware of, and I think it is a good buy if you are planning a cross country road trip and want to stay off the interstates. However I recommend supplementing it with a good comprehensive USA guidebook since there are a lot of attractions you will probably want to see that are not covered in this book.

My wife & I have driven NY-CA twice in two years using this book. It takes you so many fun places and along so many beautiful routes that you regret ever arriving at the end.