Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to California 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In the mid-nineties I spent about a month living out of my car in California. I drove, camped, and couch surfed from Eureka to San Diego, and many points in between. Before returning home, I went to Lake Tahoe and then continued north to Washington State via Mt. Shasta. I didn't take a guidebook with me; it didn't occur to me since I knew I wouldn't be needing hotel and restaurant reviews. At the time I lived on an island, in a cabin, without a computer or internet. When I rolled into a town, I just picked up the local "city paper" or equivalent and found the friendliest looking coffee shop to go to and learn what I could about where I was. I read bulletin boards and just walked or drove around to see what was there.

The Rough Guide to California would have been a fabulous addition to this trip. The writers let you in on everything they know, and they are consummate travelers. You can get major hotel information, of course, but you also get hostel and camping information, the secret sweet spots in a city, and some history and bits of information that make travel that much more enjoyable. For instance, I was not aware that more lesbians are moving over to Oakland from San Francisco these days, but I feel like I am 'in the know' now that I do.

A lot of guides also forget about the details of visiting the deserts, mountains and park trails, and the best ways to go about seeing them, but here you can get that. Since my rubber tramp days, I have traveled to a lot of places around the world. And as my means increased, I utilized travel websites to get insider information on where to go and what to look for. I also incorporated the more standard guides into my research; Frommer's and Fodor's became companions of mine, along with Lonely Planet. From now on, Rough Guides will be included in my library.

I love to travel. I love the smells, the sights, the people, the food, the feel of a different place, and I want to understand why and how it all came to be that way. I am obsessed with finding the inside spots, staying in odd and eclectic places and avoiding tourist traps whenever possible. If you are like me in this predilection, the Rough Guides are a great find. Travel guides tend to tell you about what they find most interesting or worthwhile in a place, and in the 9th edition of The Rough Guide to California, you get to explore California with authors who are not only interesting and funny, but also witty and talented writers. I enjoyed reading it, even in the sameness of my own living room.

www.jennifermwilson.com

It may seem a bit strange, but I am a californian and I have flipped through a great number of travel guides on california. It's a long story, but basically, I was trying to see what series were the best and most trustworthy, and what better way to test this than to see how accurate it is about places I know very well? Without a doubt, this one was the best of all of them. Occasionally it's recommendations for restaurants, etc, were not the ones I would have recommended, but when it came to places to see, things to do, and etc, it never went wrong.

It was especially good when it came to the things that are often overlooked or not mentioned but are a thousand times better than the usual tourist traps.

If you're looking for a guide to give you an accurate picture of the place you're heading, then Rough Guide is undeniably the best series of travel guides that blends informative reviews with wry observation of the local fauna. It's also the most logical for the 20's-30's set that enjoys traveling but lacks the financial success needed to use a Michelin guide. When you're traveling on your own dime and want to hit the tourist attractions and some cool places not immediately visible to the visitor's eye, spend the 15 bucks for the book.

Anji Milanovic

This is the third Rough Guide I have bought to help me plan my trips. And as usual it offers very good guide to the best places to have fun while staying on budget. The chapter about San Diego is especially good and I urge you to follow the books guidance and go to the Cheese Shop. Great Sandwiches. All in all a good travelling companion and introduction to California

I have been living and using this guide book in California for nearly two years now and am very satisfied with it. Numerous weekend trips and a couple longer ones all over the state, both cities and countryside, were planned with the help of this guide. While there are certainly niche guides that cover cities and specific regions or interests better, this does a great job of covering the whole state with just enough info and good maps.
I agree with some of the other reviewers that some of the writing is quite opinionated, which is unnecessary, but just don't take it personally people!

I loved the story like approach of this book. Very informative and a very nice read. This was my first rough guide and I don't think I will buy any other kind of travel guide again.

I suppose it's not easy to create a good guidebook for a state as big as California. It's inevitable that such a book will have to leave all kinds of worthy places out. But the problem with the Rough Guide to California is much deeper. Put simply, the book is full of dismissive stereotypes about the people of California, lame recommendations, numerous inaccuracies, and a surprising number of typos. It took 4 people to write it, and who knows how many to edit this utter waste of money. I can perhaps understand why this book turned into something so mediocre and boring; but I can't understand why it is so sloppy. The irony is that I have found the Rough Guides very useful for the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, various European countries, Mexico, and Japan.

What to get instead? The free guidebooks published for AAA members are much better overall. Time Out makes excellent urban guidebooks (LA, SF). There are numerous niche guidebooks on the market for every aspect of the Golden State. And of course, the Internet is indispensable for planning any trips.

I am a native Californian and checked this guide out from the local library in attempts to plan a trip for some out-of-state visitors. This guide was horrible. It skipped over large regions of California that one might might be interested in. Living on the edge of the deserts, I couldn't help but notice that the guide didn't really pick up the area between the deserts and the coast. There is a lot more to California than the coastline, Palm Springs and the Mojave desert. This guide is useless unless you only plan to travel to the places it has. Furthermore, many of the entries are not objective, rather I found them quite insulting to people who may actually be associated with the areas they described. For example, an entry about a local university stated that the students only gain entry because their parents paid to get them in. This is not needed in a travel guide and I find it insulting. I recommend the Fodors guide to Southern California instead.

I don't know anything about this book, but please... Anaheim?

I have lived in California for 20+ years, and in my opinion Anaheim is one of the worst cities in California and should be skipped completely. Barstow is head and shoulders above Anaheim...

If you really want to see the best city in California, however, visit Bishop...

I think the book has some strange opinions. It actually likes Barstow,CA better than Anaheim,CA. Very strange. Purchase not recommended.