- California is the most visited state in the United States, Disneyland is the United States' second most visited theme park, and California's national parks attract almost 30 million visitors a year.
- Los Angeles—as the fourth largest destination for domestic travel in the U.S. and the second-ranked destination for overseas visitors, behind only New York—welcomed 25 million visitors in 2008. San Francisco is ranked in the top 10 most visited US cities, with over 15 million visitors per year. Neighboring Napa County greeted 4 million visitors in 2008, and Sonoma Valley hosted 7 million visitors.
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
From the publishers of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World
"A Tourist's Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times
"Indispensable"
—The New York Times
Five Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide:
Straight shooting on planning a great trip for the whole family, from toddlers to teens to parents
Where to bike, surf, camp, hike, kayak, snorkel, whale-watch, and play on the beach
Insider advice on how to have big-time fun on a small-time budget
The best family-friendly restaurants, lodging, and attractions throughout California
A complete sourcebook for first-time visitors to long-time residents, day-trippers to vacation planners
About the Author
LOS ANGELES NATIVE Colleen Dunn Bates is the founder and publisher of Prospect Park Media, a book-publishing company in Pasa dena, California. She is also the author of many books, including Hometown Pasadena: The Insider’s Guide and Storybook Travels: From Eloise’s New York to Harry Potter’s London, Visits to 30 of the Best-Loved Landmarks in Children’s Literature, which she cowrote with Susan LaTempa. She lives in Pasadena with her husband, Darryl Bates, and their two daughters.
CULVER CITY RESIDENT Susan LaTempa wrote Story book Travels with Colleen, has written for many national magazines, and is now an editor for the Los Angeles Times. Susan and her husband, Dan Milder, have two daughters.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Good Points: Give good descriptions of attractions, including an estimate of how long you'll want to spend, and practical issues like availablity of food/strollers/etc.
Good descriptions of natural sights (beaches, parks) as well as man-made attractions.
Good descriptions of natural sights (beaches, parks) as well as man-made attractions.
Bad Points: Seems to take a very narrow view of what kids are going to enjoy. Why assume that no child is capable of enjoying an art museum? Or, as the authors states flatly, that kids hate scenery, and that your teen would much rather stay home with his friends than actually travel with his family? (Author suggests spending time at the local malls if you are travelling with teens!) Or that kids won't eat anything but hamburger-based kid's menus?
Given that the book is covering a large geographic area, and given the author's abovementioned narrow view of 'kid-friendliness', many important attractions aren't mentioned at all.
Only a few accomodations recommendations are given, and most are very expensive.
(This review, incidently, applies to all the books in this series; California, Florida, and Washington DC).
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found the Unofficial Guide to California with Kids to be very helpful in planning our family vacation. It gave detailed information about everything from beaches to theme parks as well as suggestions on where to bike, camp, hike, snorkle, and whale watch. It has information on family friendly restaurants and lodging, including prices, maps, meals served, types of payments accepted, children's menu availability, as well as which restaurants accept reservations. The Unofficial Guide helped us to pick and choose which attractions to visit by giving a specific rating for each age group, as well as admission prices, average touring time, and what services and facilities are available. All in all the Unofficial Guide to California with Kids helped us to have a GREAT family vacation!
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have the first edition of this book, and when I first moved to the LA area, it was great to have...but, I find it lacking a lot now that I know more about the area. It doesn't mention the Huntington Gardens, or the Rose Bowl, or Descanso Gardens (cool tiny train that runs on weekends)or other kid friendly venues. I found the restaurant listings useless...rest's are everywhere, and I tend not to make one a special destination when I'm on a daytrip!
I recommend getting an up-to-date California guidebook (Lonely Planet or some such) and decide where to go based on your child's and your inclinations, and ignore the ubiquitous malls that you can find anywhere in country.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very very average
To be honest, was expecting a lot more from this book. It is very heavy on high priced/top end accommodation (ie. San Fran, CA, $295 - $400) and light on with attractions. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Thomas Bromhead
Great overview of what California has
This book has been very helpful in planning a vacation with our 5yo and an infant. Within hours of buying it, we've had great ideas for our spring break trip. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Aleksandar Totic
Unofficial Guide to CA w/Kids Very Useful for CA Roadtrip
This book both identified great spots for taking children throughout California, it presented the information in a way that made choices between alternatives easy to make. Read more
Published on June 24, 2008 by S. Sheldon
An alternative look on vacations
For one thing, you should not expect this guide to cover all of a region as a Frommer's guide would. Read more
Published on March 31, 2008 by paola
Planning a trip with twin, toddler boys just got easier!
With toddler twin boys that we love to take on many trips, this book has become a wonderful guide for us. Read more
Published on May 14, 2007 by Jeff A. Breeden
Be a tourist in your own backyard
I live in southern California, and this book has inspired countless Saturday family outings. I had no idea what was in my own backyard! Read more
Published on January 20, 2003 by Shuzam
Very Helpful book
I am just planning a trip and this has been very easy reading to get the planning started.
Published on July 15, 2002
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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