1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List (Paperback)

~ (Author) "As surprisingly comfortable as it is overwhelmingly grand, this National Trust property is England's most majestic country-house hotel..." (more)
Key Phrases: stud farm, kilt southeast, kilt north, National Park, New York, South Pacific (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This hefty volume reminds vacationers that hot tourist spots are small percentage of what's worth seeing out there. A quick sampling: Venice's Cipriani Hotel; California's Monterey Peninsula; the Lewis and Clark Trail in Oregon; the Great Wall of China; Robert Louis Stevenson's home in Western Samoa; and the Alhambra in Andalusia, Spain. Veteran travel guide writer Schultz divides the book geographically, presenting a little less than a page on each location. Each entry lists exactly where to find the spot (e.g. Moorea is located "12 miles/19 km northwest of Tahiti; 10 minutes by air, 1 hour by boat") and when to go (e.g., if you want to check out The Complete Fly Fisher hotel in Montana, "May and Sept.-Oct. offer productive angling in a solitary setting"). This is an excellent resource for the intrepid traveler.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"At last, a book that tells you what's beautiful, what's fun and what's just unforgettable—everywhere on earth."
—Newsweek (Newsweek )

At last, a book that tells you what's beautiful, what's fun and what's just unforgettableeverywhere on earth. Newsweek (Newsweek )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 972 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; illustrated edition edition (May 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761104844
• ISBN-13: 978-0761104841
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (324 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #715 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

750 of 805 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A great book for hotel lovers, January 19, 2004

By	Sung Kim (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is my first review of a book for Amazon. I just had to write this to tell the truth about this book.

For a person who loves to travel, I just had to purchase this book to see what places I need to go to and review places I have been to.

According to the author, I missed a lot of places because I was too busy to vistit all the recommended 5 star hotels. For an example, Torres Del Paine, Chile is one of the most beautiful nature wonder of the world with its glaciers, lakes, peaks, and majestic views. Instead of writing this, the author decide to descibe in detail about the over-priced hotel in the park.

Author consistently writes about:

1. Hotel, hotel, and more hotels. Not just any hotel, but the most expensive accomodation in town.
2. Hotels, of course. I have not counted, but I can guess about 250 places to see are hotels.

If you like hotels, this is a book for you, otherwise look elsewhere.

289 of 308 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad ... for a to-do list, December 24, 2003

By	Eric J. Lyman (Roma, Lazio Italy) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I was prepared to really dislike this book, if for no other reason than because it takes one of my passions -- travel -- and reduces it to a kind of grocery list. Travel, I have always thought, is about experiencing a different culture and its history and not about checking the most important cathedral or museum in a city off a to-do list.

But I must admit this small-but-thick book intrigued me. Most of the criticisms of something like this will be of specific choices the author makes: How could she overlook X? Or what was she thinking when she included Y? And while I admit that I scratched my head at a few curious omissions and chuckled at some of the choices that did make the cut, I must say that overall, the selection is very good. Every traveler or would-be traveler will find selections of interest on its pages, whether they are looking for luxury or natural beauty or history or art or culinary masterpieces or thought-provoking journeys.

But I think the real strength of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die is author Patricia Schultz' lively writing. Ms. Schultz has a real gift for description, and her love and enthusiasm for the places she writes about at once manage to excite the reader about the place being described and to give him or her a small taste of it before even diverting the eyes from the page.

All that said, I would be disappointed to scan someone else's copy of this book and see places that have been already visited crossed off in red ink or to discover that future trips were being planned to maximize the number of the 1,000 places that can be visited in a short time. I don't think the book should be used like that, but rather as a means to provoke thought and conversation regarding the best of what the world has to offer us by giving us the views held by one person (albeit someone who is extremely well traveled and with unusual writing talent). We'll all come up with our own lists in our heads, lists that may or may not overlap with the contents of this book. And that's something worth being passionate about.

191 of 212 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A great choice for the traveling grandpa, January 1, 2004

By	Adrian (Sears Tower) - See all my reviews

If grandma and grandpa are getting bored in retirement, this is a fantastic book to buy them. If *you* are looking to explore the world, consider a Lonely Planet or guide better geared at the under-65 crowd.

Certainly people would quibble with my list of 1000 places, but here is why I believe this book is not appropriate for anyone who doesn't get an AARP discount:

- Euro-american focus. The book is almost insulting in its lack of coverage of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. For instance, there is nothing listed in Delhi except a restaurant vs. nine sites in over-touristed Morocco. There is virtually nothing in places not covered by travel guides, such as Central Asia and almost anywhere in Africa that doesn't have pyramids or characters from "The Lion King." Iraq is the cradle of civilization, but apparently UFOs in Roswell and Disney theme parks are more important. At least Schultz acknowledges the bias, saying that places like Kolkata and Madagascar are "arduous choices."

- Cultural insensitivity. Schultz's use of the most anglicized names possible and long-replaced colonial monikers (like Calcutta and Laotian for Kolkata and Lao) makes her occasionally sound like Mr. Burns asking for "the Prussian consulate in Siam."

- Intended for traveler-writers with unlimited budgets. Despite claiming with a straight face that she's "never a travel snob," Schultz typically choses the most expensive way to see a place. I am a travel snob, but sometimes Schultz's recommendations of tours are too outrageous even for me. For instance, Ayuthaya, Thailand, is easily reached by a comfortable air-con first class bus from Bangkok for 95 cents, but Schultz recommends a $390 tour.

- Questionable rationales. Schultz gives the Toronto Four Seasons an entry because, well, celebrities have stayed there. Never mind that the Toronto Four Seasons is potentially the most shabby, cramped, and run-down property in the chain. I have certainly never seen it on a list of Four Seasons's top properties, and the food was nothing spectacular. Entries like that make me wonder if Schultz is holding back the truly great establishments.