Highlights the USA's national parks, scenic routes, the vast wilderness, world-class cities, top museums and galleries. Regional chapters cover the culture, history and sights in-depth. A practical section on visiting the USA helps you plan your trip in advance, giving tips on travel, customs, laws and what to expect while the USA.
REVIEW
Great help for planing a cross country trip This is an excellent guide for those who want to sample what the United States has to offer. It is an excellent place to start especially if you are only going to be traveling through a lot of places. If you are going to someplace for a week this book will not be helpful and you should get the regional guides. Overall planning a cross country trip it gives lots of advice on cities as well as small out of the way places that would be fun to see. Great addition to a travel book collection.
Covers: the Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona, Phoenix, Southern Arizona, Las Vegas, Southern Utah, the Four Corners, Santa Fe, Northern New Mexico, Albuquerque, and Southern New Mexico.
REVIEW
Useful and filled with Pictures! The Southwest USA & Las Vegas travel guide is chock full of informative information, culture, and pictures in a streamline 300 page volume. Although personally, I think Las Vegas should be its own volume, I found the information about the Southwest quite helpful. I particularly appreciated the cultural information included and the factthat website addresses for most sites were included with the information blurb. This is a useful travel companion for those intending to see the four corners area and beyond!
This guide is all you need to experience the magnificent landscape and culture of California. Here you can find everything from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to the thrills of theme parks; from laid-back surf beaches to bustling cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco; and from Silicon Valley to Death Valley and Yosemite National Park. The guide is packed with over 1,500 photographs, illustrations and maps, plus top recommendations on where to eat, stay and shop.
REVIEW
Good for lazy travellers I am never the type of hard working traveller who would dig into lengthy travel books to find out everything. I found this book very useful for me. It's all in color (so, it's a pleasure to read, though that makes it heavy), and it has great maps which highlights all attractions in addition to detailed maps in the end of the book. That keeps me focus on what I want in a very easy way, instead of searching for where that particular attraction is.
I went to San Francisco, and places as far as 3 hours driving to north, and 4 hours driving to south. For San Francisco part, this book even included different architecture style, which greatly enhanced my experience. As for others, most of the places they describe, they include pictures also. This helps me to know what to expect.
Though I don't like it to be so heavy, it's my favorite among my collection.
With its theme parks and fabulous beaches, The Sunshine State deserves its reputation as the perfect family vacation spot. But Florida offers much more to those who venture away from their beach towels. This is the perfect guide to exploring all that the state has to offer, including the extraordinary diversity of wildlife at Everglades and the Keys, and the rich mix of Caribbean, north and south American culture. With over 1000 photographs and illustrations, plus top recommendations on where to stay, shop and eat.
REVIEW
Good but can be improved I love this kind of guide for all the images they show of the places you are going to see. The only problem I have is that there is no much information about accomodations. For that I had to look into another guide or online.
With superb colour photographs and illustrations throughout, this is the perfect guide to one of the world's most vibrant cities. From golden beaches to the Golden Gate bridge, the hippies of Haight Ashbury to the exclusive Pacific Heights neighbourhood, the famous hills and trams to the infamous Alcatraz Island, San Francisco has it all.
REVIEW
Somewhat informative; busy layout not conducive to quick reference I bought this book for a 4-day trip and needed an easy to use guide book, but it was a bit outdated (restaurants listings were not correct) and sight-seeing tips were boring and/or half-heartedly written.
I liked the Eyewitness book for Tokyo, which had a light overview with useful pictures and maps. It complemented a Frommers book well, which had lots of useful information, but required more reading to get a good idea of a neighborhood. I think this book would also benefit from another, more well-informed book, as this one lacked the in-depth details on a particular sight.
The layout was also very busy and distracting. A better layout, perhaps with selective use of color, would have been easier to navigate.
Over 900 full color photographs. Cutaways and floor plans of major sights. Easy-to-use maps and plans. Over 350 hotels and restaurants. Tips on gambling in Las Vegas. Touring and outdoor activities. Visiting the Grand Canyon.
REVIEW
The Only Guide Books Ican Stand Reading Being a pretty busy person, and usually hating to read travel guides, I find that the DK Eyewitness Guides are the only ones I can stand reading - in fact, I find them enjoyable.
Their main force is that you don't have to imagine whether a destination would be something for you - the guide shows you what to expect, where others just tell you about it. That is the series' main force: They are very easily digestible.
That said, an Eyewitness Guide can't stand alone, so my wife usually acquires a Lonely Planet guide for the place, and I read the Eyewitness Guide, and the two complement each other nicely.
This guide to the US South West I bought in preparation for a vacation there, and although it had always been a dream destination for me, I can only say that I looked forward to it more and more for each time I read the book!
One has to know that the book covers quite a large area: The complete states of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as Southern Utah, the area around Las Vegas, and a little bit of Colorado. This means that for most people, myself included, there are parts of the book which doesn't apply at all tothe trip one is planning. As an example, a rather large (in my opinion) section of 38 pages (or 17%) is dedicated to Las Vegas. For an area guide like this, it can't be any different - one just has to know this.
Although the overall quality of the book makes for a very attractive read, I still miss more detailed information, such as approximate entry fees. The area maps of the attractions could be better, too, as I often found myself wondering if a road marked on the map would be accessible to normal cars, or four-wheel drive only, etc.
Although I liked the book and found it a great preperatory tool, as a travel companion it leaves a lot to be desired: The maps aren't detailed enough and it's a little too evident that this is a first edition. There's just one too many errors to make you completely comfortable with it, but the errors are in the details, and for the large overview, it can't be beat.
My overall conclusion would seem to be, then, that it is a very attractive book that gives one a good general feel for the area.
"Eyewitness Travel Guides" provide travellers with illustrated guidebooks where every significant location, building, museum and gallery, as well as major shops, hotels and restaurants, are shown. In addition, "Eyewitness Travel Guides" contain specially commissioned 3-D aerial maps and diagrams, visual guides to currency, tickets and communication systems. The guides are organized area by area to help travellers to make the most of their stay. They provide up to 2000 illustrations and annotated 3-D maps which show every major attraction. Unique cutaways enable the traveller to visit museums and galleries without having to buy other guides. An illustrated survival guide is also provided, which supplies essential practical information. An in-depth transport section is supplied to make travel easy.
REVIEW
Excellent Guide I first discovered these books (a series Eyewitness Travel) by accident in a Stockholm bookstore. I had just come from Gothenborg by train and was a bit dazed. The book I bought by accident was in swedish but it still useful because of all the photos, cut away views, museum pictures, and maps and historical details. When I got home I bought a pile on Amazon.com of different places that I was going or had visited - but in english.
On a cold day back here in the USA (or Canada) or elsewhere, have a glass of beer and sit in a nice chair or in the garden on a warm day and read this book. For a moment you will be back in New Yotk at a deli have corned beef on rye.
The photos and desicriptions and cutaway drawings are excellent. Plus they throw in some history and details on the art and many other things of interest. A solid 430 page effort - lots of stuff to see and absorb. What is attractive about this book are the photos and cutaway views. Normally you do not see these. But the book brings it all to life with just magnificent photos and maps. And it makes a nice souvenir post trip. Subway maps included.
