No comments about Maine: An Explorer's Guide, Fourteenth Edition (Explorer's Guides).

4 comments about Backroads of New England: Your Guide To New England's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures (Pictorial Discovery Guide).

1. When fall comes in New England, the trees turn into a splendid mass of reds, oranges and yellows that temporarily distract us from the coming winter. At the same time, the first fresh snowfalls have a special beauty that New Englanders love as well. But the first blush of spring causes a special joy to burst out from our hearts. In the lazy days of summer, we love to watch the wind blow the grasses and trees from languid poses.
   
   At any one of those times, I find myself thinking how much fun it would be to see some new sights in the context of those favorite New England conditions. In the forty years I've lived in New England, I've found many of my favorite locations purely by accident. The back roads are always the best. But I don't have the time to randomly drive all the back roads to find the best ones.
   
   That's where Backroads of New England comes in. Kim Knox Beckius has found 30 delightful drives over back road that mix scenery, history, culture and just plain fun. I have taken about half of the drives in the book, so I can swear by those. I am looking forward to doing the rest now that I know where to go.
   
   How can I tell I would like the others? First, Ms. Beckius provides helpful essays about where to begin, what to see, and what to stop and do along the way. She even includes some suggestions for hiking to beautiful waterfalls. Second, William H. Johnson's gorgeous photographs colorfully illuminate the main sights for each drive. Whether you love covered bridges, snow-capped peaks, delightful streams, pounding surf, or mysterious vistas, you can page through the book to find the places that speak mostly fervently to your soul.
   
   The book is also organized by state. So if you are planning to go just to Maine and arrive by air in Portland, you can simply focus on the Maine trips and those in New Hampshire and northeast Massachusetts that are not too far away. If you live in New York, and want to drive for no more than two hours, you can focus on that radius in western Connecticut and Massachusetts.
   
   I have been looking at travel guides for New England for many years. I've never seen a finer one for back roads adventures.
   
   Give it a try!



2. Kim Knox Beckius, a well-known New England travel writer, has teamed up with New Hampshire photographer, William Johnson, to create a pictorial guide to 30 scenic drives throughout the region.
   
   You get five scenic drives each from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Rhode Island offers up another four, and Maine weighs in with a larger six. The drives cover the best of New England, from mountains to the ocean, and from the lakes to the beaches. And a whole bunch more.
   
   Kim doesn't spend a lot of time on directions. They tend to be brief and on the side of the pages - enough to get you around but not much more. Kim focuses her travel writing skills on making sure you experience in words the sights, sounds, and smells of each region. The beautifully produced photography greatly enhances this experience.
   
   While I love this book if you're looking for one crammed with detailed directions and a step-by-step tour of attractions this isn't it.
   
   This is a book to keep near you throughout the long winter... to browse whenever you want to remember a drive already taken... or one waiting for you in the spring.



3. My wife and I just came back from vacation in New England. Aside from the Delorme maps, this book was the most important item we took with us. We went on several of the scenic drives described in the book, and they were all absolutely beautiful! The directions were perfect, even if they don't tell you the distances involved. The photographs in the book are worth the price alone, but it's even better when you come across the places pictured in the book and find out they're just as gorgeous as the author said they would be. If you're going to New England, you need this book.



4. This was obviously a carefully researched, well-written book, with great photos. But I was disappointed that there was so little focus on maps. Rather than showing a detailed maps of a recommended route, the author chose to write a verbal description of a recommended route. That's sufficient if you wish to follow the author's route exactly. But if you would rather create your own route with some guidance from the book, it's virtually impossible.

5 comments about Rick Steves' England 2008 (Rick Steves).

1. Several years ago, my sister and I traveled to London relying largely on Rick Steves' then-current guide to England. Our problems started with our hotel near Victoria Station, a place Steves had praised to the skies; it turned out to be the worst so-called hotel we had ever seen in our lives, a filthy, unkempt, knocked-together place with SPIKES (not bars) in the windows and a venal staff utterly uninterested in the comfort of the guests. This was only the first of many pieces of bum advice that Mr. Steves gave us through his guide. I will never again trust any travel advice given by Mr. Steves. I would, however, like to know how this self-styled Emperor of Travel makes his way through Europe with no clothes.



2. This book is one person's opinion of what is worth seeing in England; it includes *only* those things, and nothing else. A full 24% of the book is taken up with London. That section includes helpful bus info that most guidebooks don't include, but, oddly, not a tube map so that you can think about connections ahead of time. Also lacking is a single map of the whole of London. Instead, there is a color map in the front of the book of only the most central part of central London, and then multiple small hand-drawn maps of individual areas of London. To figure out how to get from one place to another involves putting together a number of different little maps. In addition to the partial London map, there are maps of Bath and all of England at the beginning of the book; otherwise, all the maps are small and hand-drawn, which I found annoying. As examples of what you *won't* find in this book, there is nothing at all on Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham or Exeter, just to name a few. Personally, I would prefer to pay a few dollars more for a more comprehensive guide.



3. A useful guide, particularly for the Southwest. Could use more information about mass transit.



4. This is the third guide book from Rick Steves that I have used. Like the other two (Ireland and France) this one is exceptionally useful. Rick knows how to concentrate on the important things and he tells it like it is.



5. The Rick Steves guide books are invaluable tools when travelling abroad. He gives common sense ideas on what to see, where to stay and where to eat. Would never travel to Europe without his books.

2 comments about Time Out London (Time Out Guides).

1. Time Out knows the pulse of the city like very few do, and it shows - they update their London guide every year. You get all the tried and true favorites - Parliament, the Abbey, St. Paul's - but also tons of places you might not find covered anywhere else. That said, the tone can get a bit cheeky, and sometimes you wish they wouldn't use British slang. But all in all, Time Out loves its mother-city, and they want you to fly back home feeling the same way!



2. I always use the Time Out guides as my first choice for any city they cover. I've used successive editions of the London guide every time I go. They are incredibly packed with useful and up-to-date information, and also hip, well-written, and fun to read. They've made a big difference in my travel experiences!

No comments about Maine Mountain Guide, 9th: AMC Guide to Hiking Trails of Maine, featuring Baxter State Park (AMC Hiking Guide Series).

2 comments about Discover Acadia National Park, 2nd: AMC Guide to the Best Hiking, Biking, and Paddling (AMC Discover Series).

1. and we were sure glad we bought this book. The map that comes with the book is five stars for sure. There were countless times we used the map to find out where we exactly were. The map was used to help people on the trail know exactly where they were. The book itself was a helpful planning tool for our hiking and biking times. I didn't get to spend as much time before the trip in it as I would have liked. It could be a five star book, but I haven't read enough of the book to feel comfortable giving it that rating; however, I do know that what I did read was accurate and helpful. It will certainly be an excellent resource for our next trip to Acadia.



2. We liked this book and did three hikes out of it. Overall the book was accurate. Probably next time we'd buy a pocket-size book, however, it was nice to read some of the detail and history about the areas we were hiking through. One item we suggest in the future is some drawing of the route. Although the book comes with a map and that worked (if we had it with us or handy).

5 comments about New England (Regional Guide).

1. I like Lonely Planet guides and find them very useful for other places. I also will concede that writing a guide of New England is really two books, a guide to Boston and a guide to everything else. I was psyched when I first got the book, but quickly became disappointed. I live in Boston and thought there were some big omissions locally. I found the guide to everything else to be lacking in major areas. I suppose if one is new to the area or only staying a week, this guide might be useful. For a reference for a New Englander, try something else.



2. Hey, I bought this book and liked it...and I'm a native New Englander. The coverage for Maine is particularly good, or at least I thought so.

   However, I'm posting this not so much to let y'all know that the guide is good, but to say that this book is in it's third edition, published in 2001. All of the reviews here date from 2000 and before. They apply to the second edition of the book, not the third. So take them with a grain of salt, cuz LP changes it's content alot when they update old editions.

   Just my two cents.




3. Hey, I bought this book and liked it...and I'm a native New Englander. The coverage for Maine is particularly good, or at least I thought so.

   However, I'm posting this not so much to let y'all know that the guide is good, but to say that this book is in it's third edition, published in 2001. All of the reviews here date from 2000 and before. They apply to the second edition of the book, not the third. So take them with a grain of salt, cuz LP changes it's content alot when they update old editions.

   Just my two cents.




4. I've always bought Let's Go whenever I travel, but they didn't have a New England book, so I had to get this one. The organization is about the same. It doesn't have as much detail as the Let's Go Boston that I also bought, but I suppose it was because this has more content. The writing is a lot more entertaining that LG though. Also, I found the public transportation info really helpful. I plan on going on a New England road trip someday and I'll definitely bring this book with me.



5. I used LP lots of times before, and some are better than other, some are really really good, but this was the worst one ever: I used it on a road trip from CT to Maine in December 2006: predictable hotels, compact somewhat boring descriptions, and lack of good stories, interesting details, none of the tips you look for as a traveller.. . Could use some passion.

1 comments about Rail-Trails New England: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island & Vermont (Rails-To-Trails Conservancy Guidebooks).

1. There are now more than 13,00 miles of open rail-trails across the country. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is an organization of more than 100,000 members and a leading advocate for trail and greenway 'recycling' of obsolete railroad corridors and rights of way. The official guidebook of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, "Rail-Trails: New England" is a thoroughly 'user friendly' guide to railroad related trails in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Profusely illustrated with maps, as well as black-and-white photographs, "Rail-Trails: New England" is the perfect planning guide for biking or hiking along pathways created from unused railroad corridors that have been converted to recreational use by the public. some rail-trails are paved and run through scenic parts of New England townships, others are unpaved paths through scenic countrysides. Enhanced with detailed maps for every rail-trail (plus driving directions to trailheads), "Rail-Trails: New England" also features icons indicating each trail's use, along with succinct descriptions written by truly knowledgeable and articulate rail-trail experts. If you are planning to avail yourself of the recreational and exercise opportunities of rail-trails anywhere in the New England region, then begin with a careful browse through the pages of "Rail-Trails: New England"!

5 comments about Vermont Atlas & Gazetteer.

1. The Vermont Atlas and Gazetteer (as well as the NH and Maine versions) are simply the best maps I have ever bought and used. Every road in every town is shown, and well as topographical features, landmarks, waterways, etc.
   
   If you get lost using this map, wellll, ummmm, maybe you shouldn't have been going there!



2. If you don't have gps, then this map book is for you. It is very easy to use.



3. Great map, lots of detail that I was looking for. The obvious drawback (and the pay-off for the detail) is it's size - not exactly a handy map for referring to in the car! It is a worthwhile buy though.



4. I've bought various states' Atlas & Gazetteers, and have to say that I don't plan a trip without one anymore.
   If you want to go 'off the beaten path' and still have a clue where you are, these are the best tools. A paper map from the convenience store just doesn't cut it. The front section of these books is terrific for whatever activities you're interested in from biking & hiking trails to campgrounds, amusements, and natural attractions/gardens/museums...it's all there.
   Oh, and a side note: These are VERY good tools to hand your kids in the back seat, as they can literally follow along (road curves, driving over a RR track, along a lake or river & everything!) as you're driving. No more "are we there yet?" because they KNOW where we are! Good tool to get them used to reading a road map; everything is "blown up" instead of just lines like you'd see on a regular road map.
   Very, VERY good resource!



5. I bought this map book prior to my recent June 2008 visit to northeastern Vermont (Northeast Kingdom). I was disappointed. What is shown as a road is actually an impassable trail. Roads shown to connect sometimes do not. Needless to say, I wasted a good amount of time and fuel. You might be the first person to ground truth the maps. Good luck!

5 comments about Maine Lighthouses Map & Guide.

1. My wife and I just returned from a trip to Maine. We found the info in this guide to be very helpful in finding 21 lighthouses, most of which were well hidden. Without this map/guide, we would not have found most of them since they are usually not well sign posted.



2. On medium-weight, semi-glossy paper, this beautiful and durable map folds out to approximately 2 feet by 3 feet. On one side is a three-color highway map of the coast of Maine, inlaid with paragraphs on many of the lighthouses and framed by watercolor pictures of about two dozen. The reverse side describes all 65 of Maine's lighthouses; the descriptions give a short history, the optimal viewing spot, directions, contact information, hours of operation, transportation options, etc.

   If you are interested in lighthouses, Maine, nautical history or maps, you will probably love this great map. Travellers will find it indispensable. What a bargain!




3. I actually expected a booklet. All you get is a single piece of paper folded like a map. The descriptions are OK, and it does point out locations accurately. But, I really expected more.



4. This guide will surely come in handy, but as someone has already stated, real lighthouse pictures would have been better than illustrations.
   Still, I wish I had had(?) one of these for directions to lighthouses in other trips we've made to New England. So many are really hard to find...especially for tourists!
   It was "as advertised."
   Thanks.



5. This guide is a concise and fairly informative pamphlet for those travelling along the Maine coast. It is very inexpensive, and does not take up much space, but covers all the lighthouses one might run into along the coast.