No comments about Benchmark Washington Road & Recreation Atlas (Benchmark Map: Washington Road & Recreation Atlas).

5 comments about 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington, 3rd Edition (100 Hikes).

1. I have lived in Oregon for twenty years, I bought one of the first editions of this book, found it on my shelf yesterday. I can say its the best hiking book around, reading it was a trip down memory lane. I have done a lot of hiking, biking, kayaking over the years. Bought a new copy , time to redo a lot of my favorite hikes, Hamilton Mountian, Dog mt.
   This edition is improved, the flower guide is really nice.
   The best feature of this book is the small sctech maps showing the elevation and trails. No, it does not replace a real map, but its nice to have a viusual. ( years ago I was doing the Ramona falls hike and I meet a couple backpacking arounf Mt. Hood without a map! and they were lost!)
   If you want an guide to the best day hiking in the Portland area,this is it .



2. This updated NW Oregon hiking guide is an ideal daypack essential for visitors and residents alike. Bill is a peripatetic author whose slide shows I attend as often as I can, and this third edition was the subject of one of those. He's a friendly and most genial speaker/writer/ hiker whose words and pictures literally 'pop' from the page and propels the casual reader to 'take a hike'. The 2nd edition was good, but this edition's colorful photos of landscapes and wildflowers, plus traveler-friendly easy-to-follow directions and (new!) campgrounds/cabins listings puts it into the 'must-have' category. As a frequent hiker on Friends of the Columbia Gorge outings, I rely on his impeccably accurate descriptions of each hike. I also recommend Timberline Press Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest plus Moon Handbooks Columbia River Gorge for things to do before and after your explorations!



3. If you live in the Portland area and like to hike, this book is a must own. Sullivan's reputation as the definitive source for hiking information is well deserved. And this wonderful, well-researched and incredibly detailed book is the only item I need when I am out hiking (aside from food and water)!
   
   Not only does it serve as a clear and accurate guide to the hikes of the area, the book makes you feel as if you need to hike all of these hikes.



4. Typically, I buy Falcon Guides, but in this case I would recommend this guide. Not that the Falcon Guides of this area are bad, but this book is preferred. The author's living in the area shins through. His recommendations on hikes are excellent, and I found the book easy to use.



5. I checked the first edition of this book out from the library and then I didn't want to return it I liked it so much. A lot of other hiking books are hard to read and don't have pictures to help you visualize where you're going. When I saw the new edition with COLOR PICTURES, I had to buy it. This book is great-- it gives good directions, it has a picture for each hike, it even tells you if there is a campsite to say overnight or if you should expect crowds. Trail etiquette is also a good thing to include; hopefully people actually take it to heart. I love the handdrawn sketches of the trail; they do a great job of showing the topography of the hike. If you live in Portland and like getting out, this book should be at the top of your list. So many beautiful places so close by. There was one beautiful hike that was literally across the river from my favorite campsite, and I never would have found it without this book!

5 comments about Washington Atlas & Gazetteer.

1. This is my second gazetteer I wore the first one out. If you ever want to get lost or not get lost you need this map. This is a very detailed map and works great for planning outings to anywhere. The only thing I don't like is the contour lines, they need to be a little easier to read, for me at least. Still you can't beat this for the price!



2. If you're going to purchase a DeLorme item, buy the latest edition you can find. DeLorme creates new editions when they receive too many complaints about inaccuracies. Therefore, an out-of-date edition may be utterly worthless for your purposes. The most common corrections apply to settled areas, but many rural and wilderness areas have significant changes, too.



3. These Delorme Atlas & Gazetters are wondeful. They show you many features not available through GPS, maps or other atlases. It is a great feature to have the BLM lands marked as well as the back roads. Good resources are also included in each states atlas. A good addition to anyone's travel tools.



4. Gazetteer has a great deal of information including camping, hiking, paddling, and biking locations. Many trails throughout the Olympic Peninsula are easily identifiable on the topographic maps.



5. I bought this book for information on hunting areas and learning more abut the state I live in and this is the best map/resource book i have ever seen, used, or owned.

1 comments about Hidden Washington: Including Seattle, Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, Olympic Peninsula, Cascades and Columbia River Gorge (Hidden Travel).

1. [...] One of my computer-side companions has been Hidden Pacific NW and now Hidden Washington. I've seen a lot of the state and know Eric Lucas knows Washington, so his book is a great reference when needed. What I really like is his "hidden" finds at different places. If you want a book that portrays a true picture of what you might find in Washington and is easy to use, Lucas's book fits the bill. I would recommend it for all visitors and newcomers to the state.

2 comments about Fodor's Around Washington, D.C. with Kids, 5th Edition (Around the City with Kids).

1. I purchased this book after getting a great deal on a hotel in a posh DC neighborhood. While I was excited about the hotel, I was quite concerned about finding affordable, child-friendly places to eat in the area. I chose this guide because along with descriptions of kid appropriate attractions, it recommends nearby eateries. The recommended places to eat were just what I needed to keep our daytime food expenses reasonable. Be warned that many of the recommended attractions are either seasonal or too far from public transportation to reach on foot (we traveled pre-Memorial Day and swore not to drive in DC traffic after parking our car at our hotel). Also, you'll need a separate map because only street addresses are provided. Otherwise, it was a helpful, compact travel book that paid for itself in meal money saved.



2. My 10 year old son loves this book and so do I! It tells us the important stuff, location, contact info, prices, ages & hours. It also gives us little things like places to eat and fun other thing to notice and do while we are at each place. We LOVE this book!

2 comments about Day Hiking, Olympic Peninsula (Done in a Day).

1. I have been patiently waiting for this book to release ever since Father's Day of 2006. I met author Craig Romano on the trail and he featured individual pictures of me and my dad in two areas of this guide. At first, I wanted to pick up the book for its sentimental value but as I began to look through the pages I realized that there were a plothora of trails to chose from. I came across trails I have never seen written up in any guide book including the Theler Wetlands in Belfair, Twanoh State Park near Union and Penrose Point State Park. The driving directions and trail descriptions are highly accurate and there is a quick breakdown of each hike outlining the difficulty, open seasons, corresponding maps and accessibility. Each hike has been meticulously researched and it is evident that a great amount of time and effort went in to making this book as accurate and descriptive as possible. Out of all of the Olympic Peninsula trail guides I have read, this is quite possibly the best out there.



2. I picked up this book yesterday at the mountaineers bookstore after patiently waiting for it for weeks and I'm happy to say the wait was most definitely worth the wait.
   
   This title is a great revision of the classic '100 hikes' series perfectly geared for the modern hiker. The text is much more concise and direct with much clearer maps and directions. Gone are the Harvey Manning style trail reviews that often turned into personal meditations where meaning and fact had to be gleaned with much care. As is evident by the title, the focus is also entirely on Day Hiking, with a scant minority of the hikes exceeding 10 miles round trip. This is in sharp contrast to the classic hikes series in which most volumes were heavily slanted toward multi-day backpacking treks. This probably bodes well for the old series staying in print as it will still have a definitive niche. There is also a much greater emphasis given to year round hikes with many low elevation destinations included in the whopping 125 hikes listed in the book.
   
   My one complaint would be that the snazzy 'hike overview chart' at the beginning of the book misses out on a few helpful details that would make finding a desirable hike quickly easier, specifically these details would be elevation gain, specific months accessible and the subjective star rating of the hike's overall quality that. All these details are of course available for each hike in the meat of the book. What is included in the overview chart are things such as whether or not the hike is accessible year round, what scenic features each possesses, and subjective difficulty level on a 1-6 scale. Amusingly only one hike rates a 6 for difficulty which translates to "beyond strenuous".
   
   Overall a great launch to a new series. I'm highly looking forward to the Snoqualmie & South Cascades editions (both written by a different author) and hopefully many more to come after that!

No comments about Zagat 2008 Washington, DC Baltimore Restaurants.

3 comments about Frommer's Washington State (Frommer's Complete).

1. I found this to be an excellent user friendly, tradtional tourist guide book. However, it was published in 1998 and would be better if updated. It offers "The best of" in more than a dozen categories such as restaurants, B&Bs, hikes, etc which gives good starting points for trip planning. Phone numbers and web site address are available to obtain more detailed information on areas of interest. A map of "Washington State Driving Times " was very helful since we have found that in unfamiliar locations, driving times are sometimes easy to misfigure based only on milage.

   Like other Frommer's guide books that I have used, I find this type of advice the best because it lists good choices from expensive to budget. For an average family tourist, this book is an excellent general guide.




2. This book is a Gem! We found it highly informative, accurate, and useful on our recent trip to Seattle and Ocean Shores, Washington. The book provides the essentials without being too wordy. Interesting tidbits galore! One example of the book's usefulness was a recommendation to dine at Ocean Crest Resort in Moclips because "you won't find a more spectacular view anywhere on the Washington coast." Well, from the outside, this Resort is nothing special. In fact, were it not for the book, we never would have thought of stopping there. But are we glad. What a view! Dense trees, framing an ocean view, with a winding wooden staircase leading in erratic zig zags down to the beach below. It was worth the cost of the book! ....



3. We only cracked this book open for comparisons to the Moon book and found Frommers lacking. Frommers had very few suggestions if any in the smaller towns for lodging and eating. Carried info only on the expensive restaurants and lodging :(

5 comments about Lonely Planet Washington, DC.

1. An easily portable and thoroughly user friendly compendium of invaluable information on America's capital, "Washington, DC: City Guide" offers more than maps, but provides a complete introduction to the city in terms of its nightlife, arts, history, sights, and memorials. Of special note is the section on the 'National Mall'. Whether the traveler is in Washington for business or pleasure, this outstanding and very highly recommended guide offers descriptive recommendations for walking and biking tours, dining establishments, bars, entertainment, activities, shopping, sleeping, and excursions. Enhanced with the inclusion of a directory, an index, and maps, "Washington, DC: City Guide" is the ideal companion when planning a stay in one of the most dynamic of America's major cities.



2. Good book, lots of detail, good maps, good details of accomodation (though this is a bit pointless in the internet age I think), food options... just a standard, good LP. If you like format of LP you'll like this.



3. I took this book with me on a one week trip to DC. I was mightily disappointed. It started with the trip from the airport. I had to pre-plan on the internet, which took awhile, because the book offers no advice for getting from BWI or Dulles into DC.
   
   There is no useful information on how to get around DC, most notably to the Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR Memorials. It wasn't until the end of the trip that I figured out what options there were for public transportation to this end of the mall and the Tidal Basin. A good guidebook should guide you, not make you search all week for the answer.
   
   The authors apparently used a car to get around. Lots of info on parking spaces. So if you're traveling by car (fat chance at hotel parking being $41 a night), this book might be for you.
   
   The restaurant listings dwell excessively on expensive places to eat. Mostly with bad food. I guess if you can afford to park in DC, you can afford to spend $50 on a bad dinner.
   
   Contrary to another reviewer below, the book seemed to be entirely without opinion, at least where it was needed. But this has been a pattern at LP lately. The Air and Space Museum? Feels like walking into a museum that hasn't been changed since 1986. All the guys walking around with sub-machine guns strapped over their shoulders? Makes you feel like you're visiting El Salvador. And the 'bag checks' at the Smithsonians, one after another, each making you hold your bag in a specific way unique to each security guard. Those would be useful opinions.
   
   You can get just as much useful information as contained in this book (actually more) from the DC's visitors websites.



4. I went for a vacation in Washington DC for a week. This book kept me going. I had a little problem with their updates (the walking tour for Embassy Row still lists a certain mansion as the Pakistani Embassy, but it turns out that the embassy moved somewhere else back in 2005, a good two years ago). But aside from that, things were still well-covered.
   
   I disagree with the previous reviewer saying that there were no directions from BWI or IAD, but p. 263 gives the information about this. Regarding public transportation in the National Mall and Tidal Basin, there aren't a lot of options, but all the available options were given in the extensive maps at the back of the book. One really should prepare for large amounts of walking for this area of the city. And regarding the parking spaces, the book also gives information about how to get to places using public transportation, for every time that they give information about parking spaces. So I do not see why it can be concluded that the authors researched this using a car.
   
   A travel guide is just that, just a guide. It shouldn't be mistaken for a tour operator. One should not rely on it a hundred percent. It simply gives suggestions on where to go and what to visit. For my purposes, it served its purpose well.



5. Being a travel junky I found this guidebook very valuable. Some points:
   
   1. It has color maps all located in the same place (back of the book). On the backside of each map is an index with a page reference! So you see the map, you flip and find the attraction/restaurant/whatever, and you go to the referenced page for more info. This is invaluable since the last thing I like doing is flipping through maps embedded throughout a book only to not get any information on what's around me.
   
   2. Did I mention the maps? There is also a subway map overlay on each map so you can plan getting there and getting back. There's also a complete map at the very back.
   
   3. It's a compact book. This is a BIG deal. Lug around a monstrous book for a day and you'll be ripping out unneeded pages later that night (which is a good idea anyway, really). This guide was slim and fit nicely in an outside pocket. Just enough history to occupy the time on the subway, not so much as to displace Washington's biography.
   
   4. It's a well built book. Bend it, fold it, get it wet. It's going to stay together and readable. While weathered guide books held together with rubber bands show some flair, it's no good when you're standing there on a corner with pages falling all over.
   
   Overall a highly recommended guide book. I try and find the best overall guide book for whatever my destination and keep coming back to the Lonely Planet.

1 comments about Rail-Trails Mid-Atlantic: Covers Trails in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D. C. (Rails-To-Trails).

1. This book is a wonderful guide to bike trails. It makes planning trips easy and fun, and it's very descriptive about the specifics of each trail (gravel, grass, paved, etc.)
   
   I thought I could just find this info on the internet, but to no avail, so I bought the book. I was nicely surprised that the book is exactly what I needed, good descriptions of each trail and a good map, AND how to get to the beginnings of each trail.