Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(14 customer reviews) 11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Helps you see the whole state,
January 18, 2007 N. Madsen "N8Ma" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lonely Planet : California : Life Is Great in the Golden State (Lonely Planet California) (Paperback)
Most people can say they know San Francisco/Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County, or San Diego. These are the places people typically hit up when they plan a trip to CA. Having lived several years in SoCal, I found this book opened my eyes to all the state has to offer. It balances the sections on the large cities with other destinations and activities. You can easily stay with friends in LA or SFO and get a better tour of the town than the book can offer, but what about Death Valley or the Redwoods or PCH? This is where the book has been of great help to me.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Los Angeles native - not happy with purchase,
March 31, 2010 D. Schwartz (LA, CA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Lonely Planet California (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)
I am a Los Angeles native and I found this book to be very difficult to use and with very little useful information. If there is too much information in California to include enough information about a site, perhaps LP shouldn't publish the title. Listing every potential site without adequate information is not helpful.
I have used the LP Turkey, Bali, and Greece books, and while I think most of the problem with this book stems from LP's confusing and cluttered format (which was a problem for those books as well), this book was less useful for my California traveling than those other books were, although I cannot put my finger on why that is.
I am thinking of getting the Fodor's guide instead. From what I have seen on Amazon's preview, Fodor's format looks like it is more user friendly. If only Rick Steve's published a California guide.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A great guide, also for abroad tourists,
October 29, 2005 J. E. Karlskov "The Dane" (Smorum, Denmark) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lonely Planet : California : Life Is Great in the Golden State (Lonely Planet California) (Paperback)
This guide is a very well-written and inspiring guide to California - also for non-US tourists. It maintains a fine balance between background infomation and suggestions for sights, locations and places to stay and eat worth visisting.
I also fancy the small embedded maps including city maps. One obstacle, however, is that the maps, due to the thickness of the book, are somewhat difficult to use while driving. I would welcome more expandable maps.