Moon New England (Moon Handbooks)

I found this guide the clearest and most usable guide for a short trip to New England. It was also the most help for a few days in Boston. I tore the Boston section out of the book and used it for the few days we were able to go into the city. The guide I bought on Boston was not as clear and proved largely useless for the short time we were in the city. I looked at the Frommer & Lonely Plant guides and found this one much clearer. The regions covered in the book have a page of highlights with a brief description and a map of the area with the suggested sites to visit on the map. A more detailed description follows in the next section. I used the websites mentioned to print out directions to the sites and the phone numbers to call ahead to confirm details. I prefer Rick Steves Guides for Europe. This is the best I have found so far in a United States guide.

This guide is a bit hit or miss. If you happened to have the exact taste as the authors, then I suppose this would be a good choice. But otherwise, this guide seems to like certain off-beat things a lot, while ignoring some major attractions. For example, on the top 7 things to see in Boston, the Mapparium (funky stained-glass globe exhibit from the 30s) and the Harvard Museum of Natural History (small and dusty museum) make the list while major things like Newbury Street, the Boston Public Gardens and Faneuil Hall don't. Go figure. These guys must really like museums! Also, the food selections are more about the ambiance and food. If you're a foodie, look somewhere else.

This is a good guidebook. The opening information for each area was well-written. It lists things to do and see in a general vicinity with dates, times, and costs for each. The index is superior to other guides we have used. Most of the restaurant recommendations were great with one notable exception in Sandwich, MA and that place was just weird. The binding allowed an entire section to be carefully removed to carry around in pocket or purse without lugging the whole book. We will look at Moon Handbooks for all of our future travels.