Best General Western US Travel Guides

Dear Bob and Sue is the story of our (Matt and Karen Smith) journey to all 59 U.S. National Parks. Still, another quotes Karen as saying that men who use a laptop while it sits directly on their lap expose themselves to the risk of “cooking their testicles.” For the sake of full disclosure, Karen’s testicle comment offends Matt as well. We also talk about drinking beer and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Matt and Karen have been married for over 34 years and live in the Seattle, Washington area.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I loved this book!"
"St. Helens, the Columbia River Gorge, the Oregon Coast, Redwood National & State Parks, and Great Basin National Park. I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes as I would read aloud excerpts to my husband."
"I loved this account of Matt and Karen's national park adventures."
"I really enjoyed this book ..."
"You not only learn about visiting all our National Parks but meet Karen and Matt and laugh and agonize along with them as they travel."
"The emphasis upon alcohol consumption and even getting drunk, was puzzling because it - and the childish behavior in hotels, restaurants, out in the parks - conflicted with the authors' claim that they are middle aged adults who have raised a family and are turning 50. I kept reading beyond the point of finding the book somewhat repetitive, and rather annoying in the way that the couple began racing to parks just long enough to get the park stamp, take a quick hike, then mark that park "done" because I wanted to read about their experiences in two of my favorite parks: Acadia National Park in Maine and Badlands in South Dakota. The project was a worthy one but it occurred to me that it was a race, not a journey, done just to turn out a book, or to travel and be able to deduct the cost on their taxes. (I'm thinking I might be wrong about that, but the book gives one that impression: that it's all about getting the passports stamped and to be able to say they did it.)."
"There are a lot of honest and funny descriptions of those kinds of irritations one has to endure when they spend so much time together. The idea that thousands of people are reading about how it seems to be ok to touch things and otherwise think the rules are there for other people is pretty much my last straw."
"I now know that if one wants to, one can see most of the National Parks staying in accommodations other than motels, one can find pizza and beer near by and one can get by on an endless supply of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."

It features a durable vinyl binding and brilliant full-color photographic identification pictures arranged for quick access and definitive text, including information on the bird's voice, nesting habits, habitat, range, and interesting behaviors. Introduced in 1977 and completely revised in 1994, these bestselling photographic field guides have become the birding bibles of more than four million enthusiasts.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"You can't go wrong with an Audubon book of any sort if you are curious about your winged, scaled, or slithery neighbors."
"Very helpful book, although there are some in my area of NE Arizona that are not in the book."
"Hopefully our nephew will love this gift!"
"Can't be beat for the backyard birdied."
"Gave this as a gift, my mom liked it."

This travel guide includes: · Dozens of full-color maps. · Hundreds of hotel and restaurant recommendations. · In-depth breakout features on great lodges of the National Parks, tips for stargazing, exploring the Colorado River, and Yellowstone’s Old Faithful. · Covers: Arches National Park, Badlands National Park, Banff National Park, Big Ben National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Channel Islands National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Death Valley National Park, Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Great Basin National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Jasper National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Redwood National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Saguaro National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Zion National Park. “Fodor’s is pitched a few notches higher….aimed at a fairly discerning traveler with an appetite for background and the occasional surprise.” – New York Times.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It gave us lots of idea, great descriptions, and even some things to do that were not known to us from the National Park information."
"I used this Guide to plan a Western Parks trip for this coming September."
"Even with lots of information available on Internet, it was worth to have accurate info (in one place, easy to find) about everything we need to know before going."
"This is well written and very well organized."
"AAA+++ Great book and very thorough with a quick delivery !!"
"My wife and I enjoy reading about the different parks and what they have to offer."
"The guide is perfect for traveling to the Northwest and will be invaluable as we travel."
"Can't wait to visit Yellowstone!"
Best Big Island Hawaii Travel Books

From a colorful cover to 39 accurate maps and details on 60 snorkeling sites, and pictures of 64 of the best beaches, SHTBI draws you into the fascinating underwater world that shouldn't be missed by anyone touring the Big Island. 37 detailed color maps get you there fast. Underwater photography by Jay Torborg.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Found some nice spots with this book."
"The Snorkel Hawaii guide was a great resource for planning our snorkel stops before and during the trip."
"Best comprehensive list of snorkel sites, review of how good they are, and how to get to them that I found."
"This was a gift for my son in law for a trip to the Big Island."
"Very interesting, lots of good tips on where the best places to snorkle are located on the island."
"This book will help us make the most of our time searching out the best snorkel spots on the Island of Hawaii."
"This book gives you great directions and explanations of the greatest snorkel and scuba spots on the Big Island."
"Might be a little too thorough but thats better than missing some places."
Best Honolulu Hawaii Travel Books

Written by the author of the best-selling guides, Maui Revealed, Hawaii The Big Island Revealed and The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook. "Wizard continues to produce information, maps and photographs that are all first-rate, and--even better!"
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"These are the best guide books for Hawaii."
"Plenty of shopping, snorkeling, sightseeing, and water sports. Most of the people are nice in Hawaii, but we did run into a druggie or two."
"However, without breaking the law or running past security guards, you can actually legally hike to the top another route.. but you'll have to open page 212, once your book arrives in a day or two..."
"bought a used book..and the person before me had interesting comments everywhere... which i like."
"Everyone has told me how much they enjoy reading the book. I leave this book on the bedside table in our guest room and all our guests have enjoyed looking at the really nice pictures and reading it."
"It was the perfect thing to read prior to the trip and gave us some really great ideas."
"This book is a great guide to Oahu written by people who now live on the Island and know what the locals know."
"This is the best book."
Best Kauai Hawaii Travel Books

Best-selling author and longtime Hawai i resident, Andrew Doughty, unlocks the secrets of an island so lush and diverse that many visitors never realize all that it has to offer. Explore with him as he reveals breathtaking trails, secluded beaches, pristine reefs, delicious places to dine, relaxing resorts, exciting waterfalls, colorful canyons and so much more. Frank, brutally honest reviews of restaurants, hotels and activities show you which companies really are the best...and which to avoid no advertisements. Driving tours let you structure your trip your way, point out sights not to be missed along the way and are complemented by over 100 spectacular color photographs. Wizard guidebooks take over a year to compile and the writers are residents who personally and anonymously review every facet of the island.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My husband and I went on our honeymoon to Kauai but couldn't rent a car or have enough money to take advantage of all the opportunities Kauai has to offer. It warned us of dangerous terrain and locations depending of the seasons.We were able to go on several hikes and explore hidden gems."
"He gives you a lot of information including historical, local insight and personal experiences."
"Our entire vacation was based off this guidebook!"
"Fun read and you really get a quality sense for what to expect when you would travel to Kauai."
"These are the best guide books for Hawaii."
"This was one of the most useful books to have if you are going to Kauai."
"I absolutely recommend this for anyone going to Kauai."
"This detailed book hits the nail right on the head!"
Best Maui Hawaii Travel Books

The finest guidebook ever written for Maui. Wizard guidebooks take over a year to compile and the writers are residents who personally and anonymously review every facet of the island.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After reading this guide from cover to cover, making all kinds of notes, and cross referencing it with information from internet sources such as Trip Adviser, it's easy to see why it has such high reviews. But after making that decision, this guide devoted to Maui offered FAR more specific insight about things to do and see, where to stay and eat, and all kinds of great details. I generally consider travel guides to be completely useless when it comes to lodging and dining because the information is always so generic, and it is often there because the business paid to have it included. This is the first guide book I've ever used that actually has useful information about lodging and dining."
"We have used Andrew Doughty's Big Island version in the past."
"Mr. Doughty and his team really do get to every nook and cranny on the island and give very honest reviews of simply anything you can imagine."
"Given the nature of the road system and the traffic, it's absolutely necessary to have a guide book that lists more than just the sights to see."
"The best guide book, period..they really have great restaurant recommendactions which we follow and are never disappointed."
"Many of the top picks for activities and so forth have been seconded by my friends who have traveled to Maui therefore I have confidence in the recommendations found in the book. This makes for a very long table of contents to scroll through and I have found it to be overwhelming to read through this section in general. Don't get me wrong, there is some method to the madness as far as the organization of the restaurants (by cuisine and some region), I just don't see the need to list them all in the contents. If I'm really interested in one particular restaurant I've seen along the way then I can search through the book in the Kindle, and I imagine in the paper version there's an index? There are links in the writing to other parts of the Kindle book for things such as photos, maps, or more detailed information on a given topic."
"This is a really great book, but a lot of the pages are blank on my devise."
Best Pacific West United States Travel Books

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. “Strayed’s language is so vivid, sharp and compelling that you feel the heat of the desert, the frigid ice of the High Sierra, and the breathtaking power of one remarkable woman finding her way—and herself—one brave step at a time.” — People (4 stars). — The Boston Globe "One of the most original, heartbreaking, and beautiful American memoirs in years. The cumulative welling up I experienced during Wild was partly a response to that too infrequent sight: that of a writer finding her voice, and sustaining it, right in front of your eyes.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times. Strayed’s journey is exceptional.” — San Francisco Chronicle “One of the best books I’ve read in the last five or ten years. Wild is angry, brave, sad, self-knowing, redemptive, raw, compelling, and brilliantly written, and I think it’s destined to be loved by a lot of people, men and women, for a very long time.” —Nick Hornby. By laying bare a great unspoken truth of adulthood—that many things in life don’t turn out the way you want them to, and that you can and must live through them anyway— Wild feels real in many ways that many books about ‘finding oneself’ . [Strayed] has the ineffable gift every writer longs for of saying exactly what she means in lines that are both succinct and poetic. an inborn talent for articulating angst and the gratefulness that comes when we overcome it.” — The Washington Post “Vivid, touching and ultimately inspiring account of a life unraveling and of the journey that put it back together.” — The Wall Street Journal “Strayed . with a raw emotional power that makes the book difficult to put down. In walking, and finally, years later, in writing, Strayed finds her way again. And her path is as dazzlingly beautiful as it is tragic.” — Los Angeles Times “A fearless story, told in honest prose that is wildly lyrical as often as it is dirtily physical.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune. “This isn’t Cinderella in hiking boots, it’s a woman coming out of heartbreak, darkness and bad decisions with a clear view of where she has been. There are adventures and characters aplenty, from heartwarming to dangerous, but Strayed resists the temptation to overplay or sweeten such moments. Her pacing is impeccable as she captures her impressive journey.” — The Seattle Times “Strayed’s journey was at least as transcendent as it was turbulent. She faced down hunger, thirst, injury, fatigue, boredom, loss, bad weather, and wild animals. Yet she also reached new levels of joy, accomplishment, courage, peace, and found extraordinary companionship.” — The Christian Science Monitor “Strayed writes a crisp scene; her sentences hum with energy. Cheryl Strayed emerges from her grief-stricken journey as a practitioner of a rare and vital vocation. She has become an intrepid cartographer of the human heart.” — Houston Chronicle “A deeply honest memoir about mother and daughter, solitude and courage, and regaining footing one step at a time.” — Vogue “This is a big, brave, break-your-heart-and-put-it-back-together-again kind of book. I snorted with laughter, I wept uncontrollably; I don’t even want to know the person who isn’t going to love Wild. This is a beautifully made, utterly realized book.” —Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted and Cowboys are My Weakness.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Although I did not hike the PCT I did backpack in Yosemite."
"Cheryl Strayed's memoir of an 1100 miles trek on the Pacific Crest trail is an astonishing story of a spectacular and breathtaking adventure of coming to terms with grief and survival during a difficult trek through snow_clad mountains and thick forests for two months beginning in the Mojave desert and hiking through California and Oregon to the Bridge of Gods in Washington."
"This book is not for everyone, you either seem to love it or hate it, but I loved it."
"The author tells her personal story which includes a lot of her flaws and mistakes. I'm grateful for the author's willingness to share this with enough detail to make the reader understand her state of mind and her experience of events."
"Having hiked, during my long life, on four continents, along trails of varying degrees of intensity, I empathised with every painful step this young, intelligent and courageous woman endured on the extremely challenging Pacific Crest Hiking Trail on the North American continent."
"But this book is really less about the PCT and more about the emotional journey which apparently was a good deal more strenuous than the trail. This book documents with chilling honesty the route she took emotionally to deal with that upbringing."
"I am an experienced hiker and Cheryl Strayed was an outdoor person but not a hiker of the type who usually attempts an extreme hike. Her writing is so good that I could envision each part of the trail as she hiked along the PCT."
Best West Mountain United States Travel Books

Inside the Lonely Planet. Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Travel Guide: User-friendly highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices, emergency information, park seasonality, hiking trail junctions, viewpoints, landscapes, elevations, distances, difficulty levels, and durations Focused on the best - hikes, drives, and cycling tours Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, camping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, summer and winter activities, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Contextual insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, geology, wildlife, conservation Over 47 full-color trail and park maps and full-color images throughout Useful features - Travel with Children, Clothing and Equipment, and Day and Overnight Hikes Covers Yellowstone National Park area, Mammoth Country, Roosevelt Country, Canyon Country, Lake Country, Norris, Geyser Country, Bechler Region, Grand Teton National Park area, Jackson and more.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Good description, a bit more plentiful in suggest hotels and restaurants than the Canadian one."
"Can't go wrong with Lonely Planet books."
"It helped us hit a bunch of areas in Teton and Yellowstone with only 2 days to do it in."
"Outlines and provides good descriptions and synopses of hikes and activities."
"Very useful and informative."
"informative but paper was cheap so tore easily."
"Reasonably helpful in planning our trip."
"Just what I needed for a trip next year."