Tours and Travel Books

I live in the heart of Ghost town country. I knew about some of them, but the place is rotten with them; and this book located these bits of bygone history for me. Even my old office building sits on the bones of an old ghost town I'd never heard of. If you love Colorado (and you should) and history and adventure and beautiful back country driving and hiking, this book is the one you want. Buy it and carry it with you. I've seen others and this is by far the most complete and up to date.
-P-

I love this book. It is very extensive. There are 3 volumes in this series- this one (which is Volume 2), plus Volume 1 (Northern region) and Volume 3 (Southern region...

What is nice is that these books are pretty updated (1999). Some of the Colorado ghost town books that I have looked at are very outdated- published around the 1970's.

This book (as well as the other 2 in the series) are very thick books-this one has 616 pages!)
It is packed full of infomation.
Some ghost town books leave some of the smaller, lesser-known ghost towns out- but these 3 volumes have them all!

There are black and white photos for each ghost town- plus the fascinating history behind each one. Some even have updated information listed about the town- such as how the Ghost town of Guffey (originally called Freshwater)once had a dog as Mayor-and they now have a cat as Mayor!! (This is true).

In this book- Volume 2- Central Region- it includes these counties:
Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin, Park, Lake, Teller, Chaffee and Gunnison.
The ghost towns listed are NUMEROUS- but here are just some of them:

Redstone, Ruby, Ashcroft, Aspen (once called "Ute City"), Carbondale, Emma, Dotsero, Independence, Gilman, Gold Park, Cripple Creek, Altman, Anaconda and Mound City, Tabor City, Dayton, Guffey, Fairplay, Buckskin Joe, Como,
White Pine, Tincup, Sargents, Quartz, Pitkin, Ohio City, Pieplant,Marble, Irwin, Iola, Gothic. Crystal, Crested Butte,
Romley, St. Elmo, Monarch, Buena Vista, Garfield, and etc.....

There are many, many more towns in this book- I just can't list them all!

Take this enjoyable book along while exploring some of Texas' most outstanding yet least known family fun spots. Full of humorous history and highlights about small towns, state parks, trail rides, boat excursions and swimming holes. Includes Enchanted Rock, Bandera, Lost Maples, Westcave Preserve, Fredericksburg and much more!

Gone for the Day, as it is titled, would lead one to believe that it is simply a book about day trips. Naturally, I made the same assumption, purchased the book, and found a wonderfully written,humerous,folk tale of central Texas. This is a book that should be bought for the read, and not the road.

It's almost as if there are two Grand Canyons. There's the one on the calendars and post cards, the big view from the rim. Then there's the inner canyon, the one experienced only by river runners and hikers. And sometimes--rarely--by readers. Rarely because it's hard to do justice to the canyon. The canyon is all about Time, and it takes a lot of time to even start to get to know it well.

The University of Arizona's Desert Places series teams up leading authors and photographers to offer personal explorations of famous landscapes. Yes, in its desert climate too the inner canyon is quite different from the cool, pine forest rim. The team for the Grand Canyon is Ann Zwinger and Michael Collier, both of whom have spent a great deal of time getting to know the canyon. And it shows.

In the course of the river trip in this narrative, Ann Zwinger offers us her usual graceful exploration of wonders large and small. She is a careful naturalist who notices the smallest patterns, yet she is also ready to find the largest poetry: "I work my fingers into the interstices of this cool rough rock that contains all earth's hopes and dreams. I think that if there is any place I can ever come close to glimpsing the age of this earth, the forces that formed it, the heat that melded it, the seas that overlay it, the time out of mind of sand grains formed, raindrops fallen, breezes wafted, sunshine shafting, all that went on and on in dogged perseverence, millennium after millennium--it is right here, right now."

Grand Canyon photographers seem prone to the same syndrone as canyon painters. You can usually tell which ones have spent too little time here: they've learned the rules of landscape painting in art school, and now they try to force those rules onto the canyon. But the canyon has its own unique rules, rules made of light and shadow and subtlty. Most artists and photographers aim for grandeur, not even grasping the concept that the inner canyon is an intensely intimate place. Fortunately Zwinger's intimate prose is matched by Collier's intimate photos. A rim tourist wouldn't even recognize many of them as being the Grand Canyon: there are slot canyons, flowers, rock formations. But best of all, half of the photos feature people, usually small figures against a sinuous landscape, often only shadows, shadows pondering, shadows that are not anyone in particular but universal human shapes. Shadows that evoke some of the mystery of canyon and time, life and earth.

A work of impressively accessible scholarship, Grand Canyon: Little Things In A Big Place, knowledgeably authored by Ann Zwinger (Adjunct Professor, Colorado College) and illustrated with black and white photography from Michael Collier offers an intimate and descriptive survey at the awe-inspiring spectacle of the Grand Canyon including the rare beauty and striking imagery of one of the world's greatest natural wonders as well as a comprehensive and brief exploration into its more precise recreational and geological complexities. Grand Canyon: Little Things In A Big Place is very strongly recommended for all readers searching for an overall introduction to the Grand Canyon, as well as those aspiring to vacation in exploration of the great wonder for its remarkable detailing and timeless perspective of the panoramic sight.

This companion to the PBS program is a fine armchair read for any fascinated by railroads and travel: it takes a cross-country trip behind the scenes of American roads, presenting eight chapters which celebrate multi-day rail journeys. Rail history and scenery alike are presented in colorful, photo-packed chapters.

TRAINS Magazine says this book is top-notch reading for anyone who has heard the call of the rails, and I have to agree.
The rail adventures profiled in this volume celebrate the beauty, history, and romance of railway travel. View coastlines, canyons, mountains, rushing rivers, Native villages and world-class cities. This book is for anyone who has a passion for riding the rails and for the curious. Come take an armchair ride on The Alaska Railroad, The Adirondack, view Copper Canyon, The American Rockies, The Canadian Rockies, ride the West Coast's Coast Starlight, ride the rails through the American South, and thrill to the narrow gage Gold Rush Train out of Skagway --
enjoy your own Great American Rail Journey. GREAT GIFT!

I just discovered this series of books - and just ordered The Great History Search. It's a fun book that both my 5 and 9 year old girls enjoy - and me too! Each page is a starting point for a discussion on a country/area, with a brief explanation of the different things you search for in each place. Places covered include: USA; Amazon Rainforest; Iceland; Greece; Morocco; Trinidad; The Alps; The Middle East; East Africa; Siberia; China; India; Thailand; Japan and Australia. An added challenge is that you don't progress through the book from front to back. You have to solve another puzzle to find which place you should go to next! Kids wouldn't even realize they were learning they're having such fun!

This book has been a big hit with my 5 y.o. son. He loves Waldo type search books and this book has similar searches, but also incorporates different cultures, new vocabulary, and tidbits of information. This book has been a great starting point for many discussions about other cultures and other countries. I'm looking forward to bringing the History Search book out of our attic soon too.

Out of the other reference guides, this is the one that is more down to the earth. I read it and then I decided to go to Mexico. It proved to be a great reference for my trip. It covered the most important attractions. It is a little bit outdated in pricing and some of the newest attractions, but it does not affect the quality of the information presented. The rest of the guides were not a representation of the reality of Mexico. This one is.

There is no other guide better than EyeWitness when you are travelling. Perhaps if you are doing backpacking, it will not solve your need to know bus stops, schedules, taxi fares, etc. However, it offers plenty of cultural info, colourful diagrams, suggested walking trips, and offers a good historical and social background for what you are about to visit. In this case, being a Mexican, I feel Eyewitness offers a very good idea of the Mexican social and cultural environment, not only for first-time travelleres, but even to natives as I am.

With this book you wo`n't get lost in Rome, buy it and go to Rome. In my last trip this was my guide...

I just came home from a short holiday in Rome, and my days there would not have been the same without this Eyewitness Travel Guide. The book is filled with colorful informations, with maps and pictures, and it is very easy to follow the streets of Rome using this book.
The chapters are divided into areas of Rome, and the book is perfect when you want to plan your days visiting the different areas. The book also has a very good informative section of where to eat, what to eat, where to stay and so on.
All in all a handy book you can hardly live without when you travel in Rome.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Any San Francisco guidebook can send you to the most popular restaurant in town or direct you to a museum. A really good one can fill you in on the historical significance of that plaque at the corner of Bush & Burrit and give you a brief biography of Emperor Norton. But only the best of them can guide you to the sites of famous murders, hauntings, weirde occurences and centers of supernatural energy.

Eldritch Weirde has compiled a wonderful guide for the morbid with "A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco", and it is deserving of a sequel, as well as to be reprinted a thousand times over. Certainly, it is lacking in information on restaurants, hotels and musea, but that isn't why you bought the book, now is it? You read it to be entertained and titillated, excited and disturbed. And you will be.

This is the best "guide" book i've ever read. Details all the strange historical sites in the city, mysterious ghosts and hauntings, and where to find them. Also tells about a few odd ducks which might be sighted here, like the infamous sf twins who walk around the city arm in arm. They must be in their sixties but always wear matching frilly little girl dresses. (Think Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!) Using this book as a guide, you will get a much more memorable experience than the average tourist. Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg are about six months apart but very close in distance and in personal. These are the last two great victories the Army of Northern Virginia would enjoy. The Union army would finally get a commander structure that would stand and fight as intelligently as possible. Never again, would Lee find victory through failures of the other army commander. There are many firsts in these battles and no easy answers. This excellent book covers both battles in detail and gives us the Battle at Salem Church too. I had this book with me when touring this area and recommend it to you. I would never have found many sites without it.
The series format is directions to a point on the field, orientation, a general lesson on what happened in your view, followed by first person accounts of the action. These guides are designed using the general staff training concept of a Staff Ride. This is when a class is taken to a historic location, discuss what happened and see how the terrain influences the event. Staff Rides are designed to be intensive "on the ground" training coupled with physical observation in the hopes students will gain experience for later use.
I am not saying this to frighten you away from this guide but to tell you this is not a walk about and look at the monuments type of guide. This guide will have several pages devoted to the action at this point. It may contain a critique of the local commander's actions with possible alternates.
My experience is that reading the book prior to my visit works best. This allows me more time observing the field and less time reading the book. Of the tour options, a professional guide is usually the best but most expensive choice. The park driving tour is the best choice for a quick trip through the field to get the kids passport stamp. This book is the best choice for a serious student of the battle looking for a detailed explanation.

These series of books are the best available resource for conducting ACW battlefield tours - assuming that your purpose in touring battlefields is to study and understand the applicable tactics, strategy and terrain and to develop an appreciation for the objectives and efforts of the participants. If you go to ACW battlefields to gawk and gossip as an everyday tourist then you do not need to study these guides. If you have an active interest in ACW history, military history in general or fascinating chapters in human history, then these guides are remarkable values, "Best Buys". Thorough but not intimidating, insightful and objective, with no deficiencies noted.

When you go on vacation what kind of hotel do you look for? A five star ediface that has twenty-four hour entertainment, heated pool and room service to die for? Or do you look for that quaint out of the way inn where you can relax the day away? Or do you prefere a bed and breakfast, where you can feel like you are part of the neighborhood for a few days? Or do you look for that room with an ocean view? All of those kinds of hotels are okay, but if you really want something different, why not check out a haunted hotel.

Would you like to meet nursemaid Annie who haunts the Kendall Manor in Alabama? Or would you rather meet the ghost of Thomas Rowe who haunts the Don Cesar resort in St. Petersburg, Florida? Or perhaps you'd like to get to know the night watchman at Kennebunk Inn in Maine. Oh, did I forget to mention that the watchman is dead?

Yes, you too can visit a haunted hotel, maybe see a ghost, and you'd want to see a friendly ghost, so stay away from the Overlook Hotel. Anyway, if you want to meet a ghost in a haunted hotel, this is the book for you. Very well written too. A delight to read.

Review by Vesta Irene

This book will help you decide where to (and not to) stay when you go on trips. The stories were well told, and enjoyable.