Campsites Books

although i don't do a lot of travelling, i find this handy volume a compleat source of all the information most essential to successful rv camping

I bought this as a gift and it looks like the phone pages. Waste of money for us but would probably be great if I was a truck driver instead of a mom looking for fun places to go camping with the family!

I ordered this for a friend's birthday and hoped it was right. He told me that it was exactly what he wanted and that there is a tremendous amount of valuable information contained in this guide. It was a perfect gift. Excellent and informative guide for Campers and travellers.

Excellent book, sometimes the woodalls ratings are quite my opinion but otherwise a great source.

This is the first book we bought about anything related to camping and we brought it with us on our second trip. It was a life saver. We wanted to stop somewhere else on our way home and were able to find all the information we needed. The size of our space is important to us along with privacy and distance to local attractions. We found a lot of that information at each areas listing, along with a map of each state. Every camper needs a directory.

This book gives good descriptions of how to find the better waterfalls of California. The directions are easy to follow.
Her choice of falls to cover is mostly thoughtful, but Tip Toe Falls is too small and uninteresting to fit my notion of a waterfall, and she omits the much more scenic Pacheco Falls.

I read about this book in the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago and bought a copy. Since then I've bought at least a dozen more (just bought one today!) and given them as gifts to my friends who love the outdoors. The waterfall descriptions in this book are really interesting to read, and the driving and hiking directions are accurate. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to hike. I don't know why some of these reviews complain about the photos in the book. They are beautiful images and make it easy to identify what the waterfall will look like. If there is a negative, it's that they are printed in black-and-white, but then again I believe that was the medium that Ansel Adams preferred.

I am an avid buyer of hiking guidebooks, and this one is a top favorite on my bookshelf. It is so dog-eared from trips to so many waterfalls that I finally had to buy a new copy. The author's directions and descriptions are dead-on accurate. If she says it's a 2.3-mile hike, you can be sure it's a 2.3-mile hike. In addition to showing where all the State's best waterfalls are, she also provides lots of interesting background on local history, natural history, and other good stuff. This book is a fun read and a useful resource.

I have a whole collection of books from Foghorn Outdoors - and several by author Ann Maria Brown - this is another great book in the whole series of hiking books that they publish. For someone like me and my wife, who like to hike to someplace and not just walk around - having a waterfall destination is a great thing and makes the walk more enjoyable. Brown delivers a wonderful guide book for those seeking to find waterfalls in California. This book will take you to small ones and huge ones; famous ones and the obscure ones that only the locals would know about.

We have been going to new waterfalls every time we take a hike and we still have not run out of places to walk. I cannot see us ever making it to all of the ones listed in this book but it is fun trying.

If you are a serious hiker, or like me (just a once in a while weekend hiker) this is the book you should own and keep around. It is also pure fun to read on a cold winter's day by the old fireplace - dreaming about hiking in your mind.

bought this book 3 months ago and have tried to go to four of the waterfall destinations featured. The directions were wrong to two of them (I lost about two hours at one, just driving around trying to find the trailhead). The third one, when I finally reached it, was not exactly what I would call a waterfall. I think this writer needs some lessons in how to write a guidebook. The book appears to be self-published (it's full of photographs of the author's friends, the layout is so garish it looks like it was done by a third-grader, and it is loaded with misspellings and bad punctuation). I read somewhere that this was supposed to be a "coffee-table" style guidebook... what a laugh. Don't waste your money on this one. Buy Shaffer's The Definitive Guide to the waterfalls of Southern and Central California. It has more waterfalls and better pictures.

This book breaks things down for easy use trail planning, including extra excursions and were to camp on both overnight an longer trips . It even gives you info on each camp site. complaint: sometimes the maps are not next to trail you are reading about but next to another trail in the area. All of the campsites on my topo map are not in the book map although they are described in the back.

In preparation for a family vacation in Yellowstone I sampled 4 different hiking books, and this was by far the best. It had the best descriptions, maps, photos, and readability. I liked the way the author categorizes hikes by special interest: fishing, wildlife viewing, etc. It also provides good information on backcountry campsites if you're looking to backpack. There is no index, which is annoying, but otherwise it's a key buy.

I generally like Schneider's guides, and appear to be in the minority here, but I did not love this one. It is a surprisingly thick book with lots of trails; unfortunately most of them are either short tourist strolls or long, multi-day back country excursions. We had difficulty finding hikes that called out to us in the 12-16 mile range (usually not a problem for us - most guides leave us wishing we had 2 weeks to do all the long day hikes we are interested in) and ended up going with ranger recommendations when we got there. If you have 5-10 days for a backcountry trek, this is definitely the book for you. But if you are looking for long day hikes you may want to look elsewhere.

I found this guide indespensible in planning (and executing) my family's trip to Yellowstone. As has been noted, there is a quirky regional grouping problem with this guide (it groups the trails geographically rather than by how they are accessed). Yet this book is far better than any of the others I investigated (Orville Bach's is a distant second still worth investing in).

The Lonely Planet guide to the Yellowstone region really goes hand in hand with this one. The Lonely Planet gives a good overview with some regional coloring. This guide really lets you know what you're up against trail-wise.

One thing that humored me greatly in our jorney across country were the varying uses of "easy, moderate, and strenuous" in the different parks between my house and Yellowstone. A free tip: An "easy" trail in Yellowstone is substantially more difficult than any "strenuous" trail at Mount Rushmore.

Yellowstone is a place of haunting beauty. It was probably inadvisable for me to go at such a young age (I am in my twenties)--I will spend years longing to go back.

Get this guide. Go to Yellowstone. Explore the trails, not just the boardwalks.

You'll never regret it.

There is no place on Earth that I give a higher recommendation (with the possible exception of the Tetons).

This guide lists 109 trails, organized by region and sorted into short, medium, and long hikes. Like other Falcon guides, it provides maps of each trail and valuable information about elevations and steepness. The information is clearly organized, and summarized at the head of each trail listing.

Like other Falcon guides it has a chart listing best flat terrain day hike, best wildlife viewing, most strenuous, best scenery, and so on. The information here is good for those hikes I've taken. Bill Schneider writes well and does a good job describing the hikes so that you can decide which ones are best for you. If you consult just one book on the trails of Yellowstone, this is the one to use.

I'm not fond of the regional organization of the book, which sorts hikes into Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast. Reasonable as that sounds, it's not really how the park is organized spatially. The Belcher area, for example, is a region unto itself that has to be accessed from outside the park in Idaho. Yet this book lumps it together with the trails around Old Faithful. The Southeast trails include those on the South Entrance road, which is really much closer to Old Faithful, as well as trails around Lake and Fishing Bridge, which are closer to Canyon. This means that if you're staying at Old Faithful or Canyon and looking for day hikes nearby, you have to flip back and forth between two (or even three) sections. (See the Lonely Planet Guide for a more successful organizational scheme.)

We used the Foghorn California Camping, Hiking and Beaches books during a trip to California. The beach book didn't let us down with places to eat and beaches to visit. When there are so many beaches to visit and places to eat, it can be hard to narrow down one's choices. The book steered us in the right direction. We had a great time and left with some colorful memories and pictures. Being from Colorado, our trip to California was all about satisfying a need to be near water and this book helped make it a fantastic experience.

I have never before written a review about a book on Amazon, but my positive experience with the Foghorn series has compelled me to do so.

As a local SoCal surfer, I found this book disappointing. The authors chose wit over accuracy. Although the book is a more interesting read than most guidebooks, it feels like it was written BY a tourist, not just FOR the tourists. It falls victim to tiresome cliches as though it were written purely from hearsay accounts of the locations, and not real experience. In addition - and I know surfing was not the main purpose of this book - the information regarding the surf conditions of the california beaches was also inaccurate and skimpy. Not very useful overall.

This book is not just a travel book, it's a social expose of all that is wrong (and right) with Califonia. These guys go beyond the specifics and get right to the heart of what it is like to try and navigate the wild and wooly world of Califonia, not just the beaches, but the guts of the place, too. Lots of funny boxes that I read aloud to my husband as we were driving made our trip infinitely more enjoyable! Best out there!

To Whom It May Concern:
This is not a review but a complaint. I am the co-author of the book in question, California Beaches. The very first customer review on your site is by someone who takes us to task for not being very good at steering surfers to beaches. If we purported to do so, that would be a valid criticism. However, our book is a broad-based guide to public beach access, and places to stay, eat and go out at night. Our book is about a lot of things, in fact, but it isn't, nor does it claim to be, a guide for the surfing cult. To be maligned for something we don't claim to be is unfair. Worse, this erroneous pan is the first review that people see when they come to your site to check out our book. Worse still, it was written about the first edition, which came out seven years ago. We have completely rewritten California Beaches twice since then, and the third edition has just been published. I admire the idea of posting reader feedback but see no reason why our chances of selling books on amazon.com has to be undermined by a review that bases its argument on a false assumption - that the aim of this book is to guide surfers to surfing beaches. I would therefore respectfully request that you remove it from the site. Sincerely, Parke Puterbaugh (Greensboro, NC)

I feel that the title is a misnomer. In my opinion, you go to the beach when you are south of Point Conception and you go to the coast when you are north of Point Conception.

The authors' approach of listing state, local and private facilites is helpful. I would have liked geologic information - for example descriptions of bottom conditions (ie sandy, rocky etc.). However, I realize that a consistent description is geologically impossible. So, I suggest that you get the California Coastal Access Guide as a companion volume and use both to "guesstimate".

Some of this book is available at the publisher's website for free. If at all possible, I suggest that you check out the commentary on the website for a beach and town that you know before purchasing this book. That will give you an idea of the the size of the grain of salt that you will need to take with the commentary. For the beaches and beach towns I know well, I come close to concurring with their opinions. However, I find many of their recommendations for food/lodging/nightlife rather rich for my taste and budget, so I'm looking elsewhere for this information.

I actually bought 4 different guide books to plan my trip Down Under. I ditched 3 of them almost immediately because Frommer's format was easier to read and locating appropriate information quicker. The advice on suggested tours was especially accurate; the boxed information warrants a second (or third) look - Frommer's never steered us in the wrong direction. Take the price information with a grain of salt as seasoned travelers know that pricing can and will fluctuate.

Don't buy any other guides - relax and enjoy your trip. Aussies are the most laid-back, patient crowd on the planet. It's an amazing country!

My life partner and I found Frommer's Australia powerful...entralling...a ferociously well-paced entertainment! We found ourselves knee deep in quicksand and this book, I kid you not, saved our skins. I mean literally! But all in all we found it a smart, craftsman-like, viscerally compelling guide, eh.

I actually bought 4 different guide books to plan my trip Down Under. I ditched 3 of them almost immediately because Frommer's format was easier to read and locating appropriate information quicker. The advice on suggested tours was especially accurate; the boxed information warrants a second (or third) look - Frommer's never steered us in the wrong direction. Take the price information with a grain of salt as seasoned travelers know that pricing can and will fluctuate.

Don't buy any other guides - relax and enjoy your trip. Aussies are the most laid-back, patient crowd on the planet. It's an amazing country!

Our group of six friends just returned from a two week trip to Australia. We did much planning ahead of time using this guide. It was so helpful that even our travel agent was impressed with the information we could give her about our plans to travel by plane, car, and train. Information about each of the cities we visited was right on the money. We stayed in some of the hotels recommended and ate at some of the restaurants. With the information we had ahead of time, our trip went very smoothly. Practically everytime anyone had a question regarding just about anything in the area we were visiting, I just grabbed the book and had the answer.

I went to Australia this summer (or their winter), and I took this book along with me. I read the book on the plane, and it seeemed helpful, but once I got there, I realized the book was lacking. First off - a lot of the places that were discussed in the book (specifically hotel rooms) were grossly misquoted on price. Secondly, the section on Melbourne (where I spent most of my time) I felt was inaccurate and the listing for hotels was extremely small. And the places listed were not very good places either in that they were either too small (and required MONTHS of advanced booking) or were too expensive for the average traveller. I found the Lonely Planet Guide to be much better and more helpful, giving the reader a more objective view of available hotels and eateries. I found a dozen or so inexpensive places to stay and eat that should have made the book. Even the Sydney section (where I also spent some time) was not very good, and the book was too Sydney-centric to be of much use to someone moving about the country. It's obvious that the writers of the book couldn't see beyond Sydney and New South Wales. Hopefully future additions will be more balanced.

If all the pictures were of just the campgrounds, they would all look alike after a while! Instead, it's obvious as can be that the brilliant photography helps one visualize what you can experience if you spend time in these carefully chosen places. The highly readable text describes much more in detail.

Careful readers have noted that no campground gets in the book unless it has clean, accessible bathrooms. The author notes right from the beginning how important that is to many, especially families.

An update would be great. And a version for Southern California, too! This is a great book!

Roland De Wolk makes a big point that every campground he puts in his book has clean, working and accessible bathrooms -- otherwise they wouldn't be suitable for inclusion!

great photos also help decide where to g

De Wolk and Swain put together a very helpful book; but I think Swain decided to take on a bit more artistic license. Some of his photographs are of locations far from the campgrounds (but still within the defined area). For example, the photos of Yosemite Valley were taken about 23 miles away from the campground mentioned in the book. Other photos are of the more "select" campsites like at Samuel Taylor State Park. What you'll see is not necessarily what you'll get.

There's also a debate going on about this book on whether toilets are mentioned or not. A cross-check with Stienstra's "California Camping" book on a sample of 10 camps, plus De Wolks own preface, shows that they recommend camps that have toilets unless mentioned otherwise in the text. What isn't mentioned with consistency is whether or not the camps have hot showers.

The contact information and fees for the parks need to be updated as well. Some of the telephone numbers don't work and there's no forwarding service.

Still, this is a good book if only because it provides a bit more detailed information on these 50 campgrounds than any of the camping bibles. It's NOT the only book I use when choosing a campground for my family but it is a good starting place to get ideas. If you're into family car-camping, you can start with this book and cross-reference the data with books by Foghorn Outdoors (author Tom Stienstra), Menasha Ridge (author Bill Mai), and Frommers guide books.

BTW, some of the campsites mentioned in this book have grown crowded since its publication date. A revised edition is definitely called for.

For a book geared for children, it seems very odd that campground amenities are not detailed. When traveling with young children, flush toilets and showers are very important!

This book is in the glove compartment of my tow vehicle, and with my road atlas is a part of my pretrip planning. Filled with good reviews and site descriptions that have been perfect, it reccommends campsites, gives directions to the parks, hours, ammenities, phone numbers, and services. I have used the guide to book reservations and to locate campgrounds when bad weather is encountered during a trip. This is a great companion to the national book and both are updated from time to time so the information is current. Well worth the few dollars it cost to keep on hand. While I have not encountered a bad campground using this guide, it could happen, so use the phone numbers listed and call ahead to find out about the place you intend to visit. Enjoy the book and Happy RVing.

My husband and I are new to camping and picked this book up a couple of months ago. The amount of detail is amazing, and it has helped us to pick the right places for "beginners." The great thing is that as we become more experienced, we'll still be able to use this book. If you want to camp in Alabama or Georgia, whether you're a new or veteran camper, you need this book!

When I lived in California, I picked up Foghorn Outdoors: California Camping, and I was extremely impressed. The California book is written by Tom Stienstra, a real outdoorsy kind of guy, and it's filled with detailed advice and amusing anecdotes. Best of all, each campground listing provides a detailed, opinionated description which makes it clear that the author has actually personally checked out most, if not all, of the sites. Each site is even rated on a scale from 1 to 10, and there are overview lists like "Best Coastal Hikes." It's a great book.

I was disappointed, then, after moving to Atlanta and ordering Foghorn Outdoors: Alabama & Georgia Camping. Marilyn Sue Windle is no Tom Stienstra. She makes it clear in her introduction that she is fairly new to camping, and didn't even like it until some friends dragged her on a car camping trip an unspecified number of years ago. She does provide some useful advice at the beginning of the book, but most of it comes from her friend Gautam at the Sierra Club, and it's much more from a casual perspective ("My camp bed is more comfortable than many I've found in motels") than Tom Stienstra's ("This made sense to me until the first time I came face-to-face with a nine-foot grizzly 40 yards away.")

Once the introduction is out of the way, you get to the meat of the book. Like the California Foghorn book, this is divided into sections based on map grids, and the locations of each campground are easy to find on the map. You get all the basic statistics about each site, like facilities, reservations, directions, etc. Beyond that, there's just a couple sentences of "trip notes," most of which sound like they were lifted from a park brochure. There is little to indicate that the author has ever been to most of the campgrounds herself (she says in the introduction that she "personally contacted each campground"), and there is very little in the way of personal opinion. I didn't see any negative points listed for any of the campgrounds, making it very difficult to pick which ones are worth visiting.

Perhaps I'm too hard on this book, because my expectations were set high by Foghorn's California edition. And I don't know if there are any better books for the Georgia area. If you're just looking for a reference listing all the campgrounds in the area, this is a great place to start, and it's well-organized. I'm sure Marilyn Windle is a fine person, but "When my work schedule permits, I'm out nearly every weekend" just doesn't compare to Tom Stienstra's "this is my full-time job--and has been for 25 years." Is there some way they can get Tom to write all their books?

I've been camping in the Southeast all my adult life, moving from a tent to a popup, then to a motorhome, and this is the first complete camping guide to the area that I've found. This book has it all. Where else are you going to find everything from RV parks to wilderness areas, along with information on where to find wildlife, where the hiking trails are, and even recipes for camp food? It even has a section about camping with children. This is the only book my husband and I need for camping here. When is Windle going to do the Carolinas and Tennessee?

Great guide! It covers everything - RV sites, tent campgrounds, backpacking areas. The best part is how to get your spouse to like camping. My wife used to hate it, and we've been on three trips since I got this book. Better than anything else I've seen on camping here. Get it.

I bought this book purely to remember everything after i'd been.
I also bought their DisneyWorld book too.
But if you've been to Disneyland & Disneyland Paris, DisneyWorld seems superflous & pointless.

All that aside, this book gives you tips on when to do stuff on those days when you feel like planning. And tips for days that you don't feel like planning. Excellent.

This will help you enjoy your trip to Disneyland.

This is a very good guide to have before you start planning your trip. It has excelent reviews of the attractions and the "Best" stamp lets you know what not to miss. Defiantly worth reading before you go- you'll save time and money.

I suppose the word "Official" on the cover should have been a good clue, but I was still surprised to find little criticism in this book. There is helpful information, but it reads as if written by a publicist for Disney. I wish I had spent my money on the "unofficial" guide for some more objective advice.

A worthwhile book, because it includes future attractions that have not yet opened. I recently saw the Tower of Terror being built, and heard one of the Winnie the Pooh ride creators talk about its creation, and I can't wait until they're completed, so it was great to read more about them in this book. Like I just learned about a themed resort that is to be built in China (not by Disney) on 2800 acres on three miles of beachfront, now being designed by a leading firm, which will be built around a fictional narrative written by a writer named Craig Furnas. If you look forward to such to-be-completed projects, plus enjoy current attractions, this book is for you.

This book was a great resource for planning and enjoying our trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons.

Although this is not the only book you should have for your trip to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, it's a must-have as a starting point. It's descriptions of the lodging choices were very good and we were happy with our decisions. The dining descriptions were also very good although it omitted the Geyser Grill in the Old Faithful area. The descriptions of activities in GT were very good but the descriptions of activities in YNP were merely okay and neither great nor complete. There were some omissions...chief among them were the Antelope Creek Drainage area and the Brink of the Upper/Lower Falls trails. We also found the Norris Geyser Basin highly overrated and the following highly underrated: West Thumb Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin, Blacktail Plateau Drive and Osprey Falls. This book is a great starting point but by no means should it be the only book you have. It's perfect for making your dining and lodging choices but suffers in adequately describing activities (for that check out "An Outdoor Family Guide to Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks" by Lisa Gollin Evans).

This guide was a staple for our ten day trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. In locating places to stay and activities to do this is a book to lead you to other books and web sites. Its approach to trail descriptions also allows for a day hiker to figure out what trails are popular and easy and what are difficult. It gave us several great ideas as well like boating on Lake Yellowstone and cheaper ways of fingin lodging.

One of the best travel guides I have ever used (and I have traveled all over the world). As of the summer of 1998, when I visited Yellowstone, the guide was highly accurate and offered very useful ideas on where to hike, where to stay, where to eat, etc. The authors clearly know Yellowstone intimately, and should be complimented for imparting their enthusiasm about this marvelous park. My trip was one of the memorable in my life, and I was very grateful for the help I received from this concise guide.

The most impressive part of this book is the glossary. Is anyone still reading this review? Okay, then: this deceptively compact book is very detailed on the geological history of the Canadian Rockies. However, keeping the cost down means that the illustrations are too small, and that the photos are grouped together at the front and middle instead of placed near the text describing them. But I'm glad I worked through it, and seriously, I'm taking it with me because of its small size and that glossary.

If you have any interest in the mountains and other landforms you will see or have seen in Banff or Yoho National Park, this book gives an excellent description of how they were formed and of what they consist. It begins with an easy to understand chronology of the geologic proceses that formed the layers of sediments on display, through the natural forces that formed the mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers you see today. The pictures are postcard quality assisting you if the weather isn't the best. The illustrations clearly show what the text describes. The glossery is great for anyone who hasn't studied geology or for those that have who need a refresher. If going on to Jasper, I would have liked to have Of Rocks, Mountains and Jasper: Exploring the Geology of Jasper National Park which I wasn't aware of until I read this book and at which time it was too late to order. This is a excellent introductory guidebook. For more detailed material, contact the Canadian Geological Survey.

Jonathan

Now in a newly revised edition, How Old Is That Mountain?: A Visitor's Guide to the Geology of Banff and Yoho National Parks is about the Rocky Mountains and their adjacent areas in Banff and Yoho parks. Written for the lay reader and traveler, How Old Is That Mountain? keeps geological jargon to a minimum while describing how the mountains' glaciers, hot springs, and other geologic wonders came to be. How Old Is That Mountain? does not contain much in the way of highway maps or "how to get there/where to stay" information; rather, it focuses upon science and natural history for the lay reader, whether a vacationer seeking an enriched experience or an armchair traveler looking for the next best thing to being there. More than 60 black-and-white photographs and diagrams illustrate this enjoyable guide to the scientific forces at work shaping this unforgettable region.