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 - great travel guideeverything perfekt, understandable for me as an german. Like everytime when I use a lonley planet. Rating:  - From a Californian: don't buy itI'm a Californian, and know several cities reviewed by this guide very well. While I love Lonely Planet guides, I cannot recommend this book after spending an hour looking through it one day at a Borders. (We were headed so San Francisco and I needed a good CA guidebook.) I live in San Diego and so - as a test case - I graded the book on its coverage of San Diego. I gave it a "D" because every time I checked what it had to say about a location/restaurant I knew, this book got it wrong or missed the fine points. An example? One of the finest restaurants in La Jolla (or all of San Diego, for that matter) is George's at the Cove, but dinner entrees start at $30. Restaurant-savvy Sandiegans know this pricey restaurant has an upstairs open-air sister restaurant, Ocean Terrace Café, with a fabulous view of the bay - and offers a chance to sample a limited selection of George's entrees, at - relatively reasonable - prices ($14 to $20 for dinner entrée). LP Californian seemed to always miss helpful little tips like that, and Frommer's seemed to include many of them. Now maybe Lonely Planet California book has great coverage of all the other cities besides San Diego, who knows? If that's the case then my review is inaccurate. However, if their San Diego coverage is representative of the rest of the book, then I suggest don't buy it! We ended up buying Frommer's California 2006, which I'll give a lukewarm endorsement to because at least its coverage of CA cities I know was better than LP California. Of course, Frommer's guides are so dry and boring, lacking the character that LP guides sometimes have. Rating:  - A great guide, also for abroad touristsThis 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. Rating: - Love It!This is a fantastic book. I read it from cover to cover, even though I didn't go to every place in California. The information was relevant, and it was handy to have the book with me as I travelled about. Having an idea of food places in a country you are not familiar with is great. Lots of advice was useful, and I know that if I return to Califorinia, I can use this book again. Rating: - Shows what others wontLonely Planet shows the little Calirfornia towns in detail. Towns like Arcata, Chico, Merced to name a few. Others like Fodors dont do this. Great and in depth. In association with Amazon.com | |