The Coast of Maine book is good if you're a first-time visitor to the state. I recently bought this before going to Maine for a week and found this book very helpful. If you're going to be driving a fair amount, then you'll like this...it provides information about the interesting things to do in the major coastal towns and areas in between. This book is lacking in a couple of areas, however. First, the hotel and restaurants listed are few in number and don't provide the best selection, although it is a start. Second, the maps aren't very helpful if you're going to do a lot of driving and provide only a relative idea of your location. I would recommend getting a AAA map of Maine to accompany this book.

That said, this is still a very useful book. Most of the other books on Maine were too focused (e.g., only lodging, or only lighthouses, etc.). This one at least gives a good overview and identifies both the common and less well-known things to do.

My family and I recently visited Maine and in preparation we purchased Great Destinations The Coast of Maine Book to get an idea of what we wanted to see. I found this book to be very clear and concise. It was extremely helpful in giving us an overview of what we wanted to see and do whilst in Maine. The coastline was as beautiful as the book depicted and I would recommend buying this book and also visiting this tremendous State.

I thought this book was perfect! I had a HUGE paper to write on the Lenni-Lenape/Delaware tribe and I couldn't find much information on them. I found this book, I bought it, I read it, I loved it, I wrote my paper using some information from it, and I got an A+ on my paper. I learned so much from this beautifully written book!

Weslager combines a flair for description with a scholarly tone to produce what is to date the most fair, accurate study of the Delaware Indians, or Lenni Lenape. Using historical, archealogical, anthropological, and ethnohistorical evidence, Weslager provides an almost complete history of this often neglected Indian tribe. This work is a must read for anyone interested in the early history of the mid-Atlantic region.

The "Field Guide..." has enough detail to lead one to a whole range of interesting spots. Some are a little hard to find from the information provided in the book, because the investigators and the owners of property of the sites cannot reveal too much for fear that there will be excessive traffic and human erosion.

Many of the locations are treated in other books and serious study reports whose authors are concerned with evidence of "diffusion", the idea that other peoples and cultures arrived in North (and South) America before the voyages of Columbus. Several groups are organized for the purposes of continuing these studies, and most of them are cited in the book.

From the serious side of these investigations, the author's use of a magnetometer to detect magnetic anomalies around many of the sites is interesting, but lends and air of comedy or strangeness to the visits which then makes it too easy to dismiss the locations as less than important clues to history. It does, however, reflect and improve on the tendency of certain investigators to perform "dowsing" to detect hidden features.

The organization of the "Field Guide ..." by state and province, from North to South, makes it easy to use. It is also interesting reading, even if you can't get there to see the stones.

Mr. Trento's book is informative, well written, and above all, consise. The descriptive instructions to the exact locations of many of the sites he reviews is essential. The best example is the Gungywamp, CT. site. Since this mysterious place is literally "off the beaten track", finding it would have been impossible without his book!

Sadly, the Druid's Hill site located in Lowell, MA is missing from the text. Perhaps he will consider this mysterious location in his next revision.

Regardless, I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to do a little amateur archeological work.

Overall, this book does a good job of providing succinct summaries of some great hikes throughout Maine. I only gave it three stars, however, because it strangely omits western Maine (the area near the New Hampshire border). Western Maine has some great hiking, including the Maine section of the White Mountains National Forest, Mt. Blue State Park, and Grafton Notch State Park. Oddly, this entire region goes unmentioned.

This is a great book for the moderate, hobby fisherman. I have been fishing in Maine all my life, however when I recently moved to central Maine I was at a loss as to where to throw my line. I bought this book last year late in the season and had very good luck with the advice given. It gives you peak times and lures to try for best results. I look forward to checking off some of the spots I missed last year and hopefully catch the big one! The only complaint I have is that it is sometimes more geared to fly fisherman than I would like. Overall a very good investment in my book!

All campsites of New England with all the possible information you want!!! I especially like the 'Scenic' rating wich tells you where to go to camp on places with beutiful views!!!
Very nice and comrehensive guide, too bad that there are no pictures...(rather impossible, it wouldn't fit in one book)

This book is a comprehensive directory of New England campgrounds, both public and private. It provides both facility and recreation information, but emphasizes (with a rating of 1-10) the scenic beauty that can be observed directly from each campround. I found the "tips" on each camground to be extremely informative and I plan to vacation at the sites that received a high rating from these authors. I enjoyed reading about the outdoors (my reason for camping) not about RV needs.

I successfully ventured to NYC by myself for a week's stay and had a wonderful time with the help of this guide. The book offers great advice on where to stay, what to do, and how to get around. The suggested online resources are also a goldmine. My only complaint is that none of the restaurants cited in the guide were very good, and some included misleading information. Perhaps I ordered badly, but I had much better luck wandering around Little Italy or Greenwich Village and choosing a place at random.

Still, this book is a wonderful resource, whether you're planning ahead or need last-minute help. Just choose your own places to eat.

Definitely this is a good book to start reading about this marvelous city. With lots of attractions, restaurant and affordable hotels listed by neighborhood you will never get lost. A very close approach is not easily found in many books, well this is the exception.

This is, simply, the only guide you'll want or need for visiting the Berkshires. It seems to improve a little with each addition. I gave the last edition four stars. I'd give this one four and a half (if Amazon would let me.) Having travelled all over the world and found few spots to rival the Berkshres for quiet, unspoiled beauty, wonderful place to bike and hike and rich cultural offerings, I am glad to have found a guidebook worth of this worthy place.

This is easily the best guidebook available for the Berkshires (a remarkable region of natural and cultural beauty in Western Massachusetts.) Extensive, in-depth chapters not cover every attraction, restaurant, and type of lodging available in the region, but also provide a wealth of information on the history and culture of the region. If you're a day tripper visiting The Calarke Art Institute in the morning and the Norman Rockwell museum in the afternoon, you probably don't need this book, but if you're staying in the Berkshires for an extended time and long to really understand what makes this place so fascinating, you'll want a copy of The Berkshire Book in your suitcase.

As are almost all lonely planet books, this is a great, GREAT book for covering the metro Boston area. I recommend it as THE book to use, especially if traveling to Boston. It goes into depth on all aspects of Boston culture, down to climate, money scams, and gay and lesbian tourists. Although the book doesn't explain every site on the walking tours, it does give an overall, helpful picture of the tours in general. It also tells about the hot clubs and places to go, with regular updates and good descriptions.

However, if you're looking for excursions outsiode of Boston, or are, like me, a new resident of Boston, you may not want to get this book, becauise it focuses on the Boston area. In that case, get Lonely Planet:New England, or a new resident's book. And for a shorter, cheaper version of this book, get Lonely Planet Boston:Condensed.

Hope it helps.

This is a great place to start if you don't know anything about Boston. It gives lots of interesting places and attractions to visit. Even thought most of the places mentioned by LP is concise and accurate, be warned that some of the "attractions" mentioned are over rated.

This book is a great start when you are looking for places to bike in New Hampshire. However, beware of the maps provided in this book, they are very general and WILL GET YOU LOST. I would advise using the book to select a ride then getting a topographical map of the area, or, obtaining a Forestry Service map. Either way, you are preparing yourself for a fun day of riding in a great state! Let's face it, getting lost riding is fun, right up until it's nighttime and getting cold.

This book is so perfect for family and for leisure riders! It is not the "carry-your-bike-up-the-legdge-and bushwhack-through-the-bushes" kind of book. Rather, you're biking on pine-needle covered trails a lot and having a chance to share in nature. It if perfect for starting a family tradition. The author does a super job of combining riding with your kids and doing other things (watching great blue herons fish, observing beavers building their lodges at a state reservoir, a visit to a science center on the Seacoast that's a part of a state park--Odiorne Point).

My kids look at this as such a family thing to do. I want to cultivate this kind of activity with my family so that video games and other sedentary activities take a back seat.

It's a gift to have all these state resources in the scenic state of New Hampshire readily available for the taking. Count me in! Let's go summer--load those bikes up. Don your helmets, kids. We're ready to roll. Ride softly!

There is only one word to describe this book: Sloppy. So sloppy that you have to ask yourself if the author has ever taken his own tour.

I don't know if the blame falls to the author, or publisher McGraw Hill, for failing to edit this book.

I pulled a page (142) from a neighborhood I happen to know something about and found these errors on a single page:

# 21 "The former Metropolitan Savings Bank", opened in 1867 not 1868. He uses the apprehensive phrase "attributed to Carl Pfeiffer." A newspaper article about the grand opening day of this building as a bank reports it as May 21, 1867, and declares that the builder is Carl Pfeiffer.

Then he repeats an urban myth from a discredited revisionist "historian" that McSorley's Old Ale House did not open in 1854, but in 1862. He goes on to describe the items "on the grimy sheet-tin walls." The bar has no tinned walls. (With the exception of the lavatories) Step inside if you are going to describe the inside!

Save your money. McGraw Hill did when it came to hiring an editor to check his facts. Buy the AIA guide and make your own tour. Although the old photos are pretty good, they are not quite enough to be the saving grace here. Wolfe gets the addresses right, but if this one page is any indication., no one checked his historical facts, and that makes me even more surprised by the American Heritage review of this work.

This is the best guide of its kind which I have seen. Wolfe is thorough, engaging, sometimes funny and a joy to read. As a tour guide I have read many books on NYC, and this is one of my favorites. Unlike many other authors, he pays more than lip-service to the outer boroughs, and also offers a good guide to Roosevelt Island.

Let's see an updated edition!!!