For those of you who are used to the exacting descriptions of the AMC trail guides, beware. This book has a few shortcomings. No maps except regional ones. Maybe that's asking a lot but the route I selected (Contoocook River in NH) had BAD advice on a spot to take a canoe or kayak out. The recommended location was private property with an very ornery owner. Maybe the rest of the book is better researched, but you'd have to prove it to me before I relied too heavily on some such details.

Having brought along two guide books on several weekend trips throughout New Jersey this summer, I found "New Jersey Day Trips" by Barbara Hudgins to be a much more comprehensive guide to the Garden State's main attractions and hidden treasures than "Away for the Weekend."

This book has been superseded by "Don Wright's Guide to Free Campgrounds: Eastern Edition," which includes all of this book's information and a good deal more. There's little reason to spend money on this book; buy the more recent one instead.

One of a series of these books. Done quickly and not truly representative of the information that could have been included. Local historian not contacted who would have been a great resource. It's ok. Has some postcards and views, etc.

Recently I brought a 36 foot boat from Whitby, Ontario through the Canal System, down the Hudson, through Hell Gate to Long Island Sound. I thought this book would be my bible, but found almost no useful information. The book is written entirely from the perspective of going up river, and is very hard to follow if you're going down. Much of the information is already out of date - several times when we tried to follow its advise, the marina or docking area it decribed was non-existent. Other facilities are ignored. For example, Whitby, which has two large marinas was not mentioned. The discussion of going the through locks was rather limited, though probably helpful to the small boat owner. There were very few pictures - certainly not enough to show what the canals are like. Also, the book stopped (actually started) at the Battery without mention of Hell Gate, which must be of interest to a significant number of readers. I suppose this book would be helpful to a power boater looking for the next restaurant, but it was a major disappointment to me.

We used this guide, Frommer's, and AAA during our recent trip to Maine, from Portland north to Bar Harbor. This guide neglected areas of interest and shopping that we knew of from previous trips. Its suggestions about lodging and dining seemed oriented toward the expensive. There was little effort to guide us to economical, high-quality dining and lodging. The map included in the back is small and lacks detail except for a few featured areas. For the price, Frommer's New England is a much better value.

As a regular traveller, I was most disappointed with the latest edition of Fodor's 2000: Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket. It was very concise in its information about the area, but as one who arranges travel, shopping, and accommodation over the internet, I was amazed that in the Year 2000 edition, it completely lacked any web sites/addresses. For instance, Martha's Vinyard Chamber of Commerce has the most informative web site for local travel, accommodation, weather, etc., but Fodor's has not listed it, just the 1-800 phone number...coming from London, England, this is of little help. Unfortunately, this was the case throughout the whole book. Fodor succeeds in its advice and desciptions, but it may want to think about updating its books for the millions of global web surfers out there, wanting to plan a holiday

My wife and I planned our vacation using this book. While we were immensely happy with some of our lodging choices based on the book's recommendations, we also found that a motel in New York state which the book rated at three flags and called "newly renovated" was anything but. It had certainly not been renovated within the past decade. The pool was "under construction." And the room itself was not only shabby--rotten drapery cords, worn, stained carpet--but also just plain dirty. We don't require luxury, but fuzzy mildew in the shower turns us off. The motel chain responded promptly to my telephone complaint. I wrote a letter to Frommer's detailing the incident in late June, and have received no response from them whatsoever. It's obvious that they do not visit all the establishments they rate. In this case the glowing description could only have come from the owners of the motel. So I recommend that readers take this book's ratings seriously only when they're corroborated by at least one other, more reliable source.

The book's scattered organization and weak index make it difficult to weed through its often already outdated entries. Some of its listings had been closed for a few years before the book was even published. A guidebook for things to do with kids is needed in NH where you often have to stumble upon things to find out about them, but even in this book you have to stumble upon entries.

This books is entitled "great eastern rv trips". however, the book does not contain much rv specific information. I think a general tourist book would cover the material that they cover better.