If you’re looking for a guide to give you an accurate picture of the place you’re heading, then Rough Guide is undeniably the best series of travel guides that blends informative reviews with wry observation of the local fauna. It’s also the most logical for the 20’s-30’s set that enjoys traveling but lacks the financial success needed to use a Michelin guide. When you’re traveling on your own dime and want to hit the tourist attractions and some cool places not immediately visible to the visitor’s eye, spend the 15 bucks for the book.
From liberal San Fran to laid-back San Diego, with an additional chapter on Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, this latest edition of Rough Guide California includes 12 pages of color photos and 53 maps, offering more visuals than the previous one. Up to date hotel and restaurant information gives you the option between the creepy dive, luxurious getaway, and the just plain bizarre.
Since moving to the LA area last summer, the guide has been useful in pinpointing points of interest amidst this labyrinth of freeways. This city is huge and it’s a somewhat daunting task to cover it all in a limited time. The new gazillion dollar J. Paul Getty Museum is covered as well as other places that have popped up in the last few years. To be sure, the guide covers all the things we associate with LA: Hollywood, Disneyland, the beaches, Beverly Hills, Venice, the studios.
But did you know about the different types of guided tours you can take? There’s mainstream, studio, and specialist tours, a macabre example being "Grave Line Tours", where you too can tour all of the "death, scandal, perverted sex act and drugs orgy" of Hollywood from the comfort of a 1969 Cadillac hearse. In addition to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, don’t miss the Porno Walk of Fame! Shopping covers more than strip malls and Rodeo drive: if you want to find a souvenir from the LAPD gift shop or pour through second-hand stores or get that cd impossible to find in the Midwest, you’ll find it here. Other gems are also uncovered, like the Huntington Gardens and Library with its rare Gutenberg Bible, Tail o’ the Pup :a pop architecture/hotdog stand, and the new Egyptian Theater.
You can trust Rough Guide reviews—they point out the overrated so you don’t waste your time.
