We love Rick's guides for Europe. I like his attitude and writing and travel philosophy. Is there anyone like Rick that covers the United States? My wife and I are going to Arizona this January for a week and there is so much info online that I'd really like a trusted messenger like Rick to help sort through it.
Aside from that, what are your favorite US travel guides, Arizona in particular.
Hi, I recently bought Fodor's Essential Germany guide, and I really like the style of the book and how the information is presented. It looks like there's a Fodor's Arizona guide and an Essential Southwest guide. May be worth scrolling through sample pages online to see what you think. Enjoy your trip planning!
The "Moon" Travel guides have been very helpful in my planning. I go to our public library, take a look at what is available and then decide if I want to purchase the book.
You can also check Fodor's Travel Talk Forums and zero in on Arizona to read the threads. In terms of guidebooks, I prefer Frommer's books /website for state-side as well as international...in addition to Rick Steves' books/threads!
The only guidebooks I’ve ever used for US locations are the Hawaii guidebooks by Andrew Doughty. There’s a series of them with titles of “Hawaii [name of island] Revealed. The Ultimate Guidebook.” We were always impressed with how helpful they were to tell what might be ahead on a small road to stop & see, besides the main reasons for a guidebook.
Moon books.
I particularly like the DK Eyewitness travel guides. They aren't big on practical information, but they have beautiful photographs and I love the detailed graphic views of buildings and museums. I notice they have an Arizona book. This series of books is really great for long winter evenings when you want to re-live your memories of a trip.
You could also post here under Beyond Europe. A week isn’t very long to fill up.
I'll echo previous posters: Moon Guides
As Toby said, a week isn't very long, and the climate will change between the lower elevations in the South and higher elevations in the North. There is likely to be snow in Flagstaff, and could be at the Grand Canyon and some other locations as well. I doubt you'll try and cover the entire state in the time that you have so you need to narrow the plan down depending on what you want to see/do (Museums? Outdoors? Shopping and restaurants? Etc.) and whether you want to do that in colder versus warmer temps.
I assume you will be traveling by rental car? Where are you planning on flying in/out of?
We rarely buy printed guidebooks for the US anymore as state/city tourism websites have become so much better. I'd certainly take a look at some of those for ideas:
Arizona's tourism Site:
https://www.visitarizona.com
Grand Canyon National Park (Look at South Rim only):
https://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm
Phoenix:
https://www.visitphoenix.com/events/annual-events/winter/
Sedona:
https://visitsedona.com
Tuscon:
https://www.visittucson.org
If you really want a guidebook, I'll recommend going to the nearest bookstore and browsing the selections. All of them will present info in different 'voices,' and which of them will speak your travel language only you can say. You might also try your public library and check out a variety of guides to spend quality time with.
I had asked this question before, but a little differently: for Europeans planning to visit the US, what guidebooks or personalities do you rely on for a "first time to US in a limited amount of time" perspective?
I had asked this question before, but a little differently: for Europeans planning to visit the US, what guidebooks or personalities do you rely on for a "first time to US in a limited amount of time" perspective?
That is too big a question for this thread as far as I'm concerned, which will just derail it totally. But any European should (maybe, doesn't) know that you can't visit the US in a limited amount of time- a region or a state maybe, but the country?- you must be joking.
To me the answer is the internet and intensive research.
I can tell you two sources I wouldn't use- the TA forum and this forum, and for similar reasons.
I've just been reading a thread on TA this morning about US people visiting WA for a short stay. Leaving aside subjective opinions I am genuinely baffled at how I (from 5,000 miles away) have more up to date information about Suncadia than a bunch of contributors from 80 miles away. And it's important stuff. No I'm not going to intervene (after some thought) because it's "beyond my payscale". That just should not happen.
That isn't an isolated example.
This forum- we often bemoan about how overseas tourists only visit the big money places in the US, and we all know on here about "living like a local". Yet from my experience this forum encourages just visiting the well known. One example is that Mardee recently went to Seattle for a few days as a domestic tourist. And she got a superlatively excellent thread, one of the very best I have seen on here. I know from experience that if I had asked the same question for the same stay length I would have got a very different set of responses, which would not have been "me." it would have been all the usual tourist hotspots and telling me why I shouldn't go to where I actually want and need to go to. I've bookmarked Mardee's thread for its excellence.
Yet from my experience this forum encourages just visiting the well
known.
It helps when the OP gives us some idea of what their interests are, what sorts of travel they've already done in the US, what they've especially enjoyed, any limitations that may have, etc. When starting from ground zero, starting with the biggies - photos/articles about which may have been the inspiration for choosing the state to begin with - only makes sense. As we learn more, we can suggest locations outside of the most-visited.
But the OP is not specifically asking for itinerary ideas (yet), and the state/local sites provided above can be resources for some less-visited attractions/locations in addition to guidebooks.
Frommers has an Arizona guide. I think their guides are pretty good.
The Moon guides are my favorites for the U.S.
