Northern California: Including San Francisco, Wine Country Big Sur, Yosemite, Redwood Coast

I especially like the Moon travel guidebooks published by Avalon Travel. There are twenty on my shelf of travel books; two for Utah canyonlands and the rest covering states. All except one (Southern California) have proven to be good sources of information. They are sufficiently different from the travel books published by the American Automobile Association that the two work well together. In general, the Moon books cover the attractions better and AAA is better for lodging. However, Moon sometimes comes up with that historic hotel or unique coffee shop that AAA misses. California is a huge state with a lot of people. Understandably, it has a lot of attractions, places to stay, and opportunities for eating. No guidebook can cover everything. Moon does a better job than many of the others. Other guidebooks often focus on the major population centers and shortchange rural communities. Moon does well on the larger cities as well, but is often the best place to look for information about smaller towns. For example, my wife and I are birders. We used Moon to plan a trip from Red Bluff on back roads up through Fall River Mills and Canby into the Klamath Basin wildlife refuges. It was a great two-day trip with interesting attractions, excellent birding, and good eats. Typically, the Moon Handbooks will aid travelers with attractions, lodging, food, recreation, entertainment, and history. Their directions for finding attractions are usually clear, including the hours of availability and cost. Where appropriate, there are descriptions of hiking and biking trails, state parks and monuments, federal and state forests, fishing, festivals, and many other special interests. Often, Moon will provide the story behind the attraction. The books are arranged by section and the locales within a section are presented in the order that a traveler might be passing through. There is a map at the beginning of each section and more detailed maps of major communities. Regardless of whether you are planning a trip or using it as a reference as you tour, the Moon Handbook for Northern California will serve you well. A word of warning: this review is based on the Fourth Edition authored by Kim Weir. There is a later edition that I haven't seen. It was written by Liz Hamill Scott who is also the author of Southern California: Moon Handbooks, Fourth Edition, 2009. Unfortunately, that Southern California edition falls far short of the standard set by all other Moon Handbooks I have seen. Hopefully, that will be remedied in a future revision.

I bought this guide, plus Moon Northern California Camping: The Complete Guide to Tent and RV Camping (Moon Outdoors) and Foghorn Outdoors California Hiking: The Complete Guide to More Than 1,000 Hikes (Foghorn Outdoors). I like that it specializes in No. Calif. I wish it were a little more opinionated and would highlight the MUST-SEE attractions, e.g., see this/don't bother with that/that's a MUST-SEE/that's a little hokey. But overall, it's a good companion to the other two books above.

If you're only going to buy one NorCal travel guide, Moon Handbooks Northern California is it. It covers sites, lodging & camping, eateries, and more, all in a down-to-earth style, giving you tips and insights you won't find in typical guidebooks. I've owned each edition, and each one has taken a physical beating because I live in Northern California, I keep this guide in the car at all times, and I refer to it frequently. The newest edition (4th) is an improvement over the 3rd, beyond the innumerable updates. The listings now include web addresses for the first time. In addition, open the book to any page (in the middle 80%) and the book will lie flat, so you can write notes at a table without having to hold the book open with your hand. Moreover, the paper is thinner, so the book is thinner (and therefore easier to work with), even though the 4th edition contains more pages. These last two points might seem minor, but when you're traveling, you're more likely to refer to a book that isn't a pain in the butt to use.

As a busy parent of three children, I am always on the look out for new weekend adventures--this book has it all. It gives great history, detail, local color, places and events...even usable local area maps.With listings by regions, Kim Weir has a succinct novelists eye for what makes Northern California beat. Makes great reading...I keep this large 1000 page pocket book at my nightstand to read colorful stories about places I might someday visit. Equally compact, I then load the book in my car for ready reference to see what's hot whereever we roam.Written with the insight of Mark Twain, this is an excellent source for anyone wanting to capture the diversity of Northern California at it's greatest. Lot's of fun. Quite readible. Full of nice pictures.Well worth the $ for the new 2000 edition. Congrats to Moon Press for another winner. Please keep those updates comming.