A City Guide
to Alaska
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Frommer's Alaska 2005
by Charles Wohlforth
Who must have this book: Anyone who is planning
a less adventurous visit and and doesn’t want to miss
anything.
Who should have this book: Anyone interested
in Alaskan Restaurant, museums and city life. Cruise passengers
and people on packaged trips.
ISBN: 076457146X
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These
types of travel guides are hard to review. The best way to judge them
is by seeing how much they help me with the next trip I am planning.
I have recently been planning a loop through the Interior which is
a region I have not travel much in the past so there was much to learn.
I have to admit that this book has been helpful in finding restaurants
and a few museums that I want to make sure I visit while I am in the
area, but it isn’t the greatest resource for planning a fishing
or other outdoor related trip. This Guides and its equivalent –
Fodor’s Alaska are very much
aimed at the tourist type traveler. If you trip is going to be mostly
visiting towns, museums, sight seeing locations and some of the more
“organized” activities, this book is perfect for you.
Frommer’s like Fodors makes its bread and butter by making guide
books for tourist type visitors to specific cities and tourist locations.
They are information heavy and make great reference material (much
like the AAA travel guides.) This book is packed with amazingly detailed
information about each major tourist town in Alaska and lets you know
exactly what is available and what shouldn’t be missed. If you
want to make sure you aren’t going to miss out on anything along
your travel path, pick this book up.
If you are a first time visitor, I think I would recommend this book
over the Fodor’s guide, but you might want to look at Alaska
for Dummies. The Dummies book was also written by Charles Wohlforth
and for the most part, the texts are the same, although the Dummies
book does present the information a little easier.
Some words of warning, this is a reference. There are
only a half dozen pages of photos in the book and it isn't a book
that you would read from cover to cover. Also, yoiu probably will
not use a large chunk of the book because it covers the whole state,
which is nearly impossible to cover in one visit.
Overview
The book starts with what I found to be its two most unique and useful
features – What's New and The best of Alaska. The what's new
lets you see the annual changes on just a few pages. All the year's
new sights and business closures in one place. The Best of Alaska
is a whole section dedicated to pointing out the best View, Cruises,
Glacier, Fishing, Bear Viewing… In all a great list of to help
spur your plans on.
After the list of bests is a section about planning your trip. It
is filled with practical tips to help you along the planning process
and make sure you are crossing all the T’s and dotting the I’s.
Again, if you would like a very accessible version of this information,
consider the Dummies Guide to Alaska. The third chapter adds to this
chapter by adding tips for the international traveler.
Then comes the regional coverage of the state. There are sections
on The Southeast, Achorage, the Kenai Peninsula, Denali, the Interior
and the Bush. Each section includes all the information you need to
visit the area – lodging, restaurants, sights not to be missed,
travel information, maps and other visitor information
Author
Charles Wohlforth is a Alaskan native who has written
several travel guides including Frommer’s
Alaska, Alaska For Dummies,
and Frommer’s Family Vacations in National Parks. His latest
book is the Whale and the Super Computer. A book about global warming’s
affects on the Arctic region.
Other books by the Author
