LONELY PLANET
USA & CANADA ON A SHOESTRING

.......Let us first admit that we own more Lonely Planet guidebooks than books from any other guidebook series (see photo on the right). Thus, we obviously enjoy their offerings. But we just can’t warm up to USA & Canada On a Shoestring. This is a fat book, covering all of Canada and the U.S. in 740 pages of very small type. Maps are limited, there is no color, and only a couple of photos – but there are a lot of words. Yet despite its size, the book leaves much to be desired.

.......We’ve warned elsewhere on this website and in the How To Travel America book about trying to obtain information about an area as vast as the U.S. from one single guidebook, and Lonely Planet USA & Canada On a Shoestring is no exception. A whole-country U.S.A. guidebook can be valuable for general travel planning, and for gathering information so you can decide what to see and where to go, but for on-the-ground information and resources all single volumes covering the U.S. seem seriously inadequate.

.......USA & Canada On a Shoestring is definitely aimed at the budget traveler, yet spends an inordinate number of pages detailing information about the cities – the most expensive places to visit in America. For example, in the 54 pages devoted to New England, 24 of those pages cover Boston alone. There is very little information about things to do and places to see in the great American landscape. (There is some balance in the book, however, as the Rocky Mountain section is 44 pages long and only has 5 pages covering Denver.)

.......We like the book’s section detailing trips and itineraries, but find the specific information baffling and oft-times downright impossible to believe. As one example, USA & Canada suggests a 2-4 week (their timetable) loop trip from San Francisco, visiting southern California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. Lonely Planet’s authors seem to think this trip can be done for $25-75 per day. The only possible way to come close to that budget would be by camping and hitchhiking – it’s seemingly impossible if you stay in even a few motels and take the limited (very limited) public transportation that is available between a few of the points on the trip. Realistically, this 2475-mile (3985km) journey would require renting a car (immediately blowing Lonely Planet’s budget), and we imagine that most travellers would prefer not to camp in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, or Las Vegas.

.......Finally, we find the information supplied is simply too limited. In one popular western tourist town we’re familiar with (population around 40,000), USA & Canada lists one attraction, one resort, one motel, one campground, and one restaurant. This in a town with more than 100 dining options, at least 50 lodging properties, dozens of recreational opportunities, and 2.5 million acres of national forest and other public land nearby.

.......Lonely Planet publishes a vast array of travel guides to the U.S. and regions around the world.