Off the Beaten Path: A Travel Guide to More Than 1000 Scenic and Interesting Places Still Uncrowded and Inviting Hardcover – March 19, 2009

This is a good book which outlines scenic points of interest for each state. It has nice bright color pictures and lists lots of different points of interest, some of which are not commonly known. I prefer to look up via a book vs checking a phone.

Very helpful when traveling

My friend wants to start traveling and I thought this would be an amazing gift to give her ideas.

Fun book. It got a couple of details wrong about the Guthrie OK Drugstore museum. My Dad was posing for the picture, and yes he did get his start working at a real soda fountain back in the day. The old soda fountain fixtures in the museum are real, but the museum does not serve old-fashioned treats. You can buy bottled root beer, but no root beer float. The museum is worth it. No admission fee to the museum or the garden, but donations are accepted, needed, and appreciated. I can still spend hours browsing. They have an old fashioned black dial phone that still works for making local calls. The kids get a kick out of that, at least the kids who still have a local home phone.

It was just what I was looking for

I purchased this book to actually be an accompaniment to a different guide book for our families 3 week cross country road trip. What ending up happening was that this book became MY BIBLE!!!!!! OMG! This book is wonderful! At first I really thought it would just give us some ideas to help us see some sites along the way to help break up the trip and help us stretch our legs. And before I knew it the kids and my husband were asking me each time we went to a new state what fun things did the book recommend! One of our favorite thing was when we were in Minnesota....kid you not it was the SPAM MUSEUM! And it was totally FREE! You have to get this book! My only negative comment is that I wish it also included Canada. WE are now going on a 2 week road trip into Canada and I wish it included it.

In planning for future trips, it's always nice to know what's out there besides the ones you hear about all the time. I have found several, and the nice thing about this book is that the map in the front of each state tells you what area they are in, so you know right away if you will be near them or not, and can just ignore the ones you won't be close to. Enough detail to deside if you want to go. It gives the website and a phone number, as well as often the general hours of operation, so if it's only open on saturdays, and you're not there till wednesday, you know right away won't work. While it is a rather heavy book to have around, it will be worth having in my library for reference, and a friend has already taken advantage of the information.

I bought this in 2016 knowing full well its 7+ years old from last revision. A significant number of attractions are no longer present. But one can expect as much, given the age. And can forgive that.What my gripe with this book is, is that it really has no logical reason as to why it selects the things it does. It should be named off the interesting path. I'm no expert on all the states covered in it, but the ones I do know well it boggles the mind why they think putting the things they did is a good idea. So many quaint places are missing and so many cracker barrel level (many wont get that reference, but so be it) things are totted as must see.In trying to be clever and selecting unpopular destinations, they managed to select such not because they are hidden gems, but literally because they are not worth seeing. Do yourself a favor and pick something that covers the actual region/state you want to explore. not a country wide guide that fails in all aspects