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Title: Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook
ISBN: 098146100X
Author:
Andrew Doughty
Publicate Date: 2008-05-15
Publish: 2008-05-15
List Price: $16.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $10.90
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $9.62
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.53
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Big Island Revealed
This book has a lot of great information including a lot of background and history. We all have been passing this book around getting ready for our vacation.
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2: Great book! We used for snorkeling, hiking, and visiting multple beaches.
This book made our two visits to the big island absolutely amazing. The big island has so many pristine beaches beyond the lava fields that are a blast to visit, and this book makes these visits possible. I have found that the descriptions are right on and very complete, and the historical tidbits are interesting and amusing.
The only downside to this book is the organization - quite frankly, the big island is so big and varied that I applaud how the authors handled organization, but there still is some room for improvement. For example, information on a certain beach may be found multiple times throughout the book - the driving section, the beaches section, the activities section, and/or the adventures section. On our second visit to the big island we partnered this book with "Hawaii the Big Island Trailblazer" and liked the pairing (with `Trailblazer' not having near the sense of humor that `Revealed' has, but having very delineated organization!) Aloha!Hawaii The Big Island Trailblazer: Where to hike, snorkel, surf, bike, drive
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3: The must have book for traveling to the Big Island
My family owns a condo on the Big Island of Hawaii. We keep a copy of this book in all of our rental cars, condo, and home. It gives a fun, comprehensive look at the Big Island. We have tried several of their hikes, excursions, adventures, and restaurants and have never had a bad experience. It is fun to read, and we have spent much of our vacation driving around the island and reading the Ultimate Guidebook as we go. Much of what we have explored on the Big Island comes from the book and what we have found we have written about on our condo's website. [...] If you're going to the Big Island, buy this book early and you will have a vacation of a lifetime.
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4: Everything you need to know about the Big Island
Has almost everything you need to know about the Big Island except there is very little about traveling with children. It would be very helpful to have a section on things to do with children and places to eat. Overall an excellent book to have if you are traveling to Hawaii.
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5: Don't bother with any other book
This was our first trip to the Hawaiian Islands. We were on the big island 4 days. The suggestion to stay on one side of the island was dead on. We found it very hard to see even the one side in the time we had.
Their reccomendation of the Volcano House (they booked us in the Volcano Inn) was absolutely perfect for us. Amazingly inexpensive lodging (less than $100 per night TOTAL, in a corner room with 2 sides glass walls, and a private, incredible view of a tree fern forest, with a light to illuminate it to boot. Talk about an erotic and ecologically stimulating view.
The Kilaues Lodge and Restaurant had incredible food, my wife had ostrich one night and antelope the next. The rabbit stew was amazing. The food here was as good as food we had a the Beach Bistro, a restaurant on Anna Marie island in FL, which is every year rated one of the best in FL, and at 1/2 the cost. Yes, a meal without down restaurant meal elsewhere in Hawaii is $40 or $50 with nowhere near the quality or service.
They were correct a 4-wheel drive vehicle is not required to get up to the volcano-top observatories. They suggested the University of Hawaii free trip which was excellent.
The only fault I can find is they did not stress the absolute necessity of a GPS unit. Bring one or rent one. It is nearly impossible to see the road signs at night and even if you can the street names are all Hawaiian. The names have nothing do do with anything you are used to and even if you can read the entire name you can't remember it, and if you can it is so near to other names you can't distinguish them. I am an excellent navigator and we got lost almost everytime we trid to go anywhere at dark or dusk.
Buy the bood. Everyhwere we went that was anywhere off the beaten path folks had it. Supplement it with a specialized book such as one on snorkeling but it should be your main guide. Carry it eveywhere. The maps are amazingly helpful-only if you need very detailed urban directions do you need anything else.
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