South West USA: The Rough Guide, First Edition

by Greg Ward and Peterjon Cresswell

The Rough Guide to Southwest USA is the definitive guide to the canyons, deserts and towns of America's Wild West. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 185828239X
• ISBN13: 9781858282398
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 526 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

My favorite Southwest guidebook

This is the mother of all Southwest guidebooks, and as one reviewer stated, it is most useful because it covers multiple states (New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah, and Southern Nevada). The maps inside are second-to-none. I always trust these maps, especially when I need to get off the major highways to a less-traveled road. This book has medium-to-small type and thin pages, so they pack a lot of information into a small space. This is great for the traveler who doesn't want to lug around a huge and heavy book. Every town has a good description, history, and information, followed by a list of practicalities like where to eat, where to stay, where to get more information. The Indian reservations are covered in great detail, and this was essential for my trip. Love this book and I highly recommend it to anyone driving through the Southwest.

great travel guide

We recently travelled in the Grand Canyon-Southern Utah area, and found this an invaluable resource. None of the reviews was off-base... although some of the prices are outdated at this point, it's to be expected. One thing that's nice about this guide is that it's pretty durable, so after several weeks of use in the planning of the trip, 10 days of being tossed about in backpack, car and luggage, and being used as a reference in my post-trip write-up of our travels, it still looks fairly new. I could probably sell it used, but I think I'll keep it for when I head back that way in a few years.

The Best Overall Guidebook to the Southwest

I travel in the Southwest frequently and have a diverse collection of guidebooks to the region. Rough Guide is my favorite, with the intelligently written descriptions and opinions. The other guidebooks are drier or shallower in comparison (Moon, Lonely Planet, Let's Go, DK, and Frommer's).

Best single guide for the American Southwest

I usually carry multiple guidebooks on my vacations, but during my recent trip to the American Southwest I relied exclusively on this book. One of the reasons I recommend this book is that it covers the Southwest as a single region, so it includes New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorodo, southern Utah, and Las Vegas. Most other books are State-based, so it would take multiple books to cover the entire region.Another reason to pick this book is that it is opinionated. It lists top ten sites in various categories (national parks, museums, etc.), so that you can plan your time effectively. The auther even recommends against some things, unlike most guidebooks. I am picky about maps, and the maps in this book were uniformly accurate and reliable. Driving tips and recommended routes were quite useful.You will also find this book compact and light. While some other books are loaded with pictures, I find these books best enjoyed at home, before and after my trip, because they are too heavy to lug around during my trip.Finally, I stayed in 5 hotels, all recommended by this book, and they were all safe choices. If you are looking for a splurge, I recommend Goulding's lodge at Monument Valley, especially for fans of old movies. To my surprise, I enjoyed the museum on site. Also, I used the inroom VCR to watch Stagecoach, and this was the perfect setup for my Monument Valley visit the next morning. At Canyon do Chelly NM, I would recommend not staying at the overpriced, dreary lodge. It's cheaper to stay at one of the places just outside the park. In Santa Fe, the El Rey Inn is convenient, friendly, and has a Route 66 feel.

An inside guide for any outsider

On our recent trip through the grand circle of national parks in the four corners area, we carried several paperback guides, but quickly discarded the others in favor of this excellent book. We started reading it out loud as we approached each new town because of its wry observations, but quickly came to trust its preview of each new stop. We were never disappointed when we chose a non-chain motel from its recommendations, and we never got a bad meal wherever it said the food was good (and this was a budget trip). It isn't perfect -- things change too fast. For instance, there are many new motels within easy distance of the Grand Canyon, easing the squeeze many travelers have experienced, and more are under construction. And they didn't warn us to avoid the grossly mis-named Kodachrome state park. But wherever I travel next, a Rough Guide will be with me, you can be sure.