(Part 2) Best pacific west us travel guides according to redditors
We found 68 Reddit comments discussing the best pacific west us travel guides. We ranked the 33 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
This is pretty awesome: https://www.amazon.com/San-Gabriels-Mountain-Country-Soledad/dp/0961542152
Alakai swamp trail.
Lots of people do the helicopter tour. Personally, if I wanted to see Kauai from far away I could just watch a documentary on my TV. It'd be less noisy and have less vibration. Now if what you want to do is go on a helicopter ride, then, ok. If what you want to do is look off a mountain top while fog rolls down the hills onto a tropical beach, then go walk Alakai. Then again, I've never been on the heli tour, so my opinion is uninformed.
Get a copy of http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Kauai-Guidebook-Revealed/dp/0981461085/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343074695&sr=8-2&keywords=kauai+blue+book
this book http://www.amazon.com/Los-Angeles-Beaten-Path-Series/dp/0762735236
Official site seems dead but http://www.amazon.com/L-A-Bizarro-All-New-Insiders-Perverse/dp/0811865118
The school will handle a lot of stuff for you, read general guides on "moving to college" and that will help.
reading this book helped me a bit:
http://www.amazon.com/Newcomers-Handbook-Moving-Living-Angeles/dp/0912301910
also, the area around USC can be dangerous as fuck, its not uncommon for a few students a year to get killed near campus at night. Until you know what you're doing don't go strolling out alone.
EDIT: being ON campus is generally fairly safe. Didn't mean to scare you.
EDIT 2: added sources for my points in a comment below.
How long are you going to be here? There's so much cool stuff to do in Oahu. JimmyHavok already grabbed 2 of my ideas, the Diamond Head Hike, and Hanauma Bay (literally 3 minutes from my house) which is pretty solid snorkeling, but it can get crowded quickly. Come early!
There's a lot of pretty badass hikes, ranging from an hour to a full day. If you can find the book Oahu Revealed, I highly recommend it for finding all sorts of fun little trips, and it has contact information for all sorts of places.
One note: If you've heard about Stairway to Heaven / Haiku stairs, don't even try to take them. They post a guard at 3AM (his hours just recently changed from 7AM) and even finding the unmarked trailhead is a huge pain. There's plenty of other fun things to do.
Off the Beaten Path Northern California is fairly useful. It gives details on museums, hikes, points of interest etc and lists potentially helpful websites/resources at the end of each section.
Closer to home there is Golden Gate Trailblazer which lists hiking, biking, jogging and kayaking outings in San Francisco and Marin County.
I recommend checking out this book.
[Insiders' Guide to Portland, Oregon, 7th (Insiders' Guide Series)
]
(http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Portland-Oregon-Series/dp/0762764759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331276324&sr=1-1&tag=bookforyoudm-20)
An older article, but still good: http://www.archdaily.com/137692/architecture-city-guide-san-diego
Another good article, but leans more to the modern: http://www.ranker.com/list/san-diego-buildings-and-structures/reference
A few more: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g60750-Activities-c47-t3-San_Diego_California.html
You might also enjoy reading one (or both) of these books:
https://www.amazon.com/San-Diego-Architecture-Mission-Modern/dp/0972602003
https://www.amazon.com/San-Diego-Architecture-Downtown-Highlights/dp/0972602011
I stayed at the Hilo Tropical Gardens hostel. Super nice, great people and quiet. plus, they also run a homemade ice cream shop!
You can get to Mauna Kea no problem with any rental. For Waipio most cars with decent clearance should be fine as long as you take it nice and easy, and ride a low gear. don't be an idiot and burn your brakes out. would recommend a rental with a manual transmission.
But for true back county exploration 4x4 or by foot is your best option.
Big Island Revealed and Big Island Trailblazer are excellent books. you should also get a detailed map.
Check out The Green Sand beach, close to South Point. Its amazing. drive down and spend the whole day, or camp out.
as for the ganja, it's all over. you just need to ask the right person. Pakalolo is it's Hawaiian name btw.
Pick up a copy of this
Never been to Maui, but the Big Island was amazing and much less "built up" - you can go on a day trip?
I would recommend a book called Maui Revealed - the authors write books about Hawaii, and their book on The Big Island was the best we found.