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See the USA the Easy Way
Presents tours that cover every region, highlights historic towns, scenic drives, local festivals, and unusual museums, and includes special sections on packing, safety, food, transportation. and famous landmarks
- GenresTravel
Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
About the author
Reader's Digest Association
4,660 books497 followersThe Reader's Digest Association, Inc. is a global media and direct marketing company based in Chappaqua, New York, best known for its flagship publication founded in 1922, Reader's Digest. The company's headquarters are in New York City, where it moved from Pleasantville, New York.
The company was founded by DeWitt and Lila Wallace in 1922 with the first publication of Reader's Digest magazine, but has grown to include a diverse range of magazines, books, music, DVDs and online content.
The company was founded by DeWitt and Lila Wallace in 1922 with the first publication of Reader's Digest magazine, but has grown to include a diverse range of magazines, books, music, DVDs and online content.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 27, 2012
Like the other Reader's Digest USA travel books I've seen, this is a big ol' coffee-table book with lots of pictures that covers a lot of ground. Great for reading and dreaming; terrific if you're planning a road trip and want ideas on places to stop and take a break; not at all the kind of travel guide you can slip in your back pocket as you see the sites.
That said, See the USA is by far my favorite travel book. Each state is assigned from one to six "Loop Tours" of varying lengths, and this structure forces the authors to suggest a variety of options. For instance, one of the Maryland tours starts out in Washington D.C., and lists the usual attractions there (Washington Monument, White House, Capitol, Smithsonian, etc.), then heads east to Annapolis, which is a common pairing, but then heads down deep into southern Maryland, listing possibilities like hunting fossils at Calvert Cliffs State Park, visiting a marine museum in Solomons, or stopping at a living history museum in St. Mary's City, or participating in the yearly archaeological dig there.
I have yet to follow one of their loop tours, but I use their suggestions as a starting point to explore an area, including the areas around my home. And while the book isn't really set up for it, I use it to find "right off the highway" kind of things for long trips. Some of the loop tours never go anywhere near an Interstate, but a lot of them do.
While I also enjoy the other Reader's Digest books, this book overlaps their other general travel guide (which I've read but don't own), but also has a lot of the locations in their Off the Beaten Path, and mentions many of the drives in The Most Scenic Drives in America. You can use the other named RD books for more detail, and I do, but See the USA covers the most places and possibilities. If you do your travel planning on the Internet, See the USA is the one to get, IMHO.
I also like that See the USA is arranged by areas I find logical -- New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Great Plains and Mountains, Far West and Hawaii. By contrast, Off the Beaten Path arranges the states by north-south swaths (older versions) or alphabetically (most recent version), both of which hack up at least the midwest and the south too much for my taste. Scenic Drives separates the Great Lakes states into two different sections, which bugs me. Even though I often travel from one of their areas to another, I can find the various individual states faster in See the USA than I can in the others.
My only caveat is that it's getting a bit dated -- it recommends a festival in West Virginia that no longer happens, for instance -- but OTOH it only costs a couple of bucks (with shipping) from Amazon, and even less if you can pick it up locally. And heaven knows it's as accurate as all those 2011 and 2012 Disney World guide books that still recommend the guided tour of Morocco in the World Showcase (which hasn't been available for nearly a decade now...).
That said, See the USA is by far my favorite travel book. Each state is assigned from one to six "Loop Tours" of varying lengths, and this structure forces the authors to suggest a variety of options. For instance, one of the Maryland tours starts out in Washington D.C., and lists the usual attractions there (Washington Monument, White House, Capitol, Smithsonian, etc.), then heads east to Annapolis, which is a common pairing, but then heads down deep into southern Maryland, listing possibilities like hunting fossils at Calvert Cliffs State Park, visiting a marine museum in Solomons, or stopping at a living history museum in St. Mary's City, or participating in the yearly archaeological dig there.
I have yet to follow one of their loop tours, but I use their suggestions as a starting point to explore an area, including the areas around my home. And while the book isn't really set up for it, I use it to find "right off the highway" kind of things for long trips. Some of the loop tours never go anywhere near an Interstate, but a lot of them do.
While I also enjoy the other Reader's Digest books, this book overlaps their other general travel guide (which I've read but don't own), but also has a lot of the locations in their Off the Beaten Path, and mentions many of the drives in The Most Scenic Drives in America. You can use the other named RD books for more detail, and I do, but See the USA covers the most places and possibilities. If you do your travel planning on the Internet, See the USA is the one to get, IMHO.
I also like that See the USA is arranged by areas I find logical -- New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Great Plains and Mountains, Far West and Hawaii. By contrast, Off the Beaten Path arranges the states by north-south swaths (older versions) or alphabetically (most recent version), both of which hack up at least the midwest and the south too much for my taste. Scenic Drives separates the Great Lakes states into two different sections, which bugs me. Even though I often travel from one of their areas to another, I can find the various individual states faster in See the USA than I can in the others.
My only caveat is that it's getting a bit dated -- it recommends a festival in West Virginia that no longer happens, for instance -- but OTOH it only costs a couple of bucks (with shipping) from Amazon, and even less if you can pick it up locally. And heaven knows it's as accurate as all those 2011 and 2012 Disney World guide books that still recommend the guided tour of Morocco in the World Showcase (which hasn't been available for nearly a decade now...).
Displaying 1 of 1 review