Mississippi Off the Beaten Path

Off the Beaten Path

by Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick

Let Mississippi Off the Beaten Path show you the Magnolia State you never knew existed. Journey to the land of talking frogs and fashion-conscious pigs at the Birthplace of the Frog, a museum honoring Mississippi native and Muppets-creator Jim Henson; explore the ceremonial Choctaw Indian mounds and sacred cave at the Nanih Waiya Historic Site; or visit lions, tigers, panthers, and other exotic animals at the Collins Exotic Animal Orphanage.

Genres: Travel

236 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Todd Smith]

This book dives into what travelers and locals want to see if only they knew about it.

It lists the best local dining, quirky cultural tidbits, hidden attractions, unique finds, and unusual locales.

The book leads the reader down the roads less traveled and what many other travel books don’t offer.

Also, I enjoy the book's stories about the people who live there and the history of some of these uniquely southern places.

I turned to traveling in Mississippi and looking for what to do in non-major cities such as Hattiesburg and Meridian.

[Erin Dixon]

Make sure you get an updated copy. The library copy I picked up was from 2010, and a lot of the businesses are now closed. Quick internet search shows it was updated at least as late as 2020. It is very in depth, so not a quick read. But, is broken into geographical regions, which helps narrow down to whatever area you are looking into. The author is an Ole Miss alum, and the Oxford and Ole Miss sections are a bit overblown. Otherwise a good variety of places to visit, business to support, what areas are known for, festivals, and on and on.

[Jim Bowen]

In life there are 2 sorts of travel guide style books, one that feels instructional (the read something like "Go here... do this eat here, visit there..."), while the other feels more gossipy. These books would have some facts about a place, but they feel more like they are trying to give you a flavour of a place, and pique your fancy. Lonely Planet books fall very much into the former category, while "Off the Beaten Path" books focus more on the second.

This is a good book, it feels less facty that other travel guides that I've read, but it is different, feeling less like they're giving you direction. This isn't a bad thing, if you go in reading the book with the idea that you're looking for guidance as to where to go next, rather than trying to identify places, once you've arrived.

[Mona]

Traditionally, I do not care for the tourist attractions and enjoy the unusual. This book is not as unique as "A Guide to Unique Places" indicated on the front cover. This book complements other tourist books but is not a complete reference.