Product Description

Plan your perfect trip to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine using Frommer's Vermont, New Hampshire & Maine, 6th Edition. Find a 16-page color section and foldout map, outspoken opinions, exact prices and suggested itineraries, all updated with the latest information. No other guide offers such detailed, candid reviews of hotels and restaurants. Suggested itineraries provide sample itineraries and recommendations, state or country and find user-friendly features like star ratings and special icons to point readers to great finds, excellent values, insider tips, best bets for kids, special moments, and overrated experiences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #362184 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.com Review
Per Frommer's usual convenient design, the inside flap of the front cover displays a color map of New England--so you can see the whole region at a glance--and the rest of the guidebook continues the pattern of thoughtful, practical, helpful travel information in a portable, accessible format. Chapter 1 summarizes the best of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine: the best small towns, best country inns, best restaurants, best shopping, best family destinations, and best places to see the fall foliage. Wayne Curtis then introduces the various regions, their history and geography, literary legacy, and contemporary style. Curtis provides trip-planning details, such as climate information, a calendar of events, how best to get there and get around, and where to check on the Web for New England sites. Then come the comprehensive state sections, each with recommended places to stay and eat, a discussion of outdoor activities, and interesting snippets on the Ben & Jerry story, the history of maple syrup, ferries to Nova Scotia, and the debate over Maine's North Woods. Excellent maps accompany each section, as do lists of useful phone numbers, tourist information offices, and suggestions of what there may be to do at night, resulting in a smartly compiled guidebook with lots of useful information and no excess fluff. --Stephanie Gold

From the Publisher
Frommer's brings you everything to see and do in the New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Frommer's great lists give you options and honest opinions. Inside you'll find:

The Seven Wonders of Northern New England
The Best Small Towns
The Best Places to See Fall Foliage
The Best Ways to View Coastal Scenery
The Best Active Vacations
The Best Destinations for Families
The Most Intriguing Historic Homes
The Best Places to Rediscover America's Past
The Best Resorts

The Best Country Inns
The Best Bed & Breakfasts
The Best Moderately Priced Accommodations
The Best Alternative Accommodations
The Best Restaurants
The Best Local Dining Experience
The Best Destinations for Serious Shoppers

Let Frommer's tell you all about:
Bennington, Manchester, and Southwestern Vermont
The Southern Green Mountains
Killington and Rutland
Montpelier, Barre and Waterbury
Maple Syrup
Ben & Jerry's
Burlington
Ethan Allan
The Champlain Islands
The Seacoast

Canterbury Shaker Village
Monadnock and the Connecticut River Valley
Penobscot Bay
Mount Desert Island
Acadia National Park
The North Woods

From the Back Cover

Frommer's. The best trips start here.

Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer.

• From the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire to coastal and inland Maine, our in-depth guide brings you the prettiest villages and coziest B&Bs, plus the best beaches, leaf-peeping spots, and ski resorts.

• Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.

• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.

• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com

Customer Reviews

Lovely Northern New England
Frommer's guidebook provides an excellent overview of the sights to see, things to do, and places to stay in the three Northern New England states of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. The overviews are very accurate and provide a good description of the places, making the book an excellent way to decide where to go in the areas, and a good guidebook once you arrive.

The biggest problem with the book is that there is not enough individual descriptions of each area. Chances are most tourists are not visiting several regions in all three states, but are choosing one or two to explore in-depth. For example, I went to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park in Maine, an area that was given around 20 pages of coverage. Therefore, more research on the specific areas you plan to visit will probably be necessary to help you get the absolute most out of your trip!

Seriously Disappointing
I took this guide, 2008 8th Edition ( note the other reviews for this guide are very dated), along with Fodor's New England 2007, on a 10-day tour through New Hampshire & Maine. NORMANLLY, Frommer's does a very good job of guiding you to best that either a country (or state) has to offer. NOT this guide. This guide is seriously disappointing.

Yes, the guide does cover the tourist site, and like all of the major guides (Fodor's, Footprint, Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Moon) it will point you to the "must see" places. Also, to be fair, WHEN it does list a restaurant or hotel the guide does a fairly decent job describing the place. BUT, what really set guides apart are the quality and quantity of their accommodation and restaurant recommendations. These recommendations, along with the author's writing style and the interesting sidebars filled with tidbits (this guide has none) make or break a guide.

Frommer's is dismal when it comes to restaurant recommendations. Dismal. For example, New Hampshire's largest city, and the largest city of northern New England, Manchester, has only two (2) restaurant recommendations. Two! It has one (1) accommodation listing. For New Hampshire's State Capital, Concord, there is one (1) restaurant recommendation and it is vegetarian!

Skip to Maine and if you look for restaurants or accommodations in the city of Bangor you won't find any listed. IN FACT Bangor (Maine's third-largest city) is not even mentioned! HELLO. Who in the heck is editing this guide?

I could go on about the pathetic maps, lack of statistics (population, altitude etc.) but really, save your money and get either Lonely Planet New England 2008 or Fodor's New England 2007 (strongly recommended). This guide is not recommended.

Inaccurate, obnoxious, deceptive
What's worse than a guide that doesn't know his way? A guide that leads you far up the wrong path. Imagine buying a map where the streets and roads led you into all the wrong places.

According to the ad copy: "...avoid tourist traps. Frommer's Portable Guides help you make the right travel choices...Outspoken opinions on top attractions - what's worth your time and what's not...The best hotels and restaurants in every price range, with candid reviews...The expert guidance you need to take charge and travel with confidence."

The haughty tone of this particular edition would make you think the author(s) were steeped in expert knowledge about the history and traditions of the long-standing established hotels and attractions in the region. And this illusion is effective until you arrive at more than one location expecting to find a rural paradise only to discover that it has become a gated community/housing development. So what do the authors actually know other than what they seem to have compiled from the hotel brochure you find at McDonald's? Not a whole heck of a lot.

For several of the hotels reviewed in this "guide", the reviews were obviously at least two years out of date and completely unrepresentative, to the extent that there was an impression that the guide was protecting the interests of the establishment being described, or should I say, advertised. So, am I actually paying for a compendium of advertising?

Any guide can draw a fine line between objective "candid review", favoritism and deceptive promotion. Many aspects of this guide fall into the last category. Someone's not doing their research, which is why a reader may actually pay for a book, or perhaps, someone is getting some money under the table. This guide is inaccurate and deceptive. Check their reviews at their Frommer's site on the Internet. Then check what's actually going on at sites like Tripadvisor or other travel forums. In this aspect, print is dead.