Product Description

From the bright lights of Vegas to historic ghost towns and outdoor adventures, Moon Handbooks Nevada highlights the best the Silver State has to offer, both on and off the beaten path. Practical information includes suggested travel strategies and lists of must-see sights, plus essentials on dining, transportation, and accommodations for a range of budgets. Complete with details for enjoying food, hotels, casinos, hikes, and campsites in Reno, Tahoe, Pyramid Lake, and the entire state, Moon Handbooks Nevada gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201179 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 428 pages

About the Author
Deke Castleman adopted Nevada in 1988 when he began working on the first edition of Moon Handbooks Nevada. He still writes guidebooks about Nevada and Las Vegas, but lately he's turned into something of a gambling writer, having penned Whale Hunt in the Desert, a book about "whales" - the world's biggest betters - and the extra-special handling that Las Vegas's fanciest casinos extend to gamblers who can make bets of up to $250,000, hand after hand, hour after hour, day after day.

Customer Reviews

terrible update! :(
I knew I was in trouble when I saw the update of Deke Castleman's Moon Nevada update in my bookstore. The width seemed to be half of the previous edition and after buying it and leafing through it, my fears were confirmed. :( This new 7th edition shockingly completely eliminates a slew of interesting towns and info from the previous sixth edition. Therefore I must, alas, amend my previous glowing review below. :( What happened? One of the joys of Nevada, as I wrote previously, is the wealth of small and ghost towns that sprinkle across the state. County seat towns provide other hidden gems worthy of discovery. However, if you're looking for Yerington, you're out of luck. It's been excised from that last edition. Thinking of venturing out from Vegas to Pahrump? You won't be able to look up a place to stay in this new edition because Pahrump is no longer featured also. :( Tiring of Reno and want to explore nearby Sparks? Better find another map or guide because Sparks was extinguished from this one as well. How about that cool funky border town of Primm? Gone. That other cool funky border town of Jackpot on the other end of the state? Gone also. Dayton? Beatty? Carlin? You won't find 'em here in the update. :( Rhyolite...RHYOLITE??? Rhyolite is one of the most photogenic and interesting ghost towns you'll find and is pure Nevada, but it's NOT HERE!! How could they leave out Rhyolite? I visited Fort Churchill last summer and that seems a must-include also, but they took out Fort Churchill as well. What gives? It seems as either Castleman or Moon seem to want to focus more on Las Vegas and the more well-known attractions. Or someone wanted to save money. Or something. Las Vegas is fun, but Nevada is more than Las Vegas. Frankly, I don't know why they did this, but I'm quite disappointed. :( I advise travellers who are thinking of exploring the backroads and small towns of Nevada to seek out a used copy of the green-covered sixth edition, despite the fact that some info may be out-of-date and bypass this update. I will DEFINITELY be keeping that edition in my library in hoping that they'll reconsider and put the lost info back in for the eighth edition of Moon Nevada. :(
Here is my previous Amazon review of the superior sixth edition posted in '04:
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Nevada is a unique state, all right. There's no state quite like it in the US. Deke Castleman's book does a GREAT job of capturing every nook and cranny of this sometimes weird and quirky state. The alien landscape of Nevada and its rich western character of ghost towns, colorful history and "life on the edge" never cease to fascinate me. This book captures this Nevada quite nicely! Sure, it covers the Las Vegas casinos but it delves into the sparsely populated boom&bust ghost towns that make up the vast majority of the area of the state. Things are always changing in Nevada so Castleman can be forgiven if some things don't make it to press. For example, when I visited (spring of 2002) the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah had been closed for renovations. I had eagerly awaited staying there based on my reading about it in this and other books. Hopefully, they said it would reopen again sometime but they didn't say when. :( I hope it will be soon! Otherwise, everything is pretty much right on target. Can't wait for the next update!

This new edition is hugely disappointing.
Way back in the early 90s I bought my first copy of Castleman's Nevada Handbook. I was astonished at the breadth and depth of the book, and I was delighted at the author's idiosyncratic but engaging style. I liked the book so much I actually wrote Castleman a letter of praise (this was pre-Amazon). As new editions came out every three years or so, I bought each one. (I visit Nevada annually.) Unfortunately, someone decided this new edition needed to be a mere ghost of previous editions. I can't fathom what the idea was here. It wasn't just to make room for more Vegas information, because this edition is much shorter than previous ones. Reading over comments from other readers, I notice that the positive reviews seem to come from people who never saw the previous editions. Those who'd seen earlier versions of the book are, like me, deeply disappointed. What a shame that some editor somewhere decided "Hey, I've got an idea --- let's take this great book and make it WORSE."

Disappointing
Because I loved previous editions of this book, I bought this new edition in anticipation of a trip back to the fabulous state of Nevada. Despite my former enthusiasm for the book, I have to give this edition a less than glowing review, mainly because many of my favourite places in the state were deleted, in order to expand coverage of just about every casino in Las Vegas, Reno and Tahoe. It's still well-written, but no longer can we read about such enigmatic places as Jarbidge, Searchlight and many of the other friendly, quirky, off-the-beaten-track towns and villages that make Nevada such a wonderful place to explore. Therefore, real Nevada-philes may want to give it a miss and try to get hold of a copy of the previous edition.