California Trips

My love for Lonely Planet guidebooks is undying and true, and this book was a happy reminder why. My one small quibble is that its many truly awesome tips are organized by various themed trips, so making sure you're reading about everything in a given location is a little dizzying. I recommend post-its to assist in the process. But, on a recent trip, this compact & dense guide led Jacob and me to, among other things, an awesome Ethiopian restaurant in LA, a date shake at a date farm in the Coachella Valley, a lovely hidden little restaurant near Joshua Tree NP, and an old-school diner/cafe in Mammoth Lakes that totally hit the spot after a backpacking trip. None of which we would have found otherwise. Rock on, Lonely Planet, rock on.