Fodor's Essential Southwest: The Best of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah (Full-color Travel Guide)

wish this was a 2023 edition instead of 2021/before covid - but the natural sites, scenic drives, things to see and do haven't changed...very thorough descriptions of all areas of the southwestern states

Reference

I have at least 20 Fodor’s travel guides that I have previously purchased from many stores, including Amazon. I am so disappointed that the paper in this newly purchased book is so inferior to any other Fodor’s guide that I have purchased in the past. The paper in the book is thin and of very poor quality. I’m concerned that if I try to read it fully (where I can actually open it up to read both sides of the page) that the binding will break. I am very disappointed in the quality of the paper and binding. To be fair, I haven’t tried to read through it and am hopeful that the information in the book will be as informative and helpful as other Fodor’s travel guides. However, I really don’t think the binding will hold up to a thorough reading as the binding and pages are rather fragile.

Ok book.... Missed good points...

I received this as a Christmas present. When looking to read about Santa FE, NM on page 379 it was missing. Pages from page 352 to 385 are totally missing and not just out of order. If you purchase this book you need to review it to make sure it isn’t missing this pages in case it was the same printing as the one I have.

I pretty much bailed on this one when I read that Salt Lake City is becoming a more interesting place because Mormon influence is on the wane and "every mayor since 1976 has been a Democrat", and I'm not Mormon, or even Christian for that matter. The writers implying that a place has to be politically liberal to be fun is pure poppycock. Some of the most tourist interesting places in the United States are politically conservative. San Diego and San Antonio come to mind, not to mention most of the rural parklands of the West.Other than that, the guide is not too bad. It's quite current. The listings of sites, lodgings and restaurants are far from comprehensive, but the ones included are pretty good recommendations. The only real problem is that it tries to cover WAY too much ground in too little space. Think about what you have in this area. Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Santa Fe, Albuquerque... Then there are the ski resorts. Oh, did I mention the national parks? This book could be over 1,000 pages, and probably should be. This is a book most useful for someone travelling to the Southwest from far away (from abroad perhaps) looking to cover the highlights only.