Frommer's Yosemite & Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park

Rating:
Summary: as good as a pocket guide can get
Review: Yosemite is one of my favorite places. I fall in love with this majestic park on my first trip there, and try to spend at least several days every year hiking Yosemite trails. I also like Sequoia and Kings Canyon, which are great parks for hikers and backpackers. Since I am not new to these parks, I was curious how the judgement and advice of this book would agree with my own impressions. I was pleasantly surprised. In this book, Frommer's made an outstanding example of how good a pocket-size guide can be. It has only 170 pages on three parks, and yet all essentials are covered - how to get there, what to see, where to stay, it has maps of the parks and of the hiking trails, it has lists of the best views accessible from the road and ratings of hikes, it has information for backpackers (based on the personal experience of the author). In my opinion and experience, the ratings of trails are very accurate, and descriptions of hotels and restaurants are unusually unbiased. In fact, I could not find a single one which I would not agree with. All ratings/descriptions maintain positive attitude, but it is very easy to read between the lines, e.g., if the book says that a certain restaurants has "a simple but adequate menu" and does not give it a single star, it means that it is a crappy and overpriced snack bar, but it will help you to survive until you get to a better place; when it says that the place is excellent and gives it three stars, then it is really good. One can surely find more detailed books on day hikes or backpacking in Yosemite. However, no other travel guide gives so much practical information and good advice in a condensed form. If you are planning to visit Yosemite for a day or two and do not know where to start, I cannot think about a better book to recommend.