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Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected and not good info for camping
Review: I have used the Moon Handbook for New Mexico and various Lonely Planet guides with success and chose this book expecting the same quality. I was looking for solid information about alternative, independent travel. I intended to camp with a friend for most of my vacation. As a female traveler, I was particularly interested in accurate, unbiased, first-hand descriptions about campgrounds and safety in order to make good decisions. The author described the camping situation poorly. Photos and descriptions lead me to believe that the county and state campgrounds would be beautiful, well maintained, and strict with the possibility of a few local families enjoying extended stays and who might resent tourists. Instead, I found the campgrounds to be not unlike roadside homeless shelters for meth addicts, particularly mid-week. Most were extremely close the main roads and often had the down and out living out of their cars in the parking lots. I'm not criticizing the locals or their situation, but knowing this before my trip would have changed my approach. Making the reader explicitly aware of such situations is critical to providing sage travel advice. Frankly, the author danced around this particular issue. When camping, there's a huge difference between having drug-free local folks who may resent visitors and dealing with drugged-out people who don't have a home. Nilsen also neglected to describe the campgrounds enough (e.g. road goes right by it...often have locals cooking in the bathroom and leaving lots of garbage...theft issues, safer on the weekends when families camp there, very safe and on-site caretakers, etc). After speaking with local friends we learned, that of the many campgrounds available, they would only recommend two or three for safety and aesthetic reasons. That's the type of advice I was seeking from the book but didn't receive. We also tested out the guide on the opposite end of the accommodation scale. We ended up having to stay at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki since all budget and moderate hotels were booked. The author describes the rooms as "large and plush with the latest in adornment and amenities...nothing is skimped on when it comes to guest comforts...luxury." This review set me up to expect nothing short of a five-star hotel. In actuality, we arrived to extraordinarily dirty carpets in the halls and our small room, smoke in a non-smoking room, and Motel 6esque decor with no extra amenities. They may have had nice rooms somewhere in their building, but ours were 2-3 star quality with a 5-star view. This hotel was long in the tooth, which the book didn't recognize. The chasm between some of my actual experiences and the author's descriptions made me lose faith in the information in the guide book 1/2 way through my trip. Had I wanted budget accommodations and just some simple activity suggestions, I think this would be a sufficient guidebook. It's thick with interesting information, but I can't recommend it as a reliable guide for a trip similar to my own.
Rating: 
Summary: Great travel guide
Review: Unlike other readers, I couldn't be more impressed with the Moon book series, and this one was equally good. Accurately described our hotel in the same terms I would--although I had already booked the room before I bought the book. As far as describing camping sites accurately, I would have no idea. Camping in Hawaii never even occurred to me. Anyway, the Restaurant information was up to date and on point, and agreed thoroughly with each recommendation. Ditto for the outdoor and tourist information. This book is rich with information and is like a personal real life tour guide, with detailed historical and current information on each point of interest we visited. Great book--wouldn't go back to O'ahu without it.
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