1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List

As an armchair traveller, I had a lot of fun reading this book and its sequel, "1001 Places.. in the US and Canada". The entries are divided into continents, and further grouped by countries. The information is plentiful, with photos, websites, addresses, etc.

However, as others have mentioned, the author seems to have a fixation on hotels and restaurants, particularly of the expensive variety. Now this is just me, but unless it's a truly one-of-a-kind experience, hotels and restaurants simply don't interest me that much. Many of the activities and tours mentioned also fall into the "prohibitively expensive" category.

As for the places mentioned, it did seem like a sort of strange mix. As has been mentioned, there seemed like very few places in Africa mentioned. Spain was another country that seemed to get shortchanged. I would have liked to have seen more maps that showed all of the places and their general locations in greater detail.

In all, this book was a lot of fun to read, browse through, and fantasize about. However, I would not consider it an actual travel guide with which to plan a trip.

This book does mention some sights that are worth visiting, however it focuses more on the pricey hotels to stay at than on actual things to see. For instance, when discussing the town of Sedona, AZ, it focuses about half of the entry on the Enchantment Resort instead of many of the amazing sights around town like the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Slide Rock, Snoopy Rock, Coffee Pot Restaurant (Home of the 101 Omelets), etc. It is also surprising that an author who has written for travel guides such as Frommer's is so Euro-American-centric, focusing much of the book on places/hotels to see in the US and Western Europe. As a traveler, many of the sights that have taken my breath away occur not in the big Western cities, but away from the path that so many typical tourists take. Read this book if you want to visit beautiful hotels around the world and maybe see a sight or two along the way, but if you want to experience the things that you really should see before you die, talk to fellow travelers with real experience exploring the spectacular.

I got the book on time so that I can give it to my friend as a Christmas Gift. She loves it. It is brand new and packed very well. It is cheaper than in other place as well.

I was very disappointed with this book. The author did not include travel information that was very helpful. I thought there would be much more detail about the actual locations. Most of the entries were spent on which hotels are the nicest (and most expensive) at the location. If you are looking for a travel guide describing what's interesting and unique about various locations, I would not recommend this book.

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