Comments for gap adventures – The Great Adventure People

Comment on Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) by Holly Hale

Holly Hale — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:52:28 +0000

Review by Holly Hale for Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) Rating: This book was initially purchased in 2000 and I wanted an updated version as so much has changed in 8 yrs.
I was disappointed as I found pretty much the same pictures and content.
That being said I LOVE the DK books for travel ...they are terrific guide books.

Comment on Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) by Jon B. Buffington

Jon B. Buffington — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:54:31 +0000

Review by Jon B. Buffington for Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) Rating: "Jerusalem" and the Holy Land" was a great help to me while on my recent Sabbatical. It was small enough to carry and yet informative enough to be worth carrying. However, since I was visiting 5 countries, I made a habit of leaving each guide book to lighten my load as I was picking up other items along the way. I bought this one to replace the original and couldn't have been happier to receive it on time and in great condition. It helped me remember places and stories and, more importantly, label my photos.

Comment on Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) by BOOK WORM

BOOK WORM — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:01:12 +0000

Review by BOOK WORM for Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) Rating: My wife and I spent a week in Israel in March 2009. The 2007 edition of "Jerusalem & The Holy Land" was extremely helpful in preparing for our seven-day tour. This guidebook is packed full of information. I was able to plan ahead on what to look for at a given site. For example, from this guide I learned that the Church of the Nativity had faded paintings on columns done by the Crusaders. I was able to actually see them. This book is very practical. The photos of Israeli currency are very helpful as most of my purchases were made in Shekels (Incidently, a 2-shekel coin has been introduced since guide's publication).

The Hebrew phrases in the book are helpful. My only suggesting would be to add a few basic Arabic phrases as one will encounter many Arab shopkeepers.

I hope to return to Israel in a few years an will again purchase a DK Eyewitness Travel book.

Comment on Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) by Globetrotting Mom

Globetrotting Mom — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:10:34 +0000

Review by Globetrotting Mom for Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) Rating: As someone who has lived in Israel for almost a year, I know that every tiny thing is politicized here. So I don't really hold it against this guide that it has an obvious anti-Zionist slant. It's hesitant to mention the word Israel (note the title), but sometimes it does. It does not acknowledge that Jerusalem is in Israel, but you'd only notice that if you're paying attention. Any section that discusses the modern history of Israel is severely biased. The tone is appropriate, but the facts are presented in such a one-sided manner that relying just on this book would give you a seriously skewed perspective. There aren't many up-to-date guides to Israel, and this one is pretty good (I also like the Frommer's). So go ahead and buy this guide, but read about Israel from a couple of other sources to offset the bias. The Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict is an easy to digest overview, though it's biased in the other direction -- sadly, I don't think objectivity on this subject is achievable.

Purely as a tour guide, this doesn't quite stand alone; it's a great supplement if you have another guide. Hotel and restaurant listings are very brief, and they aren't included on the maps.

Comment on Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) by Robert C. Ross

Robert C. Ross — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:44:39 +0000

Review by Robert C. Ross for Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE) Rating: It's tough to pick the "best" guidebook for a particular destination, and the proliferation of free travel information on the web makes choosing "the one" even tougher. My wife and I always start with a copy of an EyeWitness guide for the destination: there are pictures on every page, and we find the images help us plan our trip: the guides are particularly good for architecture and art. The practical guides in the back cover currency, hotels and restaurants.

This guide to Jerusalem is a particularly good example of the DK offerings: the images, paper, text, all are up to the high standards of other books in the series.

Having written that, there is really only one page that matters in deciding whether to buy: the newer the guide the better. This book appeared first in 2000 and was my companion to Israel. It was substantially revised in 2002, and revised again in 2007. If you like the Eyewitness series and have any interest in the destination, armchair or on the ground, your decision is made.

Note: DK maintains an excellent website at TravelDK , with updates on many of its guidebooks.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Comment on Hiking the Grand Canyon – The Corridor Trails [VHS] Reviews by Michael A. Leco

Michael A. Leco — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 06:59:35 +0000

Review by Michael A. Leco for Hiking the Grand Canyon - The Corridor Trails [VHS] Rating: This video is a great resource for anyone who would like to hike the Grand Canyon. It provides basic information about the canyon, its geography, its weather and its dangers. Everything is presented in very understandable language with plenty of computer graphics and video images. If you have never hiked the canyon, this tells you how to go about it with lots of helpful hints, useful tips and precautions. It includes detailed descriptions of the three main trails.If you are an experienced hiker already familiar with the Grand Canyon who wishes to explore the less familiar, this video may be a bit basic for you. Then again, you might just learn some new things from it.

Comment on Hiking the Grand Canyon – The Corridor Trails [VHS] Reviews by Joe Bartels

Joe Bartels — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 06:42:31 +0000

Review by Joe Bartels for Hiking the Grand Canyon - The Corridor Trails [VHS] Rating: The video hikers have been waiting for has finally arrived. Computer animations lead you through the corridor trails. The Bright Angel, North and South Kaibab trails are covered in full. These rim to river trails can be extremely dangerous even for an experienced hiker. As webmaster of HikeArizona.COM, which focuses on day hiking, I've avoided these longer trails in the past. Having viewed the video I feel more prepared and confident in tackling a trip down to the river.Important information about pace and hydration make this video valuable. Additional general information about preparing for the worst may save your life. Profiles of the canyon's layers have boggled my mind in the past. You can read all you want but the visual presentation makes more sense. All the above plus trail specific information make this a great video.Ironically few videos cover this beautiful canyon. I'm pleased to highly recommend, "Hiking the Grand Canyon" - the corridor trails. Let's hope the future holds a second video highlighting other canyon trails. - joe

Comment on Hiking the Grand Canyon – The Corridor Trails [VHS] Reviews by Erin Sullivan

Erin Sullivan — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 06:31:06 +0000

Review by Erin Sullivan for Hiking the Grand Canyon - The Corridor Trails [VHS] Rating: Hiking the Grand Canyon is not only an assest but a necessity for anyone drawn to the beauty and mystery of this natural wonder. It is obvious from the presentation that much time and thought went into creating such a practical guide. Detailed computer graphics, picturesque video, and a superbly performed voice-over of all information make this video as enjoyable as it is useful. Five stars! Here's hoping the creators will search out other US trails and parks to present to the populace. As an east-coaster, I'd like to suggest the Appalachian Trail.

Comment on Hiking the Grand Canyon – The Corridor Trails [VHS] Reviews by Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 06:16:54 +0000

Review by for Hiking the Grand Canyon - The Corridor Trails [VHS] Rating: I like the author of this video hiked through the GC for the first time in 1993 and was hooked. I have returned many times since always finding something new just below the rim. I can say easily that the canyon changed my life and my view of the world around me. This video comes the closest to showing to the world that world below the rim that hikers find. I think that anyone who is interested in hiking there should definitely see this video. It gives the most information on geology and trail conditions I have seen in any video (even the one from the backcountry office). I give this video the highest rating because I believe from my own experience that it deserves it!

Comment on Hiking the Grand Canyon – The Corridor Trails [VHS] Reviews by Professor Donald Mitchell

Professor Donald Mitchell — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:27:18 +0000

Review by Professor Donald Mitchell for Hiking the Grand Canyon - The Corridor Trails [VHS] Rating: The footage in this video covers more beautiful scenes from the Grand Canyon than all but a handful of people on earth will ever see. In addition, you get valuable geological and topographical information that will make your hike more interesting and memorable. Having this video also saves you the trouble of shooting your own footage (and carrying your own video equipment). Finally, the hiking information is relevant to preparing to make your hiking at the Grand Canyon exactly what you want it to be.If you are like most people (99 percent of them anyway), you will come to the Grand Canyon, ooh and aah a little from the rim, and go to the next place on your trip. This video will give you many of the views that can only be seen by hiking down. So you can get a lot of benefit from very little effort. That's a very good deal.Before going on, I want to also praise this video for choosing to cover all three main trails to the Colorado River from the north and south rims. Even those who hike the Canyon will seldom do all three of these trails. I got useful ideas about the potential benefits of doing the two trails I have not yet hiked. In addition, the computer graphics in this video are simply outstanding and make the narration much more meaningful.I have only two quibbles about the video. I found Jeannine McNamara's voice as narrator a little hard to listen to. The narration script does a good job of describing the dangers of doing these hikes (dehydration, falling, heat prostration and stroke, flash floods, rapid currents in the Colorado, and being hit by rocks), but I thought these were repeated a little too often. Let me tell you a little about my experience hiking the Bright Angel Trail, so that you will realize why you will benefit form this video. I had first come to the trail as an adult with my two sons when they were young. My older son, then 5, wanted to hike down a little. He and I loved it, but it scared me because he wasn't really old enough to be careful. I promised him we would come back someday. We did not return until 20 years later. Hoping to make the experience something special, my wife arranged for a special early morning tour by a park ranger. That tour gave us a lot of background that is not in the video. I highly recommend doing this. The fee is well worth it, but there is limited time for rangers to do this. You have to schedule well in advance. Part of the tour included hiking down about 500 vertical feet on the Bright Angel trail. When it was time to go back up, my older son and I looked at each other and said, "We're going to go a little further." The ranger with us warned us that on a July day it was really too late to be getting started to hike the whole trail, and briefed us on what else we needed to do about food and water while encouraging us to stop before it got too hot. We followed the directions (similar to those on the video) and had a magnificant hike. We spent the heat of the afternoon resting in the shade at the bottom, and hiked back up to finish just before sunset. This was one of the best days of my life, and made fantastic a memory that my son and I will treasure forever. I intend to share this video with him tomorrow night to help us recall our wonderful time together. The material on the video exactly matches what we saw, down to the big-horned sheep and deer we passed on the trail.We were pretty impressed with ourselves for doing this until a 74 year old man and a 12 year old boy passed us going up just before dusk. They had started by flashlight at 3 a.m. and had been down the Bright Angel Trail and on to the base of the North Rim and back in one day. I suddenly realized that I needed to come back and hike the Canyon again with my grandchildren in about another 20 years.If you are like me, hiking the Canyon will be one of the high points of your life. Be sure to take those you love with you (or at least as many as you can persuade after showing them this video). Plan ahead. Everything takes reservations months ahead, including staying in the park so you can get an early start. The video will tell you what to do.After you have enjoyed your hike, I suggest you think about other places where the grandeur of nature can provide a wonderful hiking experience that fits with your interests and physical abilities. Plan you next family hike today!See the world up close!