I've used almost every travel book available when traveling, so I have absolutely no doubt that this is the best book available if you are considering taking a drive in the USA. We drove 3 of the major trips in this book--including Route 66, The Oregon Trail, and The Great River Road--and if we had depended on other books, the truth is, we would have missed almost every great site Jensen points out. He and his editors have accomplished more than I'd have ever hoped from a mere travel guide. If you use this book for even part of one road trip, you will see the real USA.

The book provides indepth coverage of eleven road trips in a lively, knowledgeable, and educated format highlighted with many great photographs and asides in the margins of corresponding trip narratives. All routes are readable from either direction one chooses to drive them as we found driving the Great River Road from south to north instead as outlined in the book--from north to south--and we had no problems whatsoever because Jensen has thought of every angle for us.

Road Trip USA is jam packed with hints, "secrets," history, gossip, lore, and myths, in addition to advice on great places to take photographs of unique sights, best spots to find perfect pie, local radio stations to tune in for local flavor, and out-of-the-way lodging and camping information that other books will not even mention. If you prefer the superhighway, this is not the book for you. If you want to see the America you hope is out there, this book will help you find it. I give it my highest recommendation. As far as I can tell, he didn't miss a thing! And I can now say without reservation, this is a beautiful country. END


Hit the Road and Live it Up   March 28, 2001
 112 out of 112 found this review helpful

This is an excellent, excellent book for anyone who wants to take a road trip as a vacation and see the country like you've never seen it before. I used this book to see so many funky pieces of Americana: everything from a miniature Stonehenge in Missouri to the world's largest ketchup bottle in Illinois. I traveled Rte. 66 and stayed at a great little motel in Missouri (Munger Moss) recommended by this book. That motel is a must for any Rte. 66 fans: its gift shop is filled with Rte. 66 memorabilia. And it's cheap!! $25 a night with clean rooms. The whole idea of this book is to get people to see that America isn't all the same, though it seems that way when you stay on the highways. It's filled with great road trips to take wherever you are in the country, north or south, east or west. It's really an amazing country we live in and you'll find out that you can have a great vacation traveling endless roads that provide new discoveries.

You'll get a whole new perspective on areas you may have visited. And the author offers suggestions on places to go to get a local flavor. So instead of eating at a McDonald's or Denny's for breakfast, you can try a diner in Memphis that Elvis used to frequent.

A couple of my Chicago-based colleagues were very impressed when I told them I ate at Berghoff's and Lou Mitchell's in downtown Chicago. They said nobody from out-of-town would have gone there.

It's like having a knowledgeable traveling companion with you wherever you go. I enjoyed every town and city I visited on a two-week trip thanks to this book.

I've looked at other travel guides and they don't compare to this book. High praise to Jamie Jensen for creating such an informative book, packed full of useful nuggets. This book was never far from my fingertips on that trip.

I'm planning a motorcycle road trip in the near future and will definitely have this book along. I only wish I had more time to take more of these road trips.

Enjoy and happy motoring.


Great road trip book   November 24, 1999
 52 out of 55 found this review helpful

After my first trip across country, I wanted to write a real road trip book. All of my US guide books give good information about big cities but little about small towns and back roads. The real gems I found on cross country trips were a cheese factory in Wisconsin or an ice cream shop in Iowa. Luckily I found this book before my second cross country trip. It was really great. It gives about 8 different 2-lane highway routes usually stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic or from Canada to the Southern tips of the US. It doesn't cover everywhere I want to go, but it's great if you're going on a long road trip... or if you live near one of the 2-Lane Highways in the book. Although it gives information about large cities along the way, you may want a supplement if you plan on spending lots of time in big cities. This book focuses more on the interesting places between those major cities.


A Unique and Wonderful Book   June 24, 2002
 42 out of 42 found this review helpful

When we drove across country last summer, we searched for a book that could lead us on an off-the-beaten-path American adventure. Jamie Jensen's Road Trip USA gave us more than we could have hoped for. Road Trip USA is filled with credible and detailed information regarding sites, hotels and restaurants. The book provides vivid history and current information, so you can get a real sense of the places you go. We ate crabs with the local beachhounds on the Outer Banks, had BBQ with the 9-to-5'ers in Montgomery, ate pizza with LSU fans in Baton Rouge, and drank the best beer we'd ever tasted in a tiny town off the California coast. The detailed, quirky tidbits the book includes are invaluable. What other book tells you about the B'Hai radio station that you can listen to as you drive through Myrtle Beach, SC? If you want to see the USA- not just check out the tourist sites, but see where and how other folks in the USA really live - this is the book for you.


not for those on a budget   November 9, 2001
 28 out of 34 found this review helpful

I purchased this book because it seems like a really great concept, a book with road trips all planned out for you, where to eat, sleep, etc. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I had expected. It is interesting at times, its fun to find out little tidbits of info about the little towns you pass by, but if you're planning a roadtrip on a budget, make sure you have some other source of information along.
This book does not deal with places to stay or eat for cheap (or even very much at all), if you are not totally familiar with an area, do not count on this book to help you find a place to crash for the night. Most of the lodging that it features are novelty sort of places, and can be pretty high-end (at leats for me). And it doesn't really tell you where to grab a bite to eat on the road either.
I found the directions lacking as well. I am not a great navigator, and at times I found it hard to figure out where to go, so I ended up just abandoning any hope of following one of the routes. It also didn't really tell anything about road conditions.
If you are planning a road trip, I think you would be better off to do most of the research yourself. It was interesting in a couple of aspects though, so if you have some extra cash laying around and you've already pretty much planned the trip out yourself, it is kinda interesting. It is certainly not indispensible though. And make sure you have an alternate guidebook and an atlas (the maps in this book are definitely lacking).