Books » Travel Reference & Tips

The Definitive Disney Handbook

On the heels of capturing eight national book awards, the best-selling Complete Walt Disney World series returns with The Complete Walt Disney World 2010. Now with more than 500 full-color photographs, this show-and-tell extravaganza rates and reviews nearly 700 attractions, restaurants, shops and hotels and offers hundreds of helpful tips.

New attraction coverage includes the refurbished Space Mountain, the revamped Hall of Presidents and the all-new American Idol Experience. As for planning your trip, illustrated articles make it easy to choose the right theme-park tickets, understand the Disney Dining Plan and save a lot of time and money. Young families in particular will find the book helpful, as the abundance of photos give children a way to read it with their parents. Eye-catching images show attractions, hotels, restaurants and more.

Award-Winning Advice

The only independent Disney guide ever honored by the Walt Disney Company, The Complete Walt Disney World is the winner of Disney's iParenting Media Award for Outstanding Family Product. Other honors include Travel Guide of the Year and Nonfiction Book of the Year.

Ten Features Found Only in The Complete Walt Disney World 2010:

1. What's New Learn everything that's new or different at Disney with a handy summary right at the front of the book.
2. Plan Perfect Theme Park Days New Planning Your Day sections let you learn the best days of the week to visit each park, the best rides for your unique children, and how long the lines will probably be at each attraction for every hour of the day.
3. Character Locators Love Tinker Bell? Cinderella? The Mad Hatter? These lists show exactly where to meet dozens of Disney stars at every theme park.
4. Become the Ultimate Disney World Gamer Insider tips help you rack up incredible scores at Disney's ride-through shooting arcades, including the new 3-D Toy Story Mania.
5. Lions, Tigers, Giraffes... Oh My! All-new Animal Kingdom wildlife guides feature fab photos and fascinating facts. Habitat maps make it easy to spot your favorite exotic creatures.
6. Dude Looks Like a Lady Interesting backstories, histories, science secrets, Fun Finds, Fun Facts (Tinker Bell is sometimes a man?) and Hidden Mickeys help make every attraction interesting for everyone in your group.
7. New Photo-Filled Shopping Guides See unique souvenirs sold at each theme park, know what they cost and where to find them. Learn which stores offer the best items for you.
8. Totally Awesome Water Park Tips Learn how to catch major air on Disney's water slides and win its downhill races. Helpful details about every pool, river and slide let you decide which ones are too wild--or mild--for your family.
9. See Your Room Before You Book It Don't just read about the Disney resort hotels, see what they look like! Over a hundred new hotel photos include landscapes, swimming pools and best of all, rooms. Expanded reviews include pool features such as slides and waterfalls and children's activities such as pirate-themed scavenger hunts. Comprehensive specs include when each hotel was last renovated and how far it is from each theme park. Learn about the three new Disney Vacation Club timeshares as well as non-Disney hotels such as the huge new Hilton next door and the rebuilt Holiday Inn at Downtown Disney.
10. Who Ya Gonna Call? Conveniently located on the book's last page, an expanded Walt Disney World telephone directory lists over 90 rarely published numbers, including those for medical and dental emergencies, Lost and Found, even Special Occasion Cakes.

Authors Julie and Mike Neal have been to Walt Disney World more than 1,400 times, and visit weekly. They live on Sanibel Island, Fla.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

The River of Doubt-it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.

Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt's life, here is Candice Millard's dazzling debut.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

Book Description

Join New York Times bestselling author and Food Network star Guy Fieri for a second helping of the best diners, drive-ins, and dives across America!

Guy Fieri strikes again with More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, giving you a road map to road food that's earned its culinary citizenship in "Flavortown." Join Guy on a cross-country noshing parade, mapping out the best places you've never heard of—more than fifty establishments off the beaten path. Compete in a (no hands) apple-pie-eating contest at Bobo Drive-In in Topeka, Kansas, dip your taste buds in Sweet Spicy Love sauce at Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken in Memphis, Tennessee, and get a load of the killer four-cheese mac-and-cheese at Gorilla Barbeque in Pacifica, California. Filled with Guy's hilarious voice and rampant enthusiasm for these hidden culinary gems, More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is the perfect book for lovers of the American food scene and fans of Triple D.

Pleasure Cruising Through More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives by Guy Fieri

Dear Amazon Customers,

My drop-top culinary cruise to America's most fun and funkiest joints is the adventure we're all looking for--and I'm having the time of my life. I'm glad to get out there because it reminds me of what a great country we have. I have five restaurants of my own (three Johnny Garlic's and two Tex Wasabi's), and as a chef and restaurant owner, let me tell you, it's a tough business. You really have to love it to keep with it. I thought having my own restaurants in Northern California's wine country couldn't be beat, but sharing these mom and pop joints across the country and highlighting not just their food but their stories is probably the greatest experience I've ever had. And on top of it all, the show results in an increase in their business and ends up changing their lives. We get stories emailed to us all the time: I opened a second location, I bought the building, I bought my wife a new Mercedes.

One of these folks was Gorilla Rich, owner of Gorilla Barbeque in Pacifica, California. I met him while at a NASCAR race, and I knew this guy had to be on television. I didn't even know he had a barbeque restaurant at the time, so I wasn't even thinking of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I even called my producer from the track and said, "I met this dude and we've got to get him on television." Long story short, turns out he's doing some slammin' BBQ, we end up highlighting his restaurant on the show, and things are blown out! They've got a second smoker now and are looking into another location. Gorilla and I have become really good buddies, so when I'm home in California he'll drive up to my house and we'll hang out. Making these connections is one of the neatest things about doing the show. It can't happen with all of them, of course, but at some of the locations--like Voula's, Panini Pete's, Grinders, Luigi's Pizzeria, and Hodad's--these people have become really close friends. And it's not that we're great friends because I came to shine a light on them and change opportunities for their business, it's because they're brothers from another mother. We're all in this industry to make people happy, that's what we love to do. So when you find these other brothers that are out there doing that same thing, it's a culinary family reunion in flavortown.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life-from six weeks to four months to two years-to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Potts gives the necessary information on:

• financing your travel time
• determining your destination
• adjusting to life on the road
• working and volunteering overseas
• handling travel adversity
• re-assimilating back into ordinary life

Not just a plan of action, vagabonding is an outlook on life that emphasizes creativity, discovery, and the growth of the spirit.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

Pages: 974, Edition: Updated, Paperback, Workman Publishing Company

See more photos, specs, and reviews

Jen, Holly, and Amanda are at a crossroads. They're feeling the pressure to hit certain milestones-scoring a big promotion, finding a soul mate, having 2.2 kids-before they reach their early thirties. When personal challenges force them to reevaluate their lives, they decide it's now or never to do something daring. Unable to gain perspective in fast-paced Manhattan, the three twentysomethings quit their coveted media jobs and leave behind their friends, boyfriends, and everything familiar to travel the globe. Dubbing themselves the Lost Girls, they embark on an epic yearlong search for inspiration and direction.

As they journey 60,000 miles across four continents and more than a dozen countries, Jen, Holly, and Amanda step far outside of their comfort zones, embracing every adventure and experience the world has to offer-shooting blowguns with Yagua elders in the Amazon, learning capoeira on the beaches of Brazil, volunteering with preteen girls at a school in rural Kenya, hiking with Hmong villagers in Vietnam, and driving through Australia in a psychedelic camper van. Along the way, the Lost Girls find not only themselves but also a lifelong friendship. Ultimately, theirs is a story of true sisterhood-a bond forged by sharing beds and backpacks, enduring exotic illnesses, fending off aggressive street vendors, trekking across rivers and over mountains, and standing by one another through heartaches, whirlwind romances, and everything in the world in between.

This candid and compelling memoir will speak to anyone who has ever felt the desire to spread her wings and discover the world with her best friends by her side.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

Frommer's Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is packed with all the facts, tips, and descriptions you need to have perfect park vacation, in a pocket-sized guide:

• The most memorable park experiences, from Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs to Snake River rafting.
• Great places to stay in and near the parks, ranging from historic lodges to family-friendly motels-plus a complete campground guide for each park.
• A fully illustrated nature guide to help you spot and identify bald eagles, bison, wildflowers, and more.
• The best hikes, from ranger-led interpretive walks to challenging backcountry overnights.
• What to see and do outside of the parks: rodeos, chuckwagon feeds, IMAX nature films, an elk preserve, Jackson Hole's bars and boutiques, and more.
• Detailed, accurate park and trail maps.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.

See more photos, specs, and reviews

See more photos, specs, and reviews

Popular TV host and author Mad Coyote Joe takes the foreign out of Mexican cuisine and replaces it with genuine, mouth-watering dishes. Featuring more than 100 of Joe's favorite recipes, this is the real enchilada.

See more photos, specs, and reviews