Customer Reviews

Milepost

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are lots of miles of roads in AK, and driving them can be a bit boring. Unless you have the milepost to guide you. There are interesting things happening all along the roadside, and a long road trip will whiz by when you are aware of what you are seeing, or can anticipate what is coming up around the bend.

Well worth the investment.

I found the Milepost to be better than having no reference material at all (the maps are the most useful feature). Its best use is in finding RV parks and gas stations but the method of reporting services available at the RV parks is somewhat hit or miss and is not always accurate or reported in any sort of consistent format -- except on the keycodes on the maps. One key piece of information that is only grudgingly made available are the months that the parks are actually open for customers.

While not TERRIBLE, this book is fairly useless. Certainly it is not worth its asking price.

I was convinced to buy it by a friend who had used it to get around Alaska 25 years ago. But after a month of traveling around the state, I ended up feeling ripped off. In my travels around Alaska, I found numerous free vacation planners or free travel guides as good or better than this turkey.

The book has numerous problems. In most cases, historical or cultural information is missing completely, or described in the most perfunctory way. And even when there's actually something of interest, thousands of disguised advertisements for paying businesses clutter the text, making it hard to find.

The book is more or less a business directory, and its community descriptions seem taken straight from census data.

25 years ago, it MAY have a good resource (though I'm not even convinced of that.) But it seems to have become obsolete. If you really want the information it's peddling, wait till you get to Alaska to pick up a free guide, or hit the internet.

As a former tour guide in Chicken, AK., this is the one book I recommended to anybody traveling through the state. My father, a gold miner in Alaska for 20 years, still carries a copy in the back of his truck.

I found this guide extremely unhelpful for my trip thru Alaska and the Canadian Rockies. It seems to be comprehensive but it is dominated and prejudiced by those who advertise in the publication. It sat unread in the back of my van for the entire journey.

One of the world's greatest drives is along the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper, but this does not appear in The Milepost (i suspect) as there are no commercial advertisers along this national park route. This one ommission in itself makes the planner unacceptable.

Further, there are no suggestions or evaluations of the areas covered, so the reader has no help in choosing destinations or routes. Again, i assume, this is so as to not alienate the advertisers.

On the other hand it does list many establishments in the areas. I found it more helpful to use the internet or local tourism authorities where i could evaluate by seeing and reading; rather than the telephone directory-style Milepost.

I have found the Moon books far more useful. Even the usually non-commital Lonely Planet guides have more critical evaulations.

This book offers the reader more information
than one could possibly hope for. Maps of all
the major cities and things to do make this
a must have if planning a trip to Alaska.
You'll find phone numbers, most hotels and
resturants, gas stations, road houses. You
name it.

If you're headed to Alaska, you need this
book. Just don't leave it home!

This guidebook has provided the Alaska traveler with all of the support (lodging, gas stations, dining, vehicle repairs, medical, etc.) and sight-seeing information needed to have a safe, comfortable and informative journey. It details this information on mile-by-mile basis which allows the traveler to know the joys and potential hazards of the trip. It also provides this same detail for all of the major roads that lead to and from the Alaska Highway and throughout Alaska. Also a necessary reference for the traveler who flys to Alaska and rents a car in Anchorage or Fairbanks. It also provides history and trivia of many of the little towns in the Alaska Wilderness. I get this book every time I had to Alaska. Alaska adventurers should also consider getting the book, Discovering Denali if they are going to explore Denali National Park.

We had a little problem using the book at the beginning of our 11,000 mile trip, takes a little getting used to the format but once we did it was as one review said: It shows every trashcan, rock, flower in Alaska. I especially liked driving by a burned out area of the forest and the details in the book that told about the fire how far it burned, when. We traveled in a motor home and it was a godsend in finding camping areas. Our bible Trailer Life Campground Guide in the lower US is good in the lower US but fell very short on information on campgrounds in Alaska and Yukon etc. The biggest problem we had with it was so many of the mileposts have disappeared or been misplaces along the roads so we had to do so much catchup once we pinpointed where we actually were. But it is very necessary.

We had a little problem using the book at the beginning of our 11,000 mile trip, takes a little getting used to the format but once we did it was as one review said: It shows every trashcan, rock, flower in Alaska. I especially liked driving by a burned out area of the forest and the details in the book that told about the fire how far it burned, when. We traveled in a motor home and it was a godsend in finding camping areas. Our bible Trailer Life Campground Guide in the lower US is good in the lower US but fell very short on information on campgrounds in Alaska and Yukon etc. The biggest problem we had with it was so many of the mileposts have disappeared or been misplaces along the roads so we had to do so much catchup once we pinpointed where we actually were. But it is very necessary.

extensive information on Alaska. Haven't sued it yet but am planning to this year. Lots of sources for lodging, recreation, etc. and some great maps.