Fifty Places To Bike Before You Die: Biking Experts Share The World's Greatest Destinations Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die is the ninth addition to the bestselling Fifty Places series by Chris Santella. Biking has grown increasingly popular in recent years, as both a leisure and an extreme exercise activity, and Santella covers trips for cyclists of every level. Fifty Places to Bike covers environments as varied as the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia, the Indochina Trail in Vietnam, and the urban jungle of New York City. With a healthy mix of international and national locations, the 50 chapters capture the breathtaking vistas cyclists will enjoy around the world. As always, the places are brought to life with more than 40 stunning color photographs.Praise for Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die:“OMG views, killer hills and open road—the routes in Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die (in bookstores this month) have everything a pedal pusher could ask for.” —Fitness magazine“If you know someone who can't view a landscape without visualizing themselves traversing it on two wheels, Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die is a sound gift choice.” —The San Francisco Chronicle “Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die gets adventurous cyclists going in the right direction.” —The Boston Globe“50 chapters capture breathtaking cycling trails around the world.” —Metrosource magazine
Series: Fifty Places
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang; 9.1.2012 edition (October 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1584799897
ISBN-13: 978-1584799894
Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 1 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #30,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Cycling > Excursion Guides #111 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Nature Travel > Adventure #133 in Books > Travel > Travel Writing
There are a lot of cyclists out there who are perfectly content with doing all of their biking in their backyard. Santella's book is just a starting point for people considering a trip further afield. In browsing the book, readers will get some grasp on the landscape of possibilities and a few names and addresses to get started.The preceding reviewer complained that the book was just marketing fluff from bicycle tour operators and guides, ( full disclosure: I'm one of the "experts" interviewed in the book). Although it's true that all of the experts are "in the business", I can't think of a better way of curating the selection of destinations and offering it up to the public.If you're a veteran adventure cyclist, this book isn't for you. However, if you'd like to encourage someone (or yourself) to consider a cycling vacation at some point, this is a great place to start.
If you are interested in tour-cycling, then this book is worth every penny. As a prior review mentioned, the 50 rides profiled in this book are written by individuals from various touring companies and non-profit organizations. This is what makes it good. You are hearing about the rides from the people who know them well. If you are really interested in a ride, you can choose to find a tour company or just use this book as a guide for creating your own tour.What I like most about this book is that it has opened my mind to some tours I wasn't even aware of. I'm 45 years old in 2013, and am doing two of the tours from this book. If I can do at least two per year I'll have this list accomplished by the time I'm 70...hopefully there will be another book with 50 more rides to choose from.There are so many places to do a bike tour. This book really helps you choose some of the most amazing destinations. I like browsing through this book so much I've ordered a 2nd copy for my office.
This book offers some inspirational photos of stunning places to bike, however, there is a certain aftertaste created by the fact that all the essays have been compiled by bicycle touring companies that seemingly want to plug their businesses. You are basically paying for a massive sales pitch, but even as a sales pitch it is flawed.From a formatting and information point of view, I dislike that the tours in the US aren't all covered under a "USA" umbrella of sorts, but that they are filed in between the international destinations in the alphabetical order of the state names. Generally, sorting by continents first, then countries, then states would make this book more useful. That said, there isn't much usability in the book to begin with, as all and any helpful information about the destinations is missing. A simple map marking the 50 tour locations would have been tremendously helpful; for the US states I would have wished for a basic state outline with a location marker within the respective state. There is positively no information in the book whatsoever in regards to where to go, how to get there, and so on. So not only is it not a guidebook, but it really isn't useful as anything but a very basic starting point, which I found disappointing, especially considering who the authors are. I guess they don't want to give anything away in order to bolster their respective businesses.I give 2 stars for the pretty photos; the flimsy contents are worth 1 star at most.
Very disappointing. Many of the recommended places to cycle are no more than sales plugs for a cycle tour operator--and where cycling on your own or as a self-directed group might be difficult, because you have to be driven out to the cycle-friendly locations. The title of the book would more accurately be, "50 Places with Bike Tour Operators to Consider".I'm sorry, Mr. Santella, but this is also lazy authorship--pulling together existing (perhaps even unedited) promotional text into a 'book'.
Many of the reviews are by tour guides recommending trips their company offers. Many of these are great trips, but this is not what I was expecting - I can get that information from a trip catalog.
I checked out this book and "Fifty Places to Hike before you Die" from our local library before deciding to order them. My husband is especially into bicycles and wanted his own copy. I ordered the books as Father's Day gifts. I like that the books include places from around the world. It's doubtful we will ever do all 50, but should we ever be in one of the countries listed, we've already got an alternative to check out besides the usual tourist stops. There are also quite a few bike rides in the U.S. that we will try out. It's also just fun to read so see what's out there.In response to some reviews that these books are blatant promotions, I disagree. I would rather hear from the experts. On some of these adventures we may want a guide, but on others, in places we know fairly well, the book has given enough information to go on our own with maybe a little more research. To me it would be impossible for the author to scour the globe in search of 50 places worth visiting. Talking to the experts seems to be a much more logical way of compiling the information.
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