|
Las Vegas Gambling Guide: Quick and Easy Tips to Help You Beat the Odds
www.fodors.com/ebooks/ $7.11, ISBN 1400011558 Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader
Travel Survival Kit: How to Plan a Great Vacation with Your Kids
Travel Trivia Quiz: Tantalizing Teasers to Test Your Travel IQ
|
And away we go!REVIEW BY RON KAPLANTravel publisher Fodor's has heeded the call of the e-book market. Their portable guides are now available for many popular domestic and foreign destinations, as well as recently released guides to gambling in Las Vegas, traveling with the kids and playing travel trivia. The interactive e-books have several convenient features. By "right clicking" on a page, the reader can highlight passages, bookmark the pages (more like "dog-earing" as opposed to a creating a web-site bookmark), add notes and draw pictures to personalize the experience. Easy to read on your laptop or PDA, these guides are perfect when you're on the go and want to leave the books at home. Viva Las VegasLas Vegas Gambling Guide: Quick and Easy Tips to Help You Beat the Odds lives up to its ambitious title with all it has to offer on every aspect of casino gambling, including many questions sometimes overlooked in other guides to the city. The guide has been written with the novice gambler in mind, but everyone can benefit from its suggestions. It includes a useful glossary to get the reader used to the special lingo of gambling. The authors also tell you how to take advantage of special offers and bonuses which are often not available to uninitiated, as well as how to get the special attention usually given to the high rollers.Individual chapters spotlight different games of chance, such as blackjack, poker, keno, baccarat and craps, along with pointers on how to make friends with the casino personnel (dealers, pit bosses, etc.). The tips are practical without being condescending. Readers would do well to study this one before hitting the games, rather than carrying it along like they would do with a regular travel guide. Are we there yet?Let's face it, as much as we love them, it can be trying to take our children on those long trips. That's where the Travel Survival Kit: How to Plan a Great Vacation with Your Kids comes in handy.Subjects include "The ABCs of Taking Kids Overseas," which can be quite easy with a little bit of organization; "Food and Whine: How to Dine with Kids" (helpful even when not on vacation); and "Planes, Boats, and Trains," which discusses the joys and perils of various modes of transportation. It's most welcome, especially when making that first extensive trip with young ones, to have all this information in one place. For example, find out what "all inclusive" means before you make those resort reservations. And don't be reluctant to set aside private time for the grownups; many vacation sites offer activities for the kids. Brain questWhile making that long trip, you might want to try your luck with Travel Trivia Quiz: Tantalizing Teasers to Test Your Travel IQ, by Stanley Newman, the crossword editor for New York's Newsday. The multiple choice questions are divided into categories such as Local Food and Customs; Destinations; Sights and Activities; Transportation; Film, Books, Pop Culture; Weather & Geography; and "Who Knew?" Choose the correct answer and you are rewarded with another bit of information; a wrong response simply merits "That's incorrect! Please try again."While the questions themselves are fun, other aspects of Travel Trivia Quiz could use a bit of tweaking. Photos or other graphics might make things a more lively, and navigation is a little cumbersome. There are no instructions, leaving the reader to fend for himself in figuring out how to move around. Overall, the guides are packed with useful information for travelers of every budget, and the inexpensive prices allow you to take an e-book test drive without a hefty payout. Try one for your next vacation, and before long, you won't leave home without it. |
