Four Seasons of Travel: 400 of the World's Best Destinations in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall

Book was in great shape. This book was bought with the intention of selecting locations around the world to go which I believe it will be a great help with. It doesn't go into lots of detail about each place but gives you a good enough idea of the location to help make decisions or at least narrow down locations for more research.

Quality of the photographs is just fine. The title suggests the book illustrates travel destinations via photos (plural, not singular) that would be representative or iconic of each place. But each destination is portrayed with a single photo that in many cases is pretty quirky & fails to tell the story other than "a-fine-place-to-eat-lunch-in-an-outdoor-cafe-in-the-fall-wearing-1980's-vintage-attire" and such.

I love how the beautiful, glossy photos truly transport you to the destinations. This is a great coffee table book.

Gave it to my wife for a present and boy, it's going to cost me! It was worth it though.

Arrived in good time and as described!

Great

Oh! All the places I'm probably never going to get to visit. Good thing these sorts of books exist to live vicariously through the authors and their pictures. And this one is a little bit different than a lot because it breaks down the places into the best season to visit.Obviously, since this is separated into seasons we have entries covering Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter; in that order. And these are United States seasons because in the winter section it will mention places around the world to visit that are actually in their summers (i.e. Antarctica). For each of these seasons there are several places that are highlighted with a page or two and pictures. The places are featured either because of the scenery, local events or music, food and sporting activities. Sometimes a small box would appear with the listing called "In the Know" that told about great places to stay, topics for foodies, and other such tidbits. Interspersed are also Top Ten lists featuring such things as Top Ten Hot Drinks, Top Ten Valentines Spots, etc. And at the end are two pages that have general destinations and activities listed and a Calendar of Events. This makes for a great area to look up things quickly. And in the front of the book is a large map that has all the places numbered and shown.Spring started the book and it highlighted such areas as Idaho Craters of the Moon, Netherland's Scheveningen, and Romania's Danube Delta. Summer featured Rhode Island's Newport, Norway's Svalbard, and Kakadu National Park. Fall has raptor watching at Hawk Mountain in PA, the Galapagos Islands and Scotland's Shetland Islands. Finally, some of the places for Winter were Easter Island Tapati Rapa Nui, Mallorca and Prague. But these are only a little of the many places that were shown in this book.I honestly couldn't really tell the different voices that wrote the articles in this book. They were all quite short, often only a few paragraphs and in some cases just a few sentences. So the pictures really showed more of what was going on than the writing did. I really wish there had been more description of the local activities and maybe some side lists of additional things you could do if you went to a location for a specific event. It would have made the book feel a little more complete. But as it is, this is a great coffee table book because of the short snippets of information and the vibrant pictures. I have no complaints on the pictures. The small ones had great clarity and color and the larger ones, while not quite as crisp, were still wonderfully done. They, more than anything, made me want to visit some of the places in the book.Because this is a large and heavy book, it could be difficult for some people to read. Again, this is where the coffee table book comes into play. Having it on a flat surface is going to work much better for people than picking this up and reading it like you would a novel. So just a word of the wise to people who are looking for more of a pleasure reading travel book.This was a fun book. I wouldn't say it would be something you'd plan a vacation on, but at least it gives you some ideas to get started. And best of all, it has things in the United States and all over the world, so even if you're not a world traveler, there still may be something for you here.Review by M. Reynard 2013

If I were to say that the big, hefty, well-put-together "Four Seasons of Travel" book is a "typical" National Geographic publication, I would be both praising it on the one hand and condemning it on the other.I praise it because, in the inimitable NatGeo manner, the color photography it contains is simply fantastic. In my opinion, no one else comes close to consistently matching the sharp, vibrant, saturated color photographs that are NatGeo's hallmark. The photos in "Four Seasons of Travel," many of them at page-and-a-half or two-page-spread size, are stunning.However, I condemn the book (mildly) because, again in the NatGeo tradition, it falls short of being really useful in the amount and type of information in it. I've always found NatGeo's books to be long on visual style and relatively short on substance, and "Four Seasons of Travel" is no exception. "Not that there's anything wrong with that..."The descriptions that accompany the 400 or so seasonal "getaways around the globe" in "Four Seasons of Travel" are relatively superficial, and thus are not really of great value in planning trips to the getaway spots. To NatGeo's credit, most descriptions include a "Planning" footnote listing websites that feature the specific areas, and many have sidebars with more information on recommended lodging and details of other local sights. Still, it's a broad-brush treatment, as it practically has to be in this format.So my bottom line is that "Four Seasons of Travel" is a nice coffee-table book and a potential source of ideas for places around the world that a traveler might want to visit. Its organization into Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter destinations is perhaps a little gimmicky, given that time of year may not be many travelers' strongest discriminant for visiting certain places. The nice two-page world map up front visually locates the destinations (by the way, there are 176 of them, not "400"--the remainder are in 20 "Top 10" lists that cover additional destinations in one very short paragraph each). As long as you know what to expect, and realize that "Four Seasons of Travel" is "typical" National Geographic fare, you should not hesitate to add this volume to your library. Happy world-traveling!

I haven't opened this too much, as it is a gift, but it looks absolutely fabulous- very tempting to read more, but I didn't!! Beautiful pictures, and lovely accounts of places to see.

Excellent

I payed good price for the product and i gifted it to my boyfriend. It reached torn and he was very excited to receive it. I am very upset that He had to return it.

Beautifully illusrated and full of information. This book would make a great gift for anyone interested in seeing our beautiful world.

Ok