Lonely Planet Deep South

Covering Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, Lonely Planet provides 69 detailed maps; accommodation options from forest campsites to antebellum plantation mansions; plus history, museums, personalities of the Civil Rights movement, Mississippi blues profiles, clubs, and festivals. The South is a geographically large portion of the country, with terrain that ranges from sunny Gulf coast beaches to Cajun swamps to sugar-cane fields to Appalachian hardscrabble, and for first-time visitors it may feel like a foreign country. It's a good place to have a reliable travel guide, with all the necessary particulars (lodgings, transportation, tourist offices, and liquor laws), plus where to get your pork tenderloin, fried okra, and pecan pie feasts; your hickory-smoked barbecue, corn pone, or shellfish extravaganzas; and your Creole and Cajun comestibles. This guide covers all the bases. Along with comprehensive listings for sightseeing and nightlife, there are interesting sidebars on floating casinos, the etymology of redneck, and a little baseball background on Birmingham's Rickwood Field, plus an introduction to Louisiana's Daiquiri Drive-Thru, where you needn't leave your car to drink and drive. --Stephanie Gold