Moab, Utah: Free online adventure guides

Are you tired of always following what guidebooks tell you to do? Or maybe you just hate lugging around a book full of encyclopedic travel information, most of which you’re never going to use? If you’re planning a trip to the deserts of the Southwest soon, the adventure hub of Moab has an alternative, Web-savvy answer to traditional guidebooks.

Deal: The Moab Travel Council offers an online brochure rack of PDFs that give travelers the option to print out only the information they’re interested in about off-the-beaten-path activities, lodgings and tours, as well as free maps. The last time I was in Moab, I used this site to find untouristed hiking trails (with dinosaur tracks!) and uncrowded campgrounds, as well as to take a self-guided driving tour of classic Western movie locations. The site also allowed me to download a map of the region that helped me get oriented more quickly. That way, I didn’t have to waste time standing in line at a tourist information center. Best of all, the online information was written by locals with a cool insiders’ perspective.

Know of any other alternative Web guides for the Southwest? Tell us about them in the Comments section below.

Why Use This Site: You’ll find suggestions for things to do on this site that aren’t in any guidebooks.

Why Not: The online brochure rack is not a comprehensive, opinionated guide to the region (e.g., it doesn’t have any critical restaurant reviews).

Connect/Disconnect: Even with high-speed Internet access, my browser sometimes froze while downloading the PDFs. It’s better to save the files on your hard drive, then open them offline.

Contact: Moab Travel Council, (800) 635-6622

Related Los Angeles Times links:
Moab Music Festival
Exploring the canyons & National Parks of the West
Navajo guides are mandatory for Monument Valley tours

– Sara Benson, L.A. Times Travel Deal Detective

[Photo credit: Courtesy of National Park Service]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 10:59 pm by Sara Benson and is filed under Eco-Travel, Family & Kids, National Parks, Outdoors & Adventure, Rocky Mountain States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.