Coasting: an Expanded Guide to the Northern Gulf Coast, Fourth Edition.

COASTING: AN EXPANDED GUIDE TO THE NORTHERN GULF COAST, FOURTH EDITION

By Judy Barnes, Jolane Edwards, Carolyn Lee Goodloe, and Laurel Wilson. Paperback, $15.95. Pelican Publishing Company, 504/368-1175, www.pelicanpub.com.

From Waveland, Mississippi, to Carrabelle, Florida, this comprehensive book covers the best spots for sightseeing, shopping, snacking, and sleeping all along the coast. The guide, written by four friends from Point Clear, Alabama, has been thoroughly updated to include more child-friendly establishments, historical sites, and little-known places to stay.

The book is separated into sections covering the Florida panhandle, Alabama, and Mississippi and further broken down by town or region. In a straightforward tone, the pages devoted to the Hospitality State capture much of the area's history and charm, pointing visitors toward well-known places like Biloxi's Beauvoir and Stennis Space Center in Waveland as well as to many more obscure, yet equally intriguing, destinations. For instance, the authors encourage tourists to pedal the 15.5-mile Live Oaks Bicycle Tour through Ocean Springs, to take note of the Banana Terminal in Biloxi (through which hundreds of thousands of tons of the fruit are shipped each year), and to taste a "Paradise Burger" at the riverfront restaurant Huck's Cove in Gautier. As an added bonus from the authors, who are no doubt food lovers, recipes are included with several of the restaurant listings.

For those planning a road trip, carefully referring to the sections on Alabama and Florida will ensure that there's more to do than sunbathe and shop at outlet malls. Why not visit a breathtaking butterfly garden at the Panhandle Butterfly House in Pensacola, or take in a play at Panama City's Benton Theatre, housed in what was once a police station? In Port St. Joe, Florida, visitors can stay in a cabin on the site of the Old Civil War Saltworks, while Dauphin Island, off Alabama's coast, is a first-class birding destination that serves as a resting point to migrating orioles, thrashes, warblers, and painted buntings every year.

With its wealth of attractions that aren't found in the usual guidebooks, Coasting is worth tucking into the glove compartment before going anywhere this summer.