Handy for any trip (Lonely Planet in general)

Member Name: paulie1975

Product:	Lonely Planet in general
Date:	31/01/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Concise, thorough, great reviews and travel guidance

Disadvantages: Can be expensive at £15

Wherever I travel in the world I always pop to my local shop and buy a Lonely Planet guide or if i'm short of cash always pop to the Local library to borrow a copy, they are invaluable and always provide a thorough analysis of places for me.

Regularly updated, you can always pop onto their website to access any updated information at the upgrade section also.

Lonely Planet guides can cover countries or popular cities worldwide and are generally broken up into the following sections (For this review i'm going to concentrate on country editions):

Introduction:
A general introduction to the place a brief summary of its charms, things that make it stand out and things that travellers should really take notice of.

Facts about:
This is a brilliant section generally setting out the place for the reader, providing a history of the location, which can be quite deep and give a real feeling for the place, its history and culture. Geography maps the environment and gives you an idea of distances, types of environment etc. Climate describes the climate...obviously. The facts about section generally also discusses the political environment and its history (Very important if visitng war-torn countries or communist areas such as China or Cuba). Economy, Population and Education do exactly what they say on the tin, Education, arts, Society, Religion and language are also covered, all provide a really thorough idea for the reader of where they are visiting, what they can expect from the people, the ideologies and sociologies of the area and the general state of the country. This is integral for anyone looking to go beyond the tourist areas and see the real country.

Generally you are then given a huge description of areas, this generally breaks countries down into regions and then describes towns, particular areas of interest, with pictures and gives a wonderful insight into areas, popular and obscure. This is followed by a list of hotels, restaurants and bars in each area, this is my favourite part, I love the descriptions and all are given ratings on how much they cost too, which is really handy and i've found generally quite accurate.

In the final third of the book is a wonderful section which gives a brief amount of language training, information on crime, taxi's, local transport, customs, entry into the country and any other information a traveller may worry about.

Overall I generally find the books are accurate, paint a fair picture of the place, provide information beyond most travel books and are written by people who love travel. I'll continue using them on trips as they're so good.

Summary: It's not so Lonely when you have a guide pointing out the best bits.