1. ISBN13: 9781741791570
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Nobody knows Thailand like Lonely Planet. Our 13th edition will have you soaking up the sun on the island paradises of the south, trekking among the hill tribes and riding elephants in Chiang Mai, discovering the ancient temples of Sukhothai and snapping up bargains or being pampered in a spa in Bangkok.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Detailed advice on everything from food & drink to transport & health
Special 'Thailand & You' chapter with tips on culture and etiquette
Extensive Deep South coverage eases your travels in the conflicted region

Customer Review :

Surprisingly mediocre

I really expected more from this book. It had basic info about lodging and food, but really quite basic and obvious stuff. I was frustrated many times looking for places to eat. The section on Koh Samui was almost totally useless. There was nothing here to make it worth the price.

Rating :

LP provide the best guide to exploring a country

Lonely Planet guides consistently provide accurate information. It is great especially for people who budget travel, travel light (backpack) and want some adventure.

Rating :

Type is ridiculously small - DO NOT BUY

This book appears to contain the compendium of knowledge regarding Thailand. Too bad the font is so small that even my teenage daughter says it hurts her eyes. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK unless you want to use a magnifying glass to read it. Very disappointed.

Rating :

The Travel Bible, a bit dated

Known as "The Book", this is the standard for any travel guide to Thailand. I'm glad they are coming out with a new edition, though. On my recent trip, more than half of the restaurants we tried to find in Chiang Mai had either moved across town or shut down since The Book was last published. If you are in the market, pre-order the new edition instead, which will hopefully sport updated information.

By the way, I highly recommend the Chiang Dao Nest - bungalows set in the beautiful forests and mountains north of Chiang Mai, and amazing food despite the remote location.

Rating :

Just short...

When I travel, I swear by Lonely Planet, so I'm used to a certain standard of content and clarity. Although I only used about a quarter of this book's total content on my last journey, there were certain instances where more information would have been certainly preferred; and had me and my partner not been as savvy as we were, whole days could've been compromised. However this guide was still extremely helpful, overall.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9781741048308
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

With a Lonely Planet guidebook you'll get the best out of your Indonesian trip. Our 9th edition of Indonesia will take you to the best beaches and bars in Bali, through lush paddy fields in Sumatra, diving with turtles off the Gilis in Lombok and to a traditional dance in Ubud.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Discover natural Indonesia with our special color chapter
Detailed Itineraries for planning the perfect trip
Green Index helps you step lightly on your travels

Customer Review :

great

the book came in great shape and at the time that the seller indicated. I had hoped it would come a little faster - the way it was shipped took about a week - but the seller told me that right off the bat. Good experience.

Rating :

good- but very very broad

I'm at the end of my 4 months living in Jakarta. I bought this book in the states before going but when I arrived in Jakarta, i was originally very disappointed by the thinness of the jakarta section. The lack of depth was a problem throughout the book. However, I later traveled to Yogjakarta, Bandung, Bogor, Bali, Lombok, and the Gili Islands, making this book actually pretty useful. Although it doesn't have extensive information on each area, it does cover a lot of areas in a good-enough way.

However.. since the vast majority of people who come to Indonesia do not actually travel to many different places (usually just around Bali, or Java), I would recommend a book which focuses more on the place you will actually go, since you are otherwise paying for and carrying around a lot more bulk than is necessary.

(Update 2009): Last summer, i spent another 2 months in Indonesia during which I was based in Yogyakarta. I again had the great opportunity of doing a lot of internal traveling, particularly within Java. I would like to again say that this book has a huge breadth of knowledge about soo many different amazing places way off of the beaten track of Bali. My indonesian girlfriend had not even heard of many of them... i was able to really get in touch - a deep touch - with indonesia.

Rating :

Great Book with Dependable Information...

We spent a month in Indonesia and found this book to be up to date and thorough.

Rating :

900 pages and not that great

Highlights of disappointment - The review of Pasar Seni (art/handicraft market) doesn't tell you it's in the middle of some kind of disneyland that you have to pay admission to get into and, once there, has very little of interest. Also, I want to go to the Textile Museum but it doesn't even receive a mention in the book. The hotel front desk says it doesn't open until 2 on Sundays and one website says it opens at 9:30 so I need a tie-breaker. This book weighs a ton but lacks a lot.

Rating :

brings back memories

As someone who left Indonesia years ago, this guide is an interesting reminder. A little superficial maybe. It's a travel guide and not a political history book, so it omits a lot of bloody history about the previous Suharto dictatorship.

But the photos are nice and convey some of the tropical beauty of the countryside in Java. The authors show several scenic spots, though focused on Java since most of the people are there. Bali gets a lot of coverage, because foreigners throng to its beaches and nightclubs.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9781598802153
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
4. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

Weaker Than Other Rick Steves Books

I love Rick Steves books. His travel philosophy matches mine, and I find his books incredibly useful. His Istanbul guide has a wealth of useful info - but also many weaknesses compared to his other books... Sights and walking tours are great; history information and trivia is great and entertaining; many restaurant recommendations are also good. However, the hotels recommended are all way more expensive than what I managed to find. Many restaurants recommended were dissappointing. Also, there is practically no info on Asian part of Istanbul - which is surprising knowing Rick's philosophy of travelling as 'temporary local'... In the Old Town one can never feel like temporary local - only like a moving target... while in the Asian part of Istanbul I and my family felt way more pleasant, and in a way easier to blend...
This book is still better than the other books offered - just some areas are not up to the standards of other Rick's books, in my opinion.

Rating :

Good, But ...

I have used Rick Steves' guides for Portugal, Spain, and Italy (including his specialty city books for Venice, Rome, and Florence). I typically read in advance of our visits abroad Rick's guides as well as other materials, usually a DK guide and novels and histories involving the locale, and whatever I can find on-line. I have always found that Rick's guides to be invaluable re: practical tips, walking tours and solid explanations of major sights. This review is written prior to our trip to Istanbul. The guide is in the same format (a good thing). I note, however, that this guide is written by a husband & wife who apparently are local tour guides. I mention this because Rick's guides typically include a few recommendations of guides, ranging from companies that are staffed by academics (like Context Travel whom we used in Rome) & expensive to moderate or even cheap for quick highlight tours. The R. Steves' Guide of Istanbul ONLY RECOMMENDS the company owned by the husband & wife who really authored Rick's city guide book of Istanbul. It mentions no other companies. This is doubly disappointing and seems very self-serving. I say doubly because when one checks out the company on-line it's website does not appear to have been recently updated and does not list any prices for its standard menu of tours. That aside, the guide otherwise appears to be Rick's standard fare of advice (a good thing, in my opinion). This is why I rate this book as "Good, But ...."

Rating :

Istanbul

We recieved the Book 3 days before we left and did an intense study, found that the book allowed us not to waste time seeking. We were there for one week and had the book at all times .It guided us to begin and from there we could adjust our trip accordingly.I would recomend as A must have if You are going to Istanbul

Rating :

Rick Steve's Istanbul

Are the maps visible? I've looked at the sample, but no maps are included. Just learning to use my Kindle, and am having difficulty with guidebooks.I find it difficult to navigate Let's Go Turkey, and impossible to read its maps. Can maps be enlarged on Kindle as on a computer? If not, I don't see much use in guidebooks on Kindle.
PS I know this is not a review, but how else can I get help?

Rating :

Excellent overall guidebook of Istanbul

Rick Steve made an excellent decision to have guides Lale Surmen Aran and Tankut Aran write this book. They clearly know and love their city, know what is helpful and interesting to tourists, and wrote a very thorough, informative, and user-friendly guide.

I appreciated the format of the concise Sights and Experiences sections, followed by chapters offering more in-depth information on the self-guided walks and tours. This format was extremely useful as I planned my days and then toured the city. Simple, useful maps are included in each walk and tour section.

I would like to have seen the chapters on Turkish History and Culture and Understanding Islam at the beginning of the book rather than the end, as I think they are of great importance to westerners visiting this amazing city.

Another book I highly recommend to supplement this book is Istanbul's Bazaar Quarter: Backstreet Walking Tours. This book is written in the same spirit as the Old Town Back Streets Walk chapter in Rick Steve's book, but offers four separate walking tours, and goes into much more detail about the bazaar quarter and the people you will meet there. Istanbul's Bazaar Quarter: Backstreet Walking Tours

Rick Steve's Istanbul was my first Rick Steve guidebook, and overall I was very pleased. I highly recommend Istanbul, and I highly recommend this book.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9781741048872
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Lonely Planet has been the guidebook of choice for Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei for 28 years. We know where to find the most authentic longhouses in Sarawak, the most idyllic beaches in Langkawi, the best places for a shopping spree in Singapore and the most delicious hawker food in Malaysia.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Tasty travel tips with our Kuala Lumpur resident foodie author
Itineraries from jungle trekking and wildlife encounters to idyllic islands
Unique Green Index to help make your travel choices eco-friendly

Customer Review :

Good guide for trip to Langkawi

Purchased this book to get basic information about the Island of Langkawi. Provided great restaurant list and information about getting around the island. Highly recommend this book if traveling to Malaysia.

Rating :

Too many grammatical errors & unhelpful hotel reviews

I am reviewing the 10th Edition (pub. Jan. 2007).

Throughout, this book is riddled with grammatical errors. Also, with regards to the hotel reviews for Singapore, Penang, & Kuching, most sound like dumps to stay in. Surely there must be better places to include in this travel guide.

Rating :

A Very Good Guide Book

I spent the better part of the afternoon reading this book as I'm planning on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia this week. The Lonely Planet can usually (although not always) be counted on to provide for solid information on travel destinations and this one does just that. It's pretty well written and everything is nicely laid out. I particularly enjoyed the historical overview at the beginning and the section on the national psyche. Malaysia and Singapore (I didn't read about Brunei) sound like thoroughly enjoyable and interesting places. I especially appreciated the description of KL as being something of a nightmare for pedestrians. That's the type of honesty that travelers need, and it's also what helped make the Lonely Planet famous in the first place.

Rating :

great product

I am impressed to have received a new copy of this lonely planet so quickly and exactly in the condition i expected.

Rating :

Not yet received in mail.

Unfortunately the postal service in China is sporadic and somewhat unreliable. I am still hoping that the book I ordered in early October will arrive soon. The reason I purchased the book is to plan a December holiday in Singapore and Malaysia.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9781741791594
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Experience the best of Vietnam with Lonely Planet. Our 10th edition is so full of practical information that you'll be watching the sunset from a junk on Halong Bay, sucking back bia hoi street-side in Hanoi, or bargaining like a local in Ho Chi Minh City in no time.

In This Guide:

Detailed itineraries on beaches, food, the Ho Chi Minh Highway and more
Comprehensive information on everything from food and language to health and transport
Full-Color chapter on the hill tribes of Vietnam

Customer Review :

Lonely Planet Vietnam 9 -- LP's best try yet

For the first-time visitor to Vietnam, Lonely Planet's Vietnam 9 overall is a fine production -- and is easily Lonely Planet's best swing at Vietnam -- even if the style police are trying to ruin the show.

Vietnam 9 covers all the big-ticket destinations comprehensively, with detailed sleeping, eating, drinking and sights information. There's a detailed orientation section, loads of maps, crystal clear photos and lots of general information. Good coverage on most of the border crossings is included and the transportation information is pretty easy to digest -- if a little confusing at times. A series of suggested itineraries, while not overly imaginative, remain useful for first time travellers.

Authors Nick Ray, Peter Dragicevich and Regis St Louis have done the hard yards and crammed much of what Vietnam has to offer into Lonely Planet's famously tight word-limits. They've done a great job putting together what is a probably the most comprehensive text available and something much improved on Vietnam 8.

Listings
Guesthouse and hotel listings are concise and all budgets are well covered. There were some omissions which struck me as odd -- Mai House on Phu Quoc, Tay Ho Hotel in Can Tho, Jungle Beach north of Nha Trang, Hoa Hong in Da Nang and the Tung Trang in Hanoi -- all outstanding places, yet none made the cut. That said, there are stacks of excellent places they do mention -- more than enough for most readers. For the rest you'll just need to read www.travelfish.org.

Sights-wise, the information is excellent. Lots of historical background and interesting snippets are woven into the text, acting as leads for the reader to learn more. For example Ong Pagoda in Tra Vinh includes a reference to the Chinese classic The Romance of the Three Kingdoms for more information on the pagoda's god Quan Cong.

Transport
Transportation comes in two parts -- a summary and the destination specific sections throughout.

The summary section is good though a little unbalanced. There are almost three pages about getting a flight to Vietnam (surely something fairly simple), yet almost no information about the niche topic of buying a motorbike -- certainly an area where advice and suggestions would be useful. The train section has the briefest of fare charts, but thankfully steers people to the Man in Seat Sixty-One website (www.seat61.com) which is a far better resource.

The destination specific sections vary. In particular better information regarding frequency of bus services would have been good. There are also some discrepancies -- the Qui Nhon to Pakse bus service is listed as taking 12 hours and costing 250,000 VND, yet in Pleiku it reads "There is also an international service linking Pleiku and Attapeu (US$10, 12 hours)". This error (Qui Nhon to Pakse is at least twice the distance of Pleiku to Attapeu) is repeated in the transport introduction. Perhaps if one of the writers had actually done the trip they'd know that Attapeu to Kon Tum takes about five hours and another two hours to Pleiku, while the Qui Nhon to Pakse trip can take up to 20 hours. Of course these errors can happen to anyone -- I'm sure there are some in Travelfish -- but hey, LP has a bigger editing team than us.

Text and design
Talking about editing, the text is dense and the writing dry, verging on encyclopaedic. I've met a number of the LP writers over the years and without fail they've been a much more interesting, amusing and verbose lot than this text would have you believe. Perhaps the editors could spin the dial back a little on their "textual-de-emotionaliser device" to let the occasional witty or cheeky line slip through.

And while I'm on the topic of the back-end -- there's a new layout, and this one isn't great. A step forward is the removal of "Author's choice" aka the Lonely Planet Touch of Death -- replaced by a small "our pick" icon. A step backwards is the ordering of accommodation by price rather than quality. In this nod to the serial penny-pinchers, the rest of us are left scratching our head thinking "So which one do they recommend?".

Fact boxes though are the real blight. Vietnam 9 saw its length increased from 524 to 540 pages, yet rather than bulking out destinations, there are now more than 100 shaded fact boxes. Of course, some are useful; "Tracking the American War", tying together various sections covering war interests, is great. But half a page dedicated to Regis St Louis's motorbike breaking down is excessive -- especially when there's but a lone paragraph dedicated to trekking out of Kon Tum. Minor point perhaps, but the designers should have their cookie-jar benefits suspended for the incorrectly typeset, mistakenly padded fact box on page 163 -- sloppy.

Call me old school, but a move back to the basics -- accurate and easy to use information -- would be welcome. As an example, if you're looking for a list of internet resources for Vietnam, you'll be needing to refer to pages 21, 42, 58, 63, 69, 74, 79, 84, 89-90, 171, 465, 476, 494 and 495-6 -- whose bright idea was that?!

Now I'm getting petty and trivial -- lets move on.

Maps
The 105 maps cover all the major destinations and look terrific, but in anything short of ideal conditions, are difficult to read. Vietnam 8's maps, while uglier, were far easier to use. The new maps replace clunky shades and chunky outlines with gentle hues and delicate lines. This may look great in Lonely Planet's mapping HQ, but when you're crammed in a minibus trying to decipher the Hanoi map by torch, you'll be thinking different.

Photos
The photos are terrific. From the wraparound train cover-photo to the bored tourists gawking at the carpet in Reunification Palace, they do a great job of catching -- and explaining -- Vietnam. In another layout change, the photos are clustered in the first few pages, closely followed by a food overview and then eight more pages of colour in the centre.

Conclusion
It's worth noting that some of my criticisms are general and not specific to Vietnam 9 -- overall it's an excellent guide and I've rated the book at 8.5 stars (out of 10). If you're going to Vietnam and planning on hitting all the key destinations -- you'll be set with this title -- no questions asked.

*A pet peeve -- I purchased Vietnam 9 at a bookstore in Jakarta on July 20, and had seen it at the airport weeks earlier. Yet on the half-cover it reads "9th edition published August 2007". Unless Lonely Planet have a special in-house definition for the work "published" this is misleading to potential buyers who are looking for what they consider to be the most "up-to-date" text available -- it should read July 2007.

Rating :

Out of date and inadequate

I've been using this latest edition of the Vietnam LP during my current trip to Saigon, Nha Trang, Hue and Hanoi. I've found it to be inadequate. Maps provide misinformation, hotel and restaurant information is completely out of date, and choices seem arbitrary. LP dominates the travel guide book market, but they leave a lot to be desired.

Rating :

Never lets you dowm

Another good LP book:) The "Bibel" never lets you down and was a great help on our journey. Was so lucky to visit Vietnam 2 times in 08 and used it both times. Vietnam is a lovely country!!

Rating :

Most up-to-date

This was a very good guide. I got the Rough Guide, National Geographic and Let's Go and was most satisfied with Lonely Planet. This had the most up-to-date info and mentioned a few things that were not in the other guides. Let's Go might be best for people in their early 20's. All of the guides avoid giving opinions and pretty much list all the tourist destinations. I found the web site [...] to be the best source for recommends on what to see and do and used the guides for hotel information.

Rating :

Trustworthy, comprehensive with excellent maps.

I am reviewing the L.P.2007 guide. Note: most of the other reviews are for older editions, ie. Pre-2007. I was in Vietnam January-February 2007 and used this guide.

The guide has maps that are superb and easy to use. Both the accommodations and restaurants I chose from the guide's recommendations were good to very good. The cost for accommodations are listed in dollars, instead of the insipid icons that other guides use. Kudos!!! The restaurants cost quotes are in Dong. Caveat! Because the dollar is in a free fall against world currencies, you will need to add at least 20% to the quoted price for hotels, maybe more.

Vietnam is a country of paradoxes: Communistic-Free Market. Traditional-Progressive. Etc. To capture a caricature of Vietnam is as demanding as it would be enigmatic. Yet, Dragicevich, Ray & St. Louis (authors) have written an outstanding brief profile of this country. "The Culture" is a section not to miss. No other guide is as complete if you are going to go "off the tourist track." I found towns and places in L.P. that other guides don't even list. The information was accurate and trustworthy.

Unlike Rough Guide's Vietnam (8 pages) this guide has only a smattering of book/film recommendations. Sadly, in this guide, unlike other L.P. guides, there are few sidebars or text boxes that give you interesting tidbits about the country and its people. Though most all accommodations have an email address, there are NO webpages. NOT GOOD. This guide needs serious improvement in this area.

The 2007 is a significantly revised guide and one of the best guides in print for Vietnam. This is a highly recommended guide - happy tramping. 4.5 Stars.

Rating :

More reviews...