1. ISBN13: 9780767903868
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Review :

Fantastic - that's all I'm saying...

A fun re-read from one of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson. Any book that Bryson pens is sure to lead to uncontrollable laughter, snorts, chortles or gaffaws, so plan your reading time accordingly. Not recommended reading material for mime class, funerals, or anywhere quiet, confined and where you will be surrounded by strangers - trust me on this. Even your own family members (*ehem* teenage daughters) might have a tendency to think you finally, irrevocably lost it and look warily at you as if you have become possessed by demons or body odor.

But I digress. Anyway, Bryson makes the land Down Under come alive to armchair travellers everywhere, and if you're not aching to call your travel agent by the time you finish this book, then I don't think you have an adventurous bone in your body.

Australia is a big country, filled with stranger and larger then life flora and fauna then one can possibly imagine. In Bryson's deft and sarcastic way, he manages to poke fun of and fulsomely praise this place at the same time. This is a land where prime ministers go missing forever and no one else in the world knows it, where deadly critters line up on land and in the sea awaiting the unsuspecting human to stumble upon them, where some Australian cities are often closer to other countries then they are to each other and where you can travel 1,500 miles along a rugged, scenic coast highway and pass only 2 other cars...

Bryson brings this land, its history, its people and its magnificence to vivid life. You'll laugh, you'll gape in wonder, and you'll sigh that you either weren't born there or don't have the money to get there to see for yourself. Count me as both!


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Great before Studying Abroad

I spent last semester studying in Australia. This book gave me a great overview of where I wanted and didn't want to visit in Australia without having to read through a dry tour book.

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About a Sunburned Country by Bob G.

Mr Bryson has the unique ability to leave the reader with a desire to experience those places he has been to. His often humorous observations
make for an entertaining read. Sprinkled with history and some of the personalities that make up that history, he covers an amazing amount of
geography on this wonderful and somewhat remote continent. I don't believe anyone would be disappointed with this book and I feel that it is
among those that should be read before a trip to Oz.

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Bill Brysons Sunburnt Country

Bill Bryson gave an enlightening history and geography lesson on Australia. My family and I who were born in Australia have seen many of the locations Bill has spoken of. His sense of humor captures the real Australian attitude on life. His presentation on Australian history taught us things we didn't know and certainly were not taught in school. Despite the in depth description of the people, the attitudes, the dangers, the vastness, and the challenges written in his book, the audio version is even funnier and interesting with his feelings demonstrated with humor in his voice. Intoxicated or sober Bill was true to how Australia is and lives...well done.

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I HAVE TO SAY THAT I ENJOYED EVER WORD OF THIS ONE

There is one thing about Bill Bryson; you either like him or you don't. Just reading the reviews here on Amazon and several other sites prove that. It is not just this work in question though; it is all of his work. I note that drifting from site to site that he, Bryson, has a small cadre of "haters," and all of their reviews sound sort of the same. And this is book after book....same reviewers, different books. You would think that after a few reads, and that if you found you did not like a particular author, then you would simply ignore his work. Not so with this author...go figure. This small group seems to hound his every work. Anyway, I personally like his books. I grant you I like some better than others, but that is only natural to my way of thinking. This work being reviewed here is one of his books that I particularly enjoyed.

To begin with we need to look at what this book is not. First, it is not an anthropological study of the Aborigine tribes of Australia. Yes, he does address them and their historical and tragic plight, but this is hardly the purpose of the book and no, he does not interview any of them. Secondly, this is not an all encompassing travel guide to all of the thousands of places to visit in this wonderful country. That would be an impossible task in a volume of this size. Thirdly, this is not a rough and tumble survivor type of trip (or series of trips, as the case is here) made by an intrepid survival type guy roughing it in the Outback...hey folks, this is Bryson. A cold beer, swimming pool and a good meal are relished by this guy.

What this work is, is a rather amusing and at times downright funny account of the author's trip, or to be precise, "trips" through various parts of the largest island country in the world. His travels, tribulations, adventures and encounters with various individuals are told in his normal understated and humorous style. I think one of the strong points of Bryson's writing is the ability to make fun of himself and to recognize his own short comings as a traveler, and indeed, a human being.

Unlike his work `A Walk in the Woods,' the author has kept his caustic remarks about the people he encounters to a minimum and only dealt out his understated sarcasms when they were richly deserved. The author has the ability to articulate, in a very funny and amusing way, what many of us are actually thinking when we encounter rude hotel staff member, encounter bad meals and or are bored to distraction with a place or area.

The author has filled his work with wonderful bits of trivial and not so trivial history, pieces of information we normally would not be exposed to without a great amount of research, and I must say I picked up a wealth of knowledge of geography, plants, animals, history, fish, snakes, insects, plants, minerals and people through reading this work. Yes, I know that some find his including these bits and pieces of his research into his work annoying and less than honest, but for me this is one of his strengths in presenting a very readable and interesting subject. Of all his works, this one included, I have yet to find an inaccuracy in his reporting, and I can assure you that I have made plenty of spot checks.

For a light read that is bound to entertain you, unless you are in the "I hate Bryson" camp, I cannot think of a better way to spend several evenings. On the other hand, if you have found a number of his books to not be up to your standards, then I suggest you skip this one. I personally eagerly await each and every book the man works on.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks


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1. ISBN13: 9781741791600
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

No one knows Australia like Lonely Planet…remember, we live here! We know where Sydney's best surf beaches are, where to get the best coffee in Melbourne's cobbled lanes, and how to cross the great red plains in a van without getting scorched.

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:

Full Coverage. Bustling cities, outback trails and everything in between.
Road Atlas. 16-page color map section, to navigate the country's highways and byways
Unique Green Index to help make your travels as ecofriendly as you wish

Customer Review :

Great book with lots of help for the traveler

Australia is a huge country with so much to see and do. This book is a significant help in working out where we can go and should go in a period of time. It is a big book with beautiful photos and substantive info.

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good book - but not the kinldle version!

from what i can tell, it is a good guide book. however it hasnt been indexed this means that you cant type in a word like a park name and go to it directly. instead you must seqentially go through every pqge in a chapter until you find it

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Good guide

I have been using Lonely Planet guides for all of my overseas trips. I would not think of traveling without one. The guide is shall I say more geared to the adventurer than the high end tourist. It does cover more expensive establishments but only as a part of the whole. I have not personally gone to Australia yet but I did spend a great deal of time planning the trip. Then fuel prices went throught the roof and then the stock market collapsed. Sort of put my trip on hold for a while. When I do go, this will be in my pack.

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Great Resource

I've traveled to a lot of countries with Lonely Planet guides, and they're always good, but they seem to particularly shine in countries with wide-open spaces, such as Australia. I've got the Mongolia guide, too, and as with Australia, that eye for detail in more remote settings makes a big difference. I've been to Australia several times, and have even written a book about Australia, but even with all I know, I can't keep up to date with new restaurants, changed hours, different owners, or lodging in remote towns, and Lonely Planet is perfect for that -- though it has also often guided me to good places in big cities. It's just a wonderfully detailed resource. I rarely go anywhere remote or exotic without picking up the Lonely Planet book for the destination, and I just got this most recent Australia guide (I have a couple of older ones). I do usually buy more than one guidebook for a destination, at least if I'm going on a longer trip, but if there's an LP guide, that will be one of the ones I get.

I'd say the only slight drawback for the Australia guide is that the type is a little small, especially in the history section and boxed features -- but I don't think they could use larger type unless they broke it into two books, as this volume is already over 1,000 pages. It's probably vastly more information than you need if you're only going for a couple of weeks. But if you've got a lot of time, this is almost as good a resource as having a friend in Australia.

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Thorough, Accurate, Invaluable!

I'd heard from friends that the Lonely Planets guides are spot-on for travel. I bought Australia before I went in Sept. 2008 and we used it at Uluru (formerly Ayres Rock), in Adelaide, and in Sydney. It was EXTREMELY helpful. The listings are informative and we agreed with most evaluations they made. When you go that far for a vacation, you certainly don't want to waste time finding your way around or waste money by going to bad venues. This book will help prevent both. The only negative is that the book is heavy and was a bit of a chore to haul along!

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1. ISBN13: 9780470482148
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Frommer's Australia is packed with all the facts, tips, and descriptions you need to have perfect vacation:

• Completely updated every year, Frommer’s Australia features gorgeous full-color photos of the Outback vistas, curious wildlife, and white-sand beaches that await you.
• Our authors have lived in and written about Australia for years, so they’re able to provide valuable insights and advice. They’ll steer you away from the touristy and the inauthentic and show you the real heart of the land Down Under. Let them take you to exciting cities, Aboriginal homesteads, Barossa Valley vineyards, and natural wonders, from the Wet Tropics Rainforest to Uluru to the Great Barrier Reef. You’ll travel Australia like a pro using their candid advice and in-depth knowledge of the culture.
• Also included are accurate regional and town maps, up-to-date advice on finding the best package deals, a free color fold-out map, and an online directory that makes trip-planning a snap!

Customer Review :

good choice for overall info

Went to Australia in August and used this to get my first thoughts about Australia as a country and as a holiday spot. I love books like this b/c i am able to learn some history of Australia and also learn modern places to go and see. I never fully put my trust into these kind of books b/c restaurants and hotel change so frequently, but it is a good starting point. Start with this and make notes to look places up on the web. Hope your Australia trip will be as great as mine was!

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G-Day Mate!

I bought this for a friends trip. She loved it! Lots and Lots and Lots of information, review, maps and suggested travel Must sees!

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The book is ok, it is huge.

The book is ok, it is huge. Kind of overwhelming and takes up a lot of space in the carry on and hand bag.

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Definitely came in handy for our recent trip

We used the guide (along with [...]) to help us locate attractions, etc. while in Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne. Although most of the things in the guide can be found on the web, it was a great resource while one the road, public transit, walking downtown, etc.

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Good Starting Point

This book gave some great ideas for thing to do. I traveled to several cities along the east coast and many of the things I did came from this book. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is some of the prices were outdated and one of the restaurants didn't exist. Overall it was a great book and will use it again next time I go to Australia.

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Customer Review :

Review of the service from shipper

WE did not get the book on the time, it was sent to us very late. We need to return the book.

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Lots of Info?

This book has a great deal of good information for travel in Australia. Unfortunately, as is the case in most travel books. if the area you are interested in is one "less traveled" you may be disappointed in the scanty information supplied. In this case my chosen destination is the Northern Territories, particularly Darwin.

Once again my observation holds true. The descriptions are brief and limited. Not surprising. Not even my Aussie friends have traveled into the area. Wish buying a book would supply the info I seek. It really does require deeper research which on it's own can be fun.

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Good reference

Eyewitness always does a great job. Nice reference, but too big and heavy to carry on the trip.

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Eyewitness Australia

I love these "Eyewitness" books, and always like to buy them prior to traveling to a new country.
Mary

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Australia (Eyewitness Travel Guide)

I'm planning a trip to Australia in Spring and wanted to learn as much as I could before I go. This book provides suggestions on restaurants, accommodations, shopping and entertainment, and includes maps, pictures and illustrations listing important sights to see. It also has a section entitled "Practical Information" which contains useful information on banking & currency, personal security & health, and Australian telephone & postal systems. I highly recommend this book as a 'must-have' for anyone planning a trip to Australia!

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Editorial Review :

This is the Operator's Manual for Australia. This book covers the basic and essential information the author and his family learned in order to survive their first few years living in Australia. It will help you avoid making the same embarrassing mistakes and asking the same dumb questions they did. Includes a 1,500 word Australian-American Dictionary. An essential tool for tourists, business travelers and migrants.

Customer Review :

Perfect Gift

This was a Christmas gift for a college girl, going "Down Under" as an exchange student. We all got a kick out of it!

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Great Book! Very informative.

I purchased this book to help us prepare for our move to Australia. It is so insightful! I have learned so much about things that I hadn't even thought about. It has made me re-think decisions on what to take and what to leave here, and I know that once we actually get there, I will be using this book as a reference, over and over again. Thank you, Rusty Geller, for writing this book and helping me to be much more informed about the new experiences that await us!

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Some decent information, but much is incorrect, missing, or offensive

As other reviews have found, there is useful information here, but I really rather wish I'd gone elsewhere for it. The Survival Guide is presented in a very down-to-earth sort of way, which makes for a nicely casual read. While this is great for people who want information and don't particularly care about clarity, it hops subjects with no basic sense of structure, only bolded headings followed by text in a list throughout the entire book. There's a Table of Contents to direct you, but the rest is a large block of words with spaces to separate subjects for well over 200 pages - a little jarring, not to mention confusing.

Also, if you have ever been to the UK or, actually, ever seen a BBC miniseries, you already know half the book. Many, MANY things Geller seems to think are peculiar Australian and thus incredibly bizarre are in fact common in Britain and can be very easily traced to British culture, usage, and tastes. Some of this is linguistic, but actually the dictionary was the only truly unique and useful part of the whole book, in my experience.

I also found the extreme number of typos and incorrect punctuation to be a large problem. Many books have one or two missed apostrophes or smushed words that an editor didn't catch, but I really wonder if the Survival Guide was proofread at all, as there are large chunks where there is a terribly obvious typo on nearly every page. It was distracting as a reader, and it certainly detracted from the sense of authority with which Geller was attempting to speak.

My main issue, however, was the inaccuracy and insensitivity here - often perhaps unintentionally implied by Geller's laid-back tone, but sometimes just plain wrong. Immigration (especially non-British and non-white immigration), Aboriginal history and current multi-cultural tensions are all glossed over, the first two with platitudes and an incredible diminution of how these issues seriously affect the latter in modern Australian society, the latter with the rather insipid suggestions that "these things tend to work themselves out." (I'm struggling to name a single multi-cultural society that has shown this capacity. Anyone?) Geller also seems to assume that his audience is all-white - those of Indian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, etc. descent often have a very different experience in Australia, especially outside city limits.

Moreover, stating that a general disdain for authority can be traced back to Australia's convict heritage is not only incorrect, it's just rude. Actual numbers of convicts transported to Australia were dwarfed by the numbers of free settlers who came after transportation was ended, and reducing an entire population's modern 'attitude' to a historical trope 150 years stale - and until extremely recently, a major taboo in local conversation - is hardly a great way to help outsiders understand the complex nature of the country today, much less its complicated and sometimes culturally-sensitive history.

Likewise lightly thrown aside is any discussion of how Americans are truly perceived abroad at present. Geller makes mention of 9/11 and other things that have had an impact on this, but he seems to have somehow gotten the idea that the US and Australia are not only political buddies, but that it has been a smooth relationship with no hiccups at all. The idea that Americans will still be enough of a "novelty" to amuse Australians, regardless of all else, ignores a history in which the US has constantly battered Australia politically and interfered not a little in Australian affairs, often to Australia's detriment, especially recently. To give only one example, well over half of Australians were and are against involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan (one recent survey suggests as much as 80%), and current deployments are an extremely contentious issue. Giving the impression that the stars and stripes open all doors is NOT one that will help you survive socially in Australia.

Added together, by the time I was 54 pages in I had pretty well given up on the book. The following quote didn't help. In reference to inexpensive sit-down restaurants being scarce in Australia:

"The only exception seems to be Chinese restaurants, which are usually family-run and seem to have an abundance of just-off-the-boat relatives."

I don't know about you, but I'd rather my guidebooks NOT come with built-in racist remarks.

All in all, be prepared for the gaps in knowledge and punctuation, enjoy the information here - if nothing else it's very detailed, and there are a few tips I haven't found elsewhere - but whatever you do, do NOT use this as your one and only resource. Get a wider perspective than Geller has to offer, because his has some problems, and could cause you some.


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Very helpful!

I received this as a gift before relocating to Australia, and it was very helpful. Even after living here for over 6 months, I still return to it for "translations."
Everyday subjects are discussed, such as the Post & how they only deliver, not pick up from your mailbox. How else would I have known this? And the phone numbers, that was helpful as well.
Great read, easy & quick.

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Must Have Guide for Expats

We are moving to Australia from the U.S. and bought this book to help prepare. It's full of useful information- like how to use the phone, when to go shopping, etc. The dictionary is great! Even though they speak English there are ALOT of different words. This is a great book and I would highly recommend it to US expats planning to live in Australia.

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