Has anyone noticed the large proportion of travellers that
are carrying the Lonely Planet guides? Does anyone have any
stories to tell about hotels, restaurants, or sites that
have been transformed due to their inclusion in the guide?
Or do you think that the supposed power of this guide is
merely grounded in mythology?
If you have anything at all to say on this topic PLEASE mail
me as I'm writing a dissertation on the the subject and
would be thrilled to hear from you.
Thanks, Marie.
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My experience in Central Asia has been that the guide books
are good for background and some physical information (but
not very accurate as trail guides).
As far as restaurants and hotels;
In the US, if a restaurant or hotel gets a bad rating or
negative comments, an attempt would be made to improve the
situation.
This doesn't happen in CA. The Osh Hotel gets slammed in the
guide books and yet continues to be just as bad as it always
was.
Everything changes very fast in CA. Restaurants come and go,
so information about restaurants is usually in-accurate.
The guide books for Central Asia should be printed in
loose-leaf format and updated frequently.
i know i'm influenced by guidebooks. when i got out of the
airport in HongKong without a hotel reservation, a young
lady showed me a photo copy of a page from LonelyPlanet with
a recommended lodging in my price range and went with her
straightaway.
in Hue, Vietnam, LP reviewed a restaurant with a deaf
waitress that had good food. a year or so after that, two
more restaurants opened up also featuring supposedly deaf
waitresses, trying to capitalize on the success of the place
just down the street.
The people of many regions are often aware of the power of
the guidebooks. I've often been asked to write to
LonelyPlanet and recommend this restaurant or that hotel.
The best source that I've found is other travelers along the
way. Things change quickly, and when a fellow traveler
suggests a hotel or a restaurant, I often try to check it
out and his or her opinion is usually very accurate.
Enfin, a good question !
My opinion made by personal experience is that a travel
guide is useful.... as long as you know how to forget
it.....
The negative effects of this guides are, of course, various.
For me, the most perverse of all is the uniformisation of
thought it could bring.
After the chapters " what to bring ", " how to get there and
away"," where to sleep".ETC....watch out the unwritten
rubrique: "what to think"!!!
Encore un coup de la french connexion ?
Scuse me : yes, forget about LP, Guide du Routard and
others.
Look at the country, use your good sense. Avoid LP hotels
in India, unless you do not want to meet Indian people, bt
just need 'A little bit of Home', as told by John's Cafe
(in Xinxian, China). Fuck John. I do not travel 7000 kms
or miles to find wasp (*). I have them home.
(*) Replace with french, germans, canadians, or what you
want.
As a victom of a bad travle guide I can't express the
comfort of having such a qualaty and constantly up dated
guide. In 1995 I did an around the world trip. In China I
purcased some old coins but not antique coins by any strech
of the imagination. My guide book for Russia (wich was not
Lonly Planit) worned agenst antiques, but failed to minchen
that the Russians define an antique an any thang older than
fifty years old. In the one week involentary stay in
Viborg, but not before I had to pay out over $2000.00 in
fines and maufia payments, did I resolved only to travle
only with the best possable information I could find.
Lonly Planit has always kept me feed,loged, and out of
truble unlike several guide books that I have used in the
past.
hmmm, check-out Mom and Pop's ongoing b.s. battle for
business in Xi'an PRC. Or how about the farce of Song pan,
Sichuan "Gov't approved hostel being Cop sanctioned rip-off
joint (nice tangled tale there!). would be interested to
furtherj rap this topic but am very busy with work ... in a
nutshell i think the travel writers semi-mythologize
themselves and most trekkers only take books as basic info
guides -- personally i have submitted articles/essays from
Zambian/Botwanan trips to LP and been ignored when my stuff
was the stuff that the "herd" just down't get to do (not my
fault) better to keep them happy and dulled than to deflate
their too-oft overblown impressions of their adventures --
so, again soem self-mythologizing going on but exp wnaderers
take texts with that in mind -- sadly what could be a great
way to spread a deeper connection with each other now too
often a market-driven pablum for wanna-beíú
the best guidebook doesn't exist . whenever you are in a
place, and meet travellers, there 's always a few who have
been where you are going .
but even this information is subjectif, everyone is
different .
for me, go with the flow is the best idea, although it
includes taking a bus to a place i didnt even won't to go,
sleep in stinking hotels, or just in the open air, or
discovering fantastic places .
guess what you remember after a couple of years .
it ain't the hotel where you knew what you we're gonna get,
cause your travelguide said it .
If there was a perfect travel guide, i wouldn't even buy it.