Although I do feel Lonely Planet guides are the best
overall, a couple of points need to be made. Why does
Lonely Planet not include Prague in the Western European
edition? OK, I know Prague is defined as in Eastern Europe
(although I'm not sure who make this decision), but for
many travelers, this city is a must. To get around this
problem, I suggest you get the Western European edition and
Xerox the Prague section from a book in your friendly
library. Another point, why is Italian not included in the
Western European phrasebook? I suppose you could buy two
books, but I'm cheap. Another point about guidebooks, don't
be fooled by the year on the book. Let's Go for example
pushes its books out quickly (for marketing reasons). Have
you ever compared 1998 to 1999? Not much difference. I have
tried accomodations or restaurant suggestions through such
books and on occasion (too many for me) the establishement
had been closed for 5 years or more. After 10 years of
pounding the pavement in Europe, Lonely Planet gets my vote
for the best researched guidebook on the market. Think
about it, it is just not possible to update all the
information in a guidebook consisting of 900 plus pages in
one year. I am not saying Let's Go is not a good book. I do
like the way it is organized (especially the country
specific books), but from my experience, Lonely Planet does
it right. What do you think?
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The LP guide has my vote! There is also another guide book (french called le guide du routard) which 'updates' its information every year, but i can't believe that's true.
In guatemala we were told by a french local working for the french alliance that this magazine's researchers had come to see her for a couple of hours, and then had continued their way. Explain to me how they could update their info??!
Just one change i'd like to see in the LP guide : to see more descriptions concerning places, ie lovely or nice, instead of the non-commital advice they give.
But carry on LP!
The only thing I like about Let's Go are its prices for
buses/trains and its information regarding travel time
between places. Other than that, it sucks. I took it to
England/Scotland last year and I was disappointed. For my
trip to Spain this spring, I will be bringing a LP guide
instead.
To elodie: It is so hard not to be biased with this kind of
thing, and even LP is guiltier of that one than what I would
like. I'm glad that there is a degree of non-descriptive,
non-commitance obtaining in LP, and hope it only gets more
so, and thus, less biased.
Can't say that I have much any use for Let's Go at all.
After looking at LP books for a few months, and then looking
at a Let's Go, I realized how absolutely useless they are.
My absolute biggest complaint about LP is their pathetic
indexes. The index is supposed to be the most useful tool
in a guide like this and I have West Europe 1999: an 8 page
index for an information book over 1300pages long... Give me
a break! I don't know how many times I have had to page
aimlessly for something that I had seen earlier.
One last criticism. LP provides updates for guidebooks of
particularily volatile regions. Well, Russia is pretty
unstable and rapidly changing, but not a single update
("upgrade" I think they call them) for Russia, even though
the last LP Russia book has information gathered from 1995
or 1996. Nor do they include a section on Russia in the
Eastern Europe edition. I have got to say, it would really
be nice to have some up to date info on Russia from some one
other than Let's Go.
Let's face it, Prague cannot just pick itself up and and
put itself in western Europe. Same goes for Budapest,
which is also a great city, although not as fashionable as
Prague these days.
As for the French "Guide du Routard," I know people who
work for it, and it really is updated every year, sometimes
too much: they try so hard to find new things to put in
that perfectly good restaurants and hotels get thrown out
just to make room for the new ones. They also have a
policy of not giving prices "due to possible inflation" --
in countries with 50% inflation, this makes perfect sense,
but it is ridiculous in Western Europe with less than 1%
inflation a year. So when they say "cheap" or "chic" in
Switzerland or Portugal, you know that the kind of amount
they're talking about is not at all the same, but you don't
know what it is... At least with Lonely Planet, if the
first 2 or 3 places I go to announce prices 20% higher than
what is listed in the guide, I just add 20% to all of the
other prices and it works out fine.
As I understand it, Lonelyplanet has published a complete
Europe book this year, just like Let's Go. I can't imagine
how heavy it would be, but I'm glad that they took this
step. I had to buy a book on Prague to accompany my Western
Europe book which was a pain, but I simply left the book at
the hostel for others to use for reference. The only gripe
I have with LP's books are their maps. They don't put
enough street names on the map! (Let's Go is more detailed)
but there's no beating the overview of the country
sections. :)
I was told when I first began travelling 10 years ago that
the only thing that let's go is good for is toilet paper when
none is available. I have since proven that to be true. Best
bets are forums like these, printable website guide books...
Personally I recommend taking one more - either the Rough
Guide or the Guide du Routard. Let's Go has one advantage;
it seems to be printed on less heavy paper. That's it's best
feature, I'm afraid.
I spent a year and a half living in and trekking around
Western Europe. Lonely Planet was my travel BIBLE. Only
twice in my entire expierence did I find TINY tidbits of
info that were not accurate. Other than that, it's been my
saving grace. I swear by it and highly reccomend it to
anyone who it looking to travel. Another great read is any
Rick Steves Backdoor series book. He is frank and witty in
his writting. He has tons of great tips for everything from
A to Z when it comes to travel. I agree that Let's Go is not
up to par. I purchaced the new 1999 version for some more
tips on my return to Europe this summer. I am less than
impressed by it. The writting is dry and for a volume that
prides itself on budget travel for adventurous young people,
it provides very touristy and easy to come by listings.
why not have the updates done by locals via email, but I
think this is still happening with reliable lp mostly.
i disagree - LP guides are not so great - unless all you
want is a listing of cheap places to stay - Rough Guides
are much better in my opinion. LP has a great web site
though!!
Another vote for Lonley Planet. Only gripe: Canaries not
included in guide to Spain... sure I know, geographically
it's part of Northern Africa, but politically part of
Spain. Oh well, not really a big deal, the Xerox machine
works fine...
LP is the best in books on travel and this site that
includes TT. The Rough Guide takes to long on answering on
updates in their books and Let's Go never answers at all.
Thanks to LP the travellers can have a voice. Thank's LP!
I have traveled with both Lp and Let's Go and I found it
great thatLet's go put the exact priecs out which seemed
really hepful until I got to the place and the prices were
like ten years old. Or even better...after departuring
Guatemala and arriving in this tiny Mexican village where I
was informed by the book that I could take the train to the
next town and they had never even had a railway in their
village!!!!!!! By the end of this trip I was so furious
with Let's Go that I wrote them a letter and told them what
I thought of their info. I think there was more things that
were incorrect than accurate.
Lonely Planet is better but as someone already mentioned
above, it is guide not a rule. I am Swesdih and come from
the third biggest town in Sweden. sometimes it's fun to
read what LP has to say about your hometown and country and
with risk of being biased I found lot's of "goodie" stuff
was left out and maybe who ever went there didn't talk
enough with the locals that would know of the hidden old
town or the cuter market places... I'd still pick LP over
Let's Go any day...
I have just bought the new 1999 all in one LP Europe on a
shoestring guide and have to say that in printing it LP has
amended its only downfall (i.e. having to buy half a tree
if travelling the East and West). It even has a built in
bookmark. The only things I would like to see added are
routes between cities with estimated times (as they do in
on the Rails around Europe by Thomas Cook) and a couple of
blank pages in the back for updating your guidebook the
good Old Fashioned way using a pen! Oh, I also agree that
their city maps need to be a little more detailed. I love
the colour photos though.
Not sure if the Eastern Europe on a shoestring book has
been updated but we found while travelling with it last
year theough the region, that it was extremerly out of
date. A few examples:
1. They wrote that Romania has only one ATM machine - we
arrived in R. at Cluj Napoli a small town/city, and found
rows of them. Even little towns like Sighisora had heaps of
them. They didn't look that new either, so I don't know
when the researches went through!
2. Unless the camp ground has moved, the Eger section
(Hungary) had the campground being less then 1 km from the
train station - try 3!!! (must have been an american, not
knowing the metric system!!!!!! :) )
3. In Budapest, of the two internet places listed, one
address never exsisted and the other shut down 3 years ago,
according to the shop next door.
However, we're going to Spain/Portugal this year and shall
be taking the LP with us again, though they have updated
them this year, or so they say!!! :)
Lonely planet publications are not the 'best', other
guidebooks are as good if not better in terms of a quality
product. eg Rough guide, blue peter, cagdogan and the list
goes on. LP does market well to its target market. Have
you ever thought about what a favorable mention in LP is
worth to the proprietor of a travel related business ?
The opposition while not as large have been providing better
products to the consumer who shops around.