I'm planning to travel to india and nepal between feb and
may but need some help with guidebooks.
Which ones do I take?
Lonely planet guidebooks for india and nepal are great but
are about a year or two old. while Let's go has just got
the new 1999 edition out now.
please let's not get into another discussion on how crap
let's go books are. We all know lp books are the best but
wouldn't it better with going with an earlier edition of a
guidebook..
Could I please suggestions.....
thanks
vj
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If you are trekking in Nepal without a guide take the appropriate Trailblazer books i.e. Trekking in the Annapurna region.
The LP Nepal guidebook is very good
I would take one or the other, but don't worry. One of the
first things I noticed in India was how easy and cheap it
was to buy all the guidebooks one needed (including Let's
Go and Lonely Planet) there. Also many buy them back of
you when you leave. Bookshop are everywhere in India and
Nepal and many will have the latest editions.
an old book (on india at least) should suffice. allow a
little for inflation and some places having closed down.
the rest is more or less identical. there is no point in
spending rs 700 or so on a new lonely planet, especially
since now i hear they are diving it into two books (north
and south)
Are Mefloquine pills widely available in India to help
conbat malaria?
It doesnt matter, you make it up in India as you go along
anyway..
I like the Rough Guide (less info. on prices, but more on
sites). It's 2 years old, but as the post above says, it
should be okay. I don't pay too much attention to the guide
books anyway. It's more fun to explore on your own as much
as possble, and only use the books occasionally.
Hi,
Try out www.indiabikes.com for more info on India.
Andy
Pl feel free to get in topuch with me if you need more info,
I am based in mumbai
Hmm...no firm opinions yet. For what its worth, I found
them both pretty complete, pretty comprehensive. perhaps a
little more detail in LP, but overall I settled for lets
Go.
Why? Mainly for 3 reasons:
1. I found LG easier on the eyes to read - preferred the
typesetting. Also the slightly more relaxed style, more
snippets and personal opinions came through better. I found
those very helpful and enjoyable.
-->Conclusion: Style isn't trivial - if you rely on 1 book
make sure its one whose style suits you. Thats a very
personal preference tho'.
2. There's such a thing as too much detail, too condensed.
I preferred the LG balance of usefulness/completeness
versus lack of detail.
Again, very personal.
3. LG was spot on across the board - I've come to trust
their review process. LP may be the same, but I just don't
know. And, for example, the LP Tibet I bought hadn't been
updated in 5 years (based on 1994/95 data per copyright
page) - although perhaps this is an exceptional book in
their range.
Last, consider that LP has a much more thorough range than
LG. many countries may not be available in LG. And some, as
pointed out above, may be better guided in other guides
such as Insight (lovely photos & "feel" for a place) rough
guide, etc.
Hope this helps.
WE ARE HAVING A SMALL GUEST HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY SIDE OF
KERALA WHICH IS 55KMS. SOUTH EAST OF KOCHI.THE FARM IS DOING
ORGANIC FARMING AND RAISING COCONUTS ,PEPPER, NUT MEGS,
BANANAS ETC.
WE OFFER ACCOMODATION IN SMALL BUNGALOWS WITH VERANDA AND
CLEAN TOILETS.
OUR TARIFF IS RS.1200 FOR TWO PEOPLE INCLUDING
BREAKFAST,LUNCH,EVENING COFFEE OR TEA AND SUPPER.
I've just come back from using the India Handbook (Passport
Books) for two months in India and have to say it was just
fine - published October 1998 (they update every year).
Occasionally tey get a little dictatorial (telling me how
long to spend in a particular place seemed a little rich)
but it was very comprehensive in terms of accomodation,
transport and background information/things to see.
This was from the same series as the classic South American
Handbook.
dear Mrs Mathew,
would you please email me with your address and telephone
number - my partner and I are visiting India in March and
would be very interested in a stay at your farm.
thankyou,
Carolyn Papworth
It's funny that you ask because I, too, have struggled with
this decision. I've done 33 countries on Lp & Let's Go!
Finally I'm convinced that Lp has better authors and more
thorough research. Let's Go!'s authors are college students
that come and go. Lp uses experienced writers/researchers,
some of which I've met and are rather intriguing people. I
met a few Let's Go authors and they we egotistical-- showing
off their status. It's only a matter of opinion, of course,
but you cannot publish a guide as comprehensive as Lp on an
annual basis-- it is impossible. The good news is that the
current Lp India guide is one of the best editions and most
beautiful books this company has ever produced! Take it!
This is an important and complex question you're asking. I've just spent six months doing a pretty thorough first trip through India. I went into it with the 1998 LG, but picked up a used 1993 LP along the way from another traveller, so I feel I got a good sense of the compare/contrast.
In a perfect world, none of us would need guidebooks; I found that both tremendously shaped my experience in both positive and negative ways. When every restaurant in the book is loaded with other 20-something westerners, that's a little frustrating, but on the other hand, these books can save you massive headache in certain situations, like when I arrived in Amritsar at 3AM and didn't have a damn clue.
HOWEVER, at the end of the day, a guidebook is pretty much essential, especially for a solo traveller making a first trip to a country as complex and at times daunting as India. Here are my thoughts on LG vs LP:
For a first trip to India, the main advantage I saw in LP was the maps. It is so helpful to have accurate maps with hotels, sights, etc. actually marked ON the maps. LP is consistently good in this regard, and I increasingly came to rely on this. LG on the other hand had relatively crude maps, with only a few major things marked; instead they'd give "directions" on how to find a place under its listing. Sometimes you can find the places easily, sometimes not.
But LG, under the "Sights" section of each chapter, had prose essays on the sights that were often very informative. LP on the other hand often only had a short paragraph or blurb for some minor sights. Don't underestimate the importance of this, as it's a pretty unrewarding experience to go look at some ancient ruin or something and really have not much of an idea what you're looking at. Even a few extra facts can make a big difference in your appreciation.
In terms of logistical information, like transport, hospital, communications, etc. I thought that LG hands down offered more data than LP.
I agree with Paul above (#8) that personal preference is important. The LP guide to India has many nice color photos and an interesting section about the religions of India. This is admittedly a secondary consideration. I liked the feel of the LP book as opposed to the "floppy paperback" feel of the LG book.
One last important thing: I think your choice of guidebook should reflect your level of experience with the country. In a perfect world, there'd be "beginner," "intermediate," and "advanced" books offering less hotel info and more in-depth history and scholarly commentary for people who basically know their way around. For a first trip, both LG and LP are safe bets. The next time I go to India I plan to use the Footprint Handbook guide, which seemed to offer more straight information and history, less opinion, and a denser format-- more suitable for a familiar traveller.
i used a current edition of lets go for my one month travle in europe. it was a disaster. the info is limited and out of date (e.g. in praha i travelled all the way to a hostel recommended by lets go but people there told me it was open only in the summer months. lets go doesn't say a word about that. there are just too many cases like that). you can really feel it is done by a group of half-hearted amateurs. i'd take lp. an edition two or three years old wouldn't make much difference. i used the 1994 edition of middle east to travel in that region last summer (from egypt overland to hong kong). i didn't have a single problem. some prices may be slightly different. that's all.