The title is "Turkey Survival Kit". What a relief to start
learning about a country. Written by the two who spent just
a few years, claiming to know everything about the country
in what they write in the most arrogant way.
Try something else, one of the best I recommend is "Blue
Guide" or "Insight Guides to Turkey".
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I have not read the other 2 guides, but I found the Lonely
Planet book to be a great source for me (an average kind of
traveler). Im not Marco Polo, but I have been to quite a
few places, and to just fill a back pack and go, I really
appreciated the book. I found it much better than the "Lets
Go" book I also purchased. For a lot of travellers, I think
it will be fine. I bought another for the trip I'm taking
this year.
The LP tells it straight, and this has offended our good
friend Cimboblu. He can't bear to hear anything bad about
Turkey. (I have seen Indians have the same reaction to LP's
India guide; third world insecurity, I suppose.)
If I did everything that the LP Turkey Guide said, I'd be
an expert on the country. LP directed me to things that I
would never have found on my own, & I'm grateful. I also
like Rough Guide. Insight is mostly pretty pictures & is
very heavy. However, I found many excellent hotels that
weren't mentioned in LP. Use it as a guide, not a bible. bob
They have some beautiful pictures, but their terrible guide
books.
Dear Alph Omega, for your information I doubt the reaction
of Indians has anthing to do with "third world insecurity"
as when the LP guide to Great Britain first came out it
caused a lot of upset in our media for the less than
glowing descriptions it gave some places in Britain. I
guess lots of people just don't like hearing negative
things about their own country - probably more so if they
know them to be true.
Incidentally, the Rough Guides are much more critical of
turkish policies in the South East and 'pro Turkish' than LP
itself. Insight Guides are just for package tour tourist,
exactly the kind that comes, makes photos and never question
that probably our Galatasaray friend would like to see in
his country
Spider
Categorically I refuse to read any guidebook written by
someone who is not from that particular country. That is to
say, like most LP writers, those professionals who go to a
country for the sake of writing a guide book would not be
good for my standards. See for instance about how many
other countries the writer of Turkey guide book of LP
wrote. You know what i mean....
I have Cadogan, Lonely Planet and Blue Guide for Turkey. I
have used all three in the past, and was surprised to find
that Lonely Planet has much more detailed information in it
about Istanbul (to name one point of reference) than does
the Blue Guide. The Cadogan is also quite good. I am
curious why someone would only read guidebooks written by
citizens of the country? For Brits or Americans (or
presumably anybody else) it is useful to read the
observations of a person with similar background and
cultural orientation. I thought the LP authors were
extraordinarily sensitive to Turks. The only thing I can
think of that may have been insulting or hurtful was the
repeated references to reverence for Kemal Ataturk. A
Turkish reader may have come away with the misimpression
that the authors were making light of his status as a
national hero, but I read these references differently. In
Britain and in the U.S. we tend to make fun of our leaders,
and criticize and ridicule them freely. I felt the LP
guide adequately warned me not to do so in Turkey, that it
would be seen as offensive. I'm glad to know that; I will
make sure my wife and kids know this and that we are
respectful wherever we encounter a statue or memorial to
Kemal Ataturk. I have never been to Turkey, but reading
the LP guide made me very excited to go. I thought the
authors showed a real love and devotion to the country and
its great treasures.
Finally, it's a real giveaway that the original poster
recommended Insight Guides. Uggh! They are awful if you
actually want to know anything about the country. I got
one for Italy a while ago, and threw it away in disgust.
There was no information in it, and certainly no insights.
Perhaps the Turkey Insight guide is filled with platitudes
about and pretty pictures of Turkey, but I would rather
know what's really going on, and learn about the country,
warts and all.
When Passport (Footprint in UK) gets around to doing a
Turkey Handbook (not the 1992 or paperback versions), we
will have a winner. I've used the big three, but take the LP
guide with me and Xerox relevant parts of Rough Guide.
Cadogan is excellent as well but I use that for preliminary
reading. Open Road doesn't cut it. Insight is a great
picture book and there is nothing like pictures to stir
one's interest. As a guidebook, it is a total waste, except
for wrinkleys on the tour circuit. Berlitz has done a good
job with the old Penguin guides. Nelles, Thomas Cook,
PrenticeHall, Knopf, and DK also do picture guides. Let's Go
has separated Greece and Turkey finally, but I have not
reviewed it. Fodor's and Frommers are old hat. Phaidon is
good for archeology, as is the unbeatable Blue Guide. Diana
Darke's stuff on the east and the coasts is great but sort
of dated, except that she does the text for AA Explorer.
Then for depth in history, there are Freely, Bean, Akurgal.
There are others but they are too high on my bookshelf to
see from here.
abcdefghi
I generally use LP and Rough Guides when I travel, but I
found the LP Turkey guide to be a bit condescending. Tom
Brosnahan writes like he knows more about Turkey than the
Turks themselves. When I found his advertisment for his
learning Turkish tapes (why would anyone want to speak
Turkish with a Boston accent?) tucked into the language
section, I ditched ditched the LP book and took the Rough
Guide instead.
...
Not all LP guides are as bad as the Turkey book. I found
the Greece guide to be indispensible, and the Scandinavian
and Baltic Europe is excellent as well.
...
I like Rough Guides for the Contexts section they have in
the back of each book, which details history, literature
and other interesting cultural tidbits of the country the
book profiles. LP guides are really good for their
language section and have better "Basics" sections than
most guides, especially when it comes to "Danger and
Annoyances."
In general, travel guides are useless. Speak to natives if
you want the real story, and speak to them in their native
language. I find most travel guides to be outdated, and the
information is almost always incorrect in some way. They do
however provide decent maps and locations of sites, but to
claim that they "know the country" is ludicrous.
Where can I find lonely planet guide to Turkey .i will
appreciate who will help me.
When I walk into a bookstore to buy a guide and the choice
lies between the Rough Guide and the Lonely Planet, I am
stumped, they are really broadly similar. Across the range
as a whole their editorial slant is similar, indeed from a
commercial perspective they are aimed at the same market
niches. (But I do know that Lets Go are awful!) Where I
find them of most use is for their listings, and that is
what they are indispensible for. But beyond finding out
the location of the better hostel and where the otagar is,
both books fall low in comparison with the Blue Guide. If
your interests are archaeological or historical than the
Blue Guide is the essential companion. Use the LP or RG
for your bed and meals and some general background info but
the admittedly stuffy Blueguide is a superior guide to
ruins, monuments, art etc. The criticism launched above by
Steve against the Turkish Blueguide - that it inadequadely
covers Istanbul - is unfair. For Turkey there are two
Blueguides, one for Istanbul and the other for the rest of
the country.
One last point: I have just returned from a trip to London
for which I bought the Rough Guide and I can say that its
maps are woeful.
This is wonderful. Thank you to you all LP fans for your
suspiciously instant reaction. I am sure many of the
messages were generated by LP web master(s). But never mind,
it is obvious the message hit the target. "Third world
insecurity" is a too simple of an answer. If there is a
third world you must think you live in a "first world". "In
the security" of your first world, you may think that you
can ignore the rest of the world. Especially if you are the
writer or the publisher of the book. Next time you revise
the book you should prepare the reader for war like
conditions, which will reflect your way of selling more
books. From where we look two different mentalities are
judged much better with a deeper understanding.