Customer Reviews

Frommer's Thailand (Frommer's Complete Guides)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Frommer's Thailand 8th Edition is well written, very informative, nicely organized by regions, and I would say a good starting point anyone planning a trip to Thailand. Only weakness my mind is that it tends to emphasis the upscale, very expensive lodging versus the numerous & inexpensive "guest houses" that are quite comfortable and a bargain. Also, would be nice to have color photos representative of each region discussed.

This guide is aimed at more luxury travellers. It is lacking in hotel and restaurant options for budget travellers. Had I known this before I bought it, I would not have purchased it. It made travelling in Thailand more difficult than it would have been with a more budget friendly book like Lonely Planet.

However, that being said, if you're looking to go to Thailand and enjoy it's luxury resorts, this book is alright. It's got all the big tourist stuff in it and pretty decent maps.

This is the second edition of Frommer's Thailand I've bought. I travel to Thailand a lot and this guide book has helped make my travel more enjoyable. Not all the details are in the book, but it gives you the highlights of things and where to go, dine, and stay. I would recommend this book to any first time travelers or even your second or third trip to Thailand. Enjoy!

I am headed back to Thailand in a few weeks and was doing some research on new travel books for the area. I came across this book and realized it was the same book I used on a previous trip to Thailand (2008). Another friend of mine used lonely planet. As one reviewer pointed out this is a book strictly for those with money to blow.

Frommer's became the laughing stock for the rest of our trip (6 weeks). There are hardly any useful maps in the book. If you bought just this book, I do not see how you could even plan to travel effectively throughout the country. We wanted to go to some small cities that were included in lonely planet, but were no even mentioned in Frommer's.

Backpackers should stay away from this book at all costs...be warned...the only thing useful is to use the pages as emergency TP.

Book has good details on places to eat and shop. We already had a hotel, so we did not use that section.

This guidebook was dead weight very soon into my trip. I had the LP Greater Mekong book as well, and the small section of Thailand in that one was better for me than a whole book on the country. As a college-age traveler, on a very small budget, I found that the hotels and restaurants listed were typically out of my range. Something they considered "Budget", would be mid range or higher. The background info and so forth was great, but when it came to recommendations I found Rough Guide and Lonely Planet to be more my speed for suggestions. I was usually able to find something that was not listed to be of the same quality, and cheaper. For folks looking for a more vacation based book, and on a higher budget, this is for you.

This book seems to be fine. I did not read entirely because I was turned off by the humidity in Thailand and will not be going there on vacation. I will give
the book to friends that might be going.

I have to say that this guidebook is one of the most lousy quide I have read in my life. No pictures, less details and humor, insufficient of actitivies, lack of excellent map (most maps were use as big territory in small map, worthless to navigate where you want to go), and most of the activities were plainly expensive, such as hotel, food, and how to get one place to another (I mean from one big city to another big city, im talking about how to get around cheaply). For example in Bangkok, most tourists want to go see the Grand Palace where the King live, and this guidebook only tell them to take the taxis, motorcyle, or tuk-tuk which is just plainly expensive. They did not mention a way to go there cheaper as taking the bus number 15 (I might be wrong) or subway then on the boat to the grand palace. (of course it will take longer and cheaper.) But isn't that what most people want, to see everything which take a bit longer and cheaper?
The point is, this guidebook is technically for people who have plenty of money and don't really care if the vendor sell them at a high cost or prefer luxury.
My suggestion is to take the Lonely Planet, no matter if they are a year or so old, they are still significant than the Frommer guidebooks. I had check most of the Frommer and I find them all absolutely worthless and made me a terrible travelers that want to see almost everything in Thailand which I didn't. I put the blame on Frommer.
Go for the Lonely Planet on most destination. such as, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, HK, malaysia, Singapore, and many others... it is important to have enough pictures to see to encourage you to see it. Lack of picture will only make you go to major cities and that's it.