Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan (Lonely Planet Travel Guides) [Paperback]

Richard Plunkett (Author), Tom Masters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

Hike in the stunning Caucasus Mountains, bathe in the Black Sea, explore lush, church-studded hills, laze on the shores of Lake Sevan and enjoy generous local hospitality. Connect with the diverse cultures and wide-ranging landscapes of the South Caucasus in this, the only guide to cover the the region.

Unravel The Past – extensive coverage of the region's fascinating history and mosaic of cultures

Plan Your Route with the help of tempting highlights and itineraries and over 40 detailed maps

Sleep Soundly – wide-ranging listings from welcoming homestays to Soviet sanatoriums

Enjoy fine wines from Georgia and tasty Armenian cognac with our enticing food & drink sections

Talk The Talk – impress the locals in all three languages using our expert guide

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lonely Planet guidebooks are, quite simply, like no others.' --New York Times

From the Publisher

Lonely Planet’s new "Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan" is the definitive guide to this unexplored area and is filled with historical and political facts, useful predeparture information, a handy reference of important phrases and authoritative advice on how to stay healthy and safe. Whether you’re trekking in the mountains or enjoying traditional wine-soaked hospitality, this guide offers essential inside information on a region still refreshingly free of tourist culture.

• special activities section for trekkers, climbers and skiers
• advice on areas of conflict and other safety issues
• tips on getting visas, crossing borders and changing money
• language guide for Georgian, Armenian and Azeri
• 40 detailed maps --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2 edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740591380
• ISBN-13: 978-1740591386
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,222,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Travel > Asia > Georgia
  • #15 in Books > Travel > Asia > Armenia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but far below the Lonely Planet standard, February 28, 2001

By 

Maurizio Giuliano (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan (Paperback)

I have always been a great admirer and user of Lonely Planet guidebooks, but this time they really produced a rather poor work. On one side I can't blame them, as the region is hard to get to know, and this probably remains the best guidebook about it anyway. On the other hand, lots of data are simply wrong, for which I can see no reasonable excuse. For example, the guidebook says that there are daily flights betwen Tbilisi and Yerevan, while there have been no scheduled flights since the collapse of the USSR in 1989 ! And contrary to what is written, KLM, Northwest or Alitalia have never flown to Yerevan. The guidebook says that there are buses from Armenia to Turkey, and on the very same page it also says that it is impossible to get from Armenia to Turkey except via Georgia... Overall, there is very little this guidebook can tell you on how to get around within the region. The guidebook gives plenty of information on hotels in Tbilisi which are supposedly good, while they are now filled by refugees (surely an interesting and touching thing to see, but not where you might wish to stay). The major internet café they recommend in Tbilisi does not exist. Many addresses are simply wrong (either old or non-existent). The book makes a lot of fuss about the corruption and unclear regulations of Armenian and other border officials, which is not the case (for example in Armenia you CAN get a visa at any border for 25 $ which is valid for 3 days, and when you leave you pay 3 $ for each day you oversayed your visa) - no corruption, no problems. The book gives lots of concerns about safety and other issues which are unnecessary, and especially in its Armenia section it seems to be biasedly 'anti-local' (something one would never expect from a guidebook). Overall, it seems poorly researched and not always well written. The chapter on Nagorno-Karabakh is ridiculously short (4 pages), not to mention the one on Abkhazia (less than two pages !). Nevertheless, some information is indeed useful and sometimes even correct, and you are better off taking this guide with you to the region, rather than being without it. Just take its advice with a lot of caution, and don't take any of its data for granted.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but...., October 29, 2004

By 

Matt Ebiner (Covina, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan (Lonely Planet Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I used the guidebook in all 3 countries within one month of its publication, and found it to be accurate for the most part. However, the authors seemed to be under orders to write glowing reports on anything considered mildly worthwhile to visit. Many of these places were not particularly noteworthy, and after awhile we took each raving description with a grain of salt. For some of the most spectacular sites (Davit Gareja and Kazbegi, both in Georgia) the book really should have included maps. The descriptions of both struck me as being second or third hand, as if the authors themselves had not taken any of the trails they described.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great new edit, well worth buying, February 21, 2001

By 

Raffi Kojian (Yerevan/Orange) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan (Paperback)

**Completely edited review for 3rd edition**

I'd give the new edition 4 or 5 stars, but Lonely Planet won't let me change that part of the review. It's a very solid guidebook now, packed with good information, maps, tips, and very good detail. I highly recommend it, especially for Armenia which I am most familiar with.

These 7 year old reviews for the first edition need to be removed, or associated only with that ISBN number, they are doing customers on Amazon a disservice here.

For those who want to supplement this book, "Rediscovering Armenia" is a free online wiki guide to Armenia's monuments.