Customer Reviews

India (Lonely Planet Country Guide)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was one of those people who took lonely planet books everywhere, all over Europe, to Iceland, the Philippines, Cuba and now Delhi. I trusted the brand so it was the only book I brought, big mistake.
I'll only speak for Delhi because thats where I spent two weeks. So I hope this specifically helps travelers to Delhi.

The restaurants were pretty much awful, the hotel prices were wrong, the massage treatment place recommended so out of the way that it cost the cost of the massage to get there and back. I was working so I only wasted my weekends following the book. My work lunches were at far better restaurants and a aimless walk in the daytime in Old Delhi was far better than any guided tour. I also didn't appreciate the tone of this book and how much time it wasted on smug reviews and lame humor.
I think the individual country books depend really on the authors/editors, the other lonely planet guides I have were of great help. For India(or Delhi at least), try another title.

While this is a perfectly adequate guide, should you travel to India, I would recommend also bringing along the Footprints Guide, which does a better job describing various monuments and historical places. I'll be heading to S India in a few months and plan to take this guide, Footprints AND Rough Guide (I tore the N India sections out of my older Rough Guide and Footprints as these are three hefty books). India is such a huge country that no one of these three guidebooks stand out as being the best. If I had to take just one, I'd probably go with Footprints, but their latest edition is a bit dated for proper hotel and restaurant recommendations. The LP is the most current of the three mentioned.

Unless you know exactly where you want to go already which is highly unlikely, it might be worth having this book for the maps.

Pay absolutely no attention to the guesthouse prices etc.

Of course as soon as a guesthouse gets a good rating in the LP they put their prices up, this is the same everywhere in the world. In India however, they will actually create three more guesthouses with the same name and you will never know the difference until you walk past the real one. I miss India :p

It is large and heavy but full of information and easy to fine that information which many guides books can't come close.
Lonely Planet, you do a good job.

While I only ever purchase Lonely Plant books for my travels, this new edition had me a little disappointed with no inclusion of HiTech City as one of the sights to see. The city was truly amazing and I am thankful our driver thought to take us there.

The book was informative. I was hope for a little more cultural and regional info and map content, but you can't have everything I suppose. The problem is how many books can you carry, especially this size? Do your homework before you go and then carry this book for hotel, transportation, and other info. I understand the rough guide to India is a good complimentary book. But you'll need another backpack to carry both.

I like Lonely Planet Guides - having enhanced holidays in places from Myanmar to Maine using them. The LP India is particularly useful for independent travellers.

The book was quite helpful in most respects. I was disappointed with one of the eating suggestions, it was the worst meal we had in India. The book saved us in Shimla when we were planning to fly back to Delhi. There is a strict weight restriction on luggage which we had missed in our travel documents. We still flew back, just sent the luggage by an alternate means. The book is quite complete and was very useful in many ways.

I received the wrong year of guidebook. I ordered a 2007. I received a 2003. What's more, when I opened up the book there were over 100 pages clearly missing as they were ripped out of the book. Furthermore, other pages were falling out of the book because the binding was so damaged. I returned the book but still have not received the refund. This book was so clearly damaged and never should have been sent, let alone listed as "good" condition. The least that they could do was refund my money in a reasonable timeframe.

Right on time! Book in exact condition as described. Fortunately for me, the book gave me a critical piece of information that I needed a visa before I entered India that I had not realized I needed as a tourist.