Customer Reviews

Kyrgyzstan (Bradt Travel Guide)

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

 

 

For someone wanting an up to date travel guide to Kyrgyzstan in English, there are not too many choices. It basically comes down to the Lonely Planet Central Asia or this Bradt travel guide written by Laurence Mitchell. I did a journey through Kyrgyzstan last summer with the LP, but I recently checked out the Bradt guide to see how it might compare. I found that it can indeed be useful, but it seems directed at a specific demographic. In his travel guidance, Mitchell writes for an older crowd, who might be willing to spend money on tours and taxis instead of immersing themselves in local poverty.

While the guide portion itself is less than ideal for the type of traveler that I am--as well as everyone else I know who goes to Kyrgyzstan--the historical and cultural background of the Bradt is quite informative. However, I prefer LP's maps to here. The advertisements sprinkled in the Bradt guide also irked me. I wasn't happy with Bradt's typesetting. Somehow too much space on the page is wasted, producing a book much larger than it ought to be and thus less convenient to travel with.

If you are a budget traveler who needs basic info and hitchhiking tips, but are willing to discover the details of each place as you travel through them, AND you speak Russian, probably the most economical resource to get is the SREDNAJA ASIJA guide by Anton Krotov and the Academy of Free Travel (Akademija Volnyx Puteshestvij). You can get that through Krotov and the AVP themselves or in select Moscow and Kyiv bookstores. Otherwise, if you don't speak Russian, then get the LP. But if you are an older person desiring comfort and traveling with loads of cash, the Bradt might be just what you need.

We're planning a trip to Kyrgyzstan next July, and I've found this guide the single best book for trip planning. The Lonely Planet combines Kyrgyzstan with the other Stans into a "Central Asia" volume, and thus dilutes its coverage of Kyrgyzstan. The Cadogan guide is severely dated, all the way back to the immediate post Communist period. Mitchell's guide, on the other hand, has useful, no nonsense advice. We've found this guide useful in building our itinerary, because there's enough detail to help you decide where you want to go and what you want to see, without having to flip past lists of every last youth hostel that you never intend to stay in anyway.