Customer Reviews

Let's Go Vietnam 1st Edition

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

 

 

I bought this book and the Rough Guide to Vietnam. Thinking I didn't want to lug around both books, I left the Rough Guide at home and took this one. It seemed like it would be more useful given the proper Vietnamese writing of names/places and the more recent publication date. What a terrible mistake on my part. My traveling buddies had a boot-legged version of the Lonely Planet, which we relied on much more than this guide.

This book lacks information about sites, accomodations and restaurants that was easily found in the Lonely Planet, and was much better described in the Rough Guide. For the places we stayed, the descriptions of the accomodations were sometimes not at all accurate. Maps were also better in the Lonely Planet.

The only thing that was somewhat useful was the nightlife section, but even that was rather sparse in some areas.

Overall, would recommend Rough Guide above this (far above this) and Lonely Planet.

Let's Go Vietnam help me a lot on my recent trip to Vietnam. I used it to plan for the stay. It gives more information on hotels and resort than Lonely Plant. Prices are still correct as of January 2006. If I had to take just one I would pick Let's Go Vietnam. A better way is to take Lonely Planet Vietnam and Let's Go Vietnam, which is what I did.

This is the only Vietnam guidebook which has language tonal markings on the map street names, landmarks, cities/towns, etc. I am Vietnamese-American, so I speak Vietnamese, but don't necessarily know my way around every nook and cranny of Vietnam, so it is super helpful to be able to PRONOUNCE street names to cab drivers, xe om drivers, etc by reading the map, rather than embarrassing myself as a Viet Kieu by trying to sound out the name without any tonal markings, which happens with other guidebook maps that don't have the tonal markings. There are some spelling mistakes, but it is the best one I've seen out there.

i think this is a good travel book. no frills, no color photos, just heaps of information. it doesnt weigh as much as the glossy ones which makes it better for packing.