Lonely Planet Georgia Armenia & Azerbaijan (Multi Country Travel Guide) [Paperback]

John Noble (Author), Mark Elliott (Author), Michael Kohn (Author), Arpi Armenakian Shively (Author)

Book Description

Series: Multi Country Travel Guide | Publication Date: May 1, 2008

Discover Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan

Find out which Georgian king wanted the world to walk on his grave
Clamber down to the snake pit once occupied by St Gregory the illuminator
Watch the clouds lift above Xinaliq to reveal 360-degree views of the Caucasus mountains
Discover why you should never toast a Georgian with beer

In This Guide:

Expert authors: three. Days of research: 143. Spontaneous on-the-road toasts: lost count
Expanded coverage of nature reserves, day walks and challenging mountain hikes
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights.
'

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lonely Planet guides are a must-pack” --Toronto Star, February 2006

From the Publisher

Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travelers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travelers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
*We update our guidebooks by visiting thousands of places in person to get the details right and tell it as it is.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travelers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travelers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 3 edition (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741044774
• ISBN-13: 978-1741044775
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Travel > Asia > Armenia
  • #1 in Books > Travel > Asia > Georgia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 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.