Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Bangkok (4th ed)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book will save you time, money, frustration, and give enjoyment and satisfaction. Bangkok is a huge city with many attractions and lots of traffic. This guide will tell you where you can go and what you can do based on *your* personal preferences. You can fit your accomadation, lifestyle, budget, culinary likes, night life play-time, and temples, into this guide, and most importantly, get there quickly and affordabley. All of the river taxi and Sky Train routes and stops are listed. Information on the arriving Metro is included as well. The maps are accurate. Plenty of cultural, visa, legal, medical and food information. Very pleasant areas outside of, but near Bangkok are noted. If you spend time in Bangkok, and only use the LP South East Asia or LP Thailand, you will miss many things that you may want to experience in Bangkok. The Bangkok city guide is worth picking up for those who have the country LP.

I was fortunate enough to spend a month in Bangkok and bought both the Lonely Planet and the Moon Guides. I generally read both books before I went anywhere, so I can fairly compare them.

The Lonely Planet guide was always worth reading -- it often added something I didn't find in the Moon guide. The highly detailed map in the back of the book was also quite worthwhile. However, if I had to have just one book, it would have been the Moon guide by Carl Parkes.

Carl's explanations always seemed a little bit richer, and a little bit more in touch. His introduction to the Thai language left me much better equipped to try my hand, and his culture and language sections also stood out. The overall impression, true or not, is that Carl has a deeper understanding and familiarlity with the Thais and Bangkok than Joe. But to be fair, I was happy with both books, and happier still that I had brought both with me.

Its too bad that the Moon guide is harder to find than Lonely Planet's .... but I definitely recommend it.

Making my move to Bangkok, this book has well equipped me for the transition, and has made me more excited and prepared. This book gives an endless supply of information on Bangkok, but doesn't stop there. It goes on to talk about culture, history, and other parts of Thailand, but keeping it relevant. This book is a must have if you are planning on learning, visiting or living in Bangkok! I only wished that this book had more pictures, but the author made up for it in his fun to read writing style.

Having traveled with various guide books, nothing so far beats the Lonely Planet guide books. But you must keep in mind as a user - all recommendations are merely recommendations. Investigate comments, take in the facts. (However, the comments are usually funny and helpful anyway). The cultural background information, history, and other side notes help make the difference to buy Lonely Planet instead of the others. Joe Cummins' LP books on Thailand and Bangkok & the phrasebook were superb. I liked his insight. LP helps you be a traveler, not just a tourist. (Other LP books used: Israel, Turkey, Greece, Western Europe, Baltics, Asia, Hong Kong. They've all been worth their weight and size). If you can take your own luggage off the baggage carousel, you must use Lonely Planet.

Compared to LP London and LP Paris I read and have been early this year, I'm a bit disppointed with LP Bangkok. Although it has an amazing section on food/noodles, I'm rather disappointed that the book does not clearly direct and describe to readers how to get to the places/famous spots it suggested!!!! Also the book does not include a map on the Bangkok transit system - making public transit commuting difficult!!!

Having traveled with various guide books, nothing so far beats the Lonely Planet guide books. But you must keep in mind as a user - all recommendations are merely recommendations. Investigate comments, take in the facts. (However, the comments are usually funny and helpful anyway). The cultural background information, history, and other side notes help make the difference to buy Lonely Planet instead of the others. Joe Cummins' LP books on Thailand and Bangkok & the phrasebook were superb. I liked his insight. LP helps you be a traveler, not just a tourist. (Other LP books used: Israel, Turkey, Greece, Western Europe, Baltics, Asia, Hong Kong. They've all been worth their weight and size). If you can take your own luggage off the baggage carousel, you must use Lonely Planet.

4 days in Bangkok and this book was right on the money with locations, reviews of sights and maps.

I took this book everywhere I went. It gives you a great perspective on the things you will find, things to look out for, and a great guide on how to get to the places you want to go.

I went on business to Bangkok, and during the 3 days that I had to go around, this book helped me find those things that mattered most.

I think it is a great read for anyone who is planning to go to amazing Bangkok and it is a must when travelling around in the city. Lonely Planet books are seriously great!

As a frequent visitor to Thailand I recently used this latest guide for Bangkok from Joe Cummings (plus his assistants) and found it to be more than adequate. If anything, I would personally like more hotel recommendations for each area of this city, those one could call "a find". I found some on my own by walking the area I stayed in and moved to one of them as Joe was too kind in the description of hotel I first stayed in.

Be sure to call about open times for restaurants as two I went to were closed earlier than was given in the guide (no fault of Joe's I'm sure).

Any travel guide is out of date before it's printed, L.P. is no exception. L.P. Bangkok is still compact, very current, and speaking as a resident in the Pacific Rim, quite useful. The City Guides blend a "coffee table" book feel with useful info for backpackers, ex-pats, and "silk sheet set" tourists.

Any Thai guide must address the flesh trade without sounding a dinner bell for sex tourists, and Joe seems to walk this line nicely. (L.P. always seems to discourage travel for sex & drugs, though rock and roll seems to always merit it's own section.)

RE: Other L.P. Thai guides The On A Shoestring guides are always the most bang-for-your buck, and always a damned good idea for border excursions. If you've got the bucks, I don't think that all 4 formats (City Guide, Travel Survival Kit, On A Shoestring, and Phrase Book) are excessive. My only regret is that the Tokyo City Guide is now in a "standard" format, not the "shirt-pocket" size of the previous editions, nor the "mini" of the phrasebooks. I hope that the other guides retain their current size.