Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet 2007 Bluelist (Lonely Planet General Reference)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I took a gamble on purchasing this book after reading the negative review above (book just rants on about middle eastern travel locations with no talk of the dangers involved). WELL - I'm glad I spent the $16 because this book is exactly what I was hoping for - a comprehensive list of locations to consider traveling to for open minded individuals. There is a special feature portion in the middle of the book on Islamic travel locations BUT it is 30 pages of the 230+ book and it does speak a small bit to the dangers involved. The remaining 200+ pages of the book equally cover Asian, African, South + North American, Russian/Czech, and other remote locations with a variety of reasons to travel there. The book doesn't seem to overly boast just the positives but gives you some ideas of dangers/negatives too, so I definitely did not get the feeling the book was openly suggesting travelers to blindly fly to dangerous locations. If you're looking to travel abroad and looking for some potential ideas you haven't considered pick this book up, it's worth the $[...] - I ordered from [...] and got the 2007 bluelist book free when I ordered the 2008. It's got some great photos too.

Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2009 (General Reference)

850 Trends, Destinations, Journeys & Experiences for the Year Ahead-that's how Lonely Planet describes their newest "wish" book. Picking the brains of their best authors, Lonely Planet has put together a book for the travel-minded person who wants a creative mix of what's best. This is a book to charge the senses about possible travel tours and to facilitate formulating plans before you get to the ticket purchasing stage. Open a random page and begin reading the eclectic topics offered. The book is divided into a collection of Top Tens: Countries, Regions, Cities, a large section on Water: the Ultimate Traveller and Top Travel Lists. Facts and trivia abound in this exciting addition to the Lonely Planet guides.

Top Ten Countries: (Not those you might think.) Here's an opportunity to read what's best about Kyrgyzstan ("the country your inner nomad has secretly been dreaming about all these years") and Oman ("the real deal"). Paragraphs on the defining experience, hot topic of the day, festivals and events and life-changing experiences will pique your interest to learn more about these unusual, off-the-beaten-track places on the globe.

Top Ten Regions: A few better known regions add to the mix of the unusual here. Learn a bit about France's Languedoc, Svarlbard, Norway, France and Spain's Basque Country (home to some of Europe's best walking.)

Check out The World of Water for the best sparkle, the best partying, the best place to drop anchor and much more. Go on a water safari, drink in an igloo, take a husky ride are just some of the experiences detailed in this fascinating chapter. Also, don't miss fabulous ferries and water worship (Do you know the six places for the best liquid blessings?).

Lonely Planet's Top Travel Lists contains a potpourri of exciting tidbits such as the top ten places to steal a kiss (no surprise that Paris is number one), the flashiest lighthouses, the best places to have a midlife crisis (bet you can't wait for THAT one or the next!-best places for deadly sins).

Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2009 is fantastic even if you're not planning a trip. It's great to educate yourself about places you may not have heard, about customs you may not know exist and otherwise to learn more about our fantastic, wonderful, diverse planet. This is a book to inform, to entertain and to get the creative juices charged up to learn more. Beautiful photos highlight nearly every page. The layout is hip, the text easy to read. Each topic covers a paragraph to a couple of pages of fascinating reading to incite wanderlust in the most dedicated armchair enthusiast.

I love this series from Lonely Planet. It's beautiful and cleverly written. The bluelist isn't designed to give you a travel itinerary or help you get around but presents interesting and iconic experiences weighted by current travel trends. For me, the bluelist is all about daydreaming about the next travel adventure.

Visually this is a stunning book full of bursts of color and glossy photos that tempt you to find out more- Sao Paulo, I'm looking at you. And the ecological focus on water and both its importance to the way man has always traveled along with the message of needed conservation were extremely valid and topical. It's where there sending the average reader I have an issue with...

Some of the top countries and cities they claim you should see in 2009: Algeria, Rwanda, Georgia, Sierra Leone, Columbia, Beirut. These are countries where it wasn't safe to travel to let alone live in five or six years ago and most people would still say your taking your live into your hands traveling to still today. Just a few months ago Georgia and Russia were at each others throats in an international confrontation after all. I looked and looked for some kind of responsible warning about women not traveling alone to many of these areas or mentions that sometimes westerners are targeted for hostage taking but sadly found no warnings of any kind which I found irresponsible of lonely planet. Then I flipped back through and noticed that about 75%-80% of the articles were written by men, so it's obvious that Lonely Planet knows full well there are some dangers associated with going there.

That said ( well, maybe ranted)The back sections which have profiles on every country and funny things like the best places to find mythical creatures like Bigfoot are pretty good. Go out and see all the fun of the world, just do it with a healthy dollop of common sense.

This book is ideal for travelers on a quest for the exotic, obscure and unusual.
Two hundred and thirty eight pages filled with fascinating photographs and writing, often bordering the bizarre.
Attractively illustrated with photos reminiscent of National Geographic magazine.
Some, not all contents are : Top 10 Countries, Top 10 Cities, Water the Ultimate Traveler and Top Travel Lists.
The last chapter called World Profile alphabetically lists all countries headed by their flag. Identifying each countries capitols, population, area and official language.
Information on each country follows with interesting facts and current situation.
Although not a traditional travel guide, the book is entertaining and informative.

I have lived and vacationed in a number of countries with the Lonely Planet guides, and always found them extremely helpful. With this new guide, "Lonely Planet's Best In Travel 2009: 850 Trends, Destinations, Journeys & Experiences For The Year Ahead" I found it to be very enjoyable for different reasons.

I always liked how the Lonely Planet guides had a ton of information about the places I was living or visiting. However, I sometimes wished they had more color photos such as some of the other travel guides available. With this "Best In Travel 2009" guide, there isn't the depth for each country like the country specific guides, but rather interesting places around the entire world. And this book is full of colorful pictures.

It is a beautifully laid out book with scores of magnificent photographs. Combine the photos with the brief descriptions of places around the entire globe and you have a great coffee table book and a text that will inspire you to plan your next travel adventure. What I enjoy most about this book is it helps generate ideas of places to go and things I want to do.

The book is chalk full of lists. Top 10 Countries, Top 10 Regions, Top 10 Cities and so on. I don't know if I agree with the top 10 in each of these categories, and you might not either, but that does not matter. Use the book to inspire you to travel to new places and to generate ideas and possibilities. Even if you don't travel to the places listed, you will be more aware of what's out there and places that are available to explore. If you enjoy traveling, you'll enjoy looking through this book for ideas.

Reviewed by Alain Burrese, author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks.

This book is best viewed as an "armchair" travel book. It is not intended to provide detailed itineraries for specific vacations. Instead, it's an "idea book," and a very good one at that.

Tired of the "same old, same old"? Need some new ideas for places to visit? You'll find a wealth of info here. Yeah, sure, a lot of it is "pie in the sky" type stuff: Beirut? Iraq? While attractive in many respects, these are not places most Americans will be able to visit, not for awhile at least. But maybe someday, it will be possible to vacation there.

The photos in this book are stunning and plentiful. The "Lists" are a nice touch: Best Places for Deadly Sins, Best Ecotrips, Weirdest Plants and Where to See Them -- some are fun, some more serious, and all give you some interesting ideas and perspective.

I'm at an age and a life philosophy where I prefer to travel in a more luxurious style than when I was younger (my idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service), so many of the destinations probably wouldn't work for me. But there were enough that would work, and I now have a few more "possible destinations" on my list of places I want to visit before I die.

Replacing the former annual "Blue Guide" by Lonely Planet, this book retains much of the same function as the former volume, but expands its vision. This is an annual reference book that is unequaled in the travel guide business. What Lonely Planet does best is understand the heart of a traveler. It understands the overall travel favorites and takes them up a notch, as well as opening the door a little wider on the more obscure, less "well traveled" places too.

The book is both inspirational and fun, educational and off-the-wall, comprehensive and extremely specific. It operates on the macro and the micro. How does it cover all that? Well, by taking a quirky approach to the idea of a reference book. It selects themes, it looks at every country through an annual rundown, it provides a calendar of enticing events, and it focuses in on very specific places with very specific, very helpful tips and insights.

Included in the book are the following:

* Tony Wheeler's top travel picks for the year (Tony is a co-founder of Lonely Planet)
* 30 featured destinations: the top 10 countries, regions, and cities worth exploring that year
* for 2009, a special focus on water, with 70 water-oriented trips featured
* top travel lists for the year, from "Best Places to Have a Midlife Crisis" to "Best Ecotrips" to "Top 10 Places to Steal a Kiss," among dozens of others
* an annual rundown of every country on the planet (yes, EVERY)
* yearly travel planner that highlights adventures for each month

For 2009, there is coverage of countries like Canada, but also Bangladesh and Rwanda. There is a focus on cities like Chicago, Antwerp, Beirut, and Shanghai. For regions, there's the Big Island of Hawaii, but also Nam Ha in Laos. For travelers, it's as much joy to read about the places you've been as the ones you aspire to see.

It's the sort of book that is very specific to the year covered and yet is likely to maintain a spot on a traveler's bookshelf for years to come, as one digs it out to have another look at the coverage of Peru or to revisit that list on "The Best Places for Deep Thinking" or "Underground Caverns."

Its oversized paperback format makes it an affordable purchase, yet sturdy enough to withstand hours of dreamy browsing. Best of all, all the great travel information contained within this wonderful book is accompanied by photographs so stunning that they are an inspiration to embark on a journey in and of themselves.

If this book doesn't make you want to pack a bag and hit the road, you really don't like to travel. If so, pass it along to someone who does; that traveler is sure to love it.

This was a hugely enjoyable book that gave me a number of ideas of potential dream vacations, and good travel suggestions to friends who were traveling to some of the areas covered by this book.

That said, it perfectly reflected why I liked Lonely Planet guides when I was younger and why I tend to follow other travel books now. The places they recommend are frequently REALLY off the beaten track... "real" travel destinations that you can brag about and are full of interesting experiences that set you apart from other travelers. That's not what I'm necessarily looking for in my travel now. I tend to want to visit places with rich traditions of interesting food and extensive restaurant recommendations. I want great local reads and try to visit places with rich literary culture. And while I don't want an all-inclusive, I do want a nice bed with a shower to unwind.

Still, as I mentioned, great ideas and a perfect companion to planning fantasy trip, often to places you might not have considered previously.

Lonely Planet's Best In Travel 2009 is chock full of pictures and interesting facts about all sorts of places in which to travel. There are 30 destinations listed as "must-go" and herein lies the problem.

I didn't want to go to any of them. Evidently I am a travel snob. I want to vacation with a roof over my head and running water. The harshest weather I want to experience is the coldness of Tennessee. But, in all fairness, these are my preferences and they probably are not the same feelings others who purchase Lonely Planet's Best in Travel will have.

The book itself is beautifully set up with easy to read lists and guides as well as gorgeous pictures. It has an annual world view report and a 70 page water guide. Stunning stuff.

My biggest problem with this book are the countries in which they suggest travelling to. Most of them are not safe countries in which to visit. Many of the countries are even having wars/skirmishes at this moment so safety should be looked at prior to even thinking about going overseas. Some of the countries listed are very impoverished as well as look to be sanitarily unhealthy.

Then again, like I said, I am a travel wuss.

***Natalie S. for Amazon Vine***