Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Central Asia

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first edition of Lonely Planet's Central Asia guide was not up to their usual standard. Its data and advice was incomplete and even wrong, but more than anything, it was out-of-date beforen it was published: things had changed a great deal in Central Asia, between 1991 when the countries became independent, and 1996 when the guide was published. But finally, this second recent edition of the book fully compensates for those lacks. Truly up-to-date, it offers all the advice, tips and information that travellers expect to get from Lonely Planet. And in this region, you'll need it ! Even if you speak Russian like myself, this is not an easy region to travel around. The people are nice and hospitable, the places are marvellous, but the first impact can be very negative and gloomy. It can be hard or impossible to get around - visas and other bureaucratic problems, flights and trains which may or may not run, hotels which may or may not exist... You won't know what to do or where to go, and once you do you may realize you should have done otherwise. With this guide, you won't be lost. It will truly be your companion during the whole journey, whether or not you are familiar with the region. And it will also provide excellent and very plesant reading with its sections on culture, history, politics, etc. Last but not least, this edition contains two new sections on Afghanistan and on China's Xinjiang province. Afghanistan will be hard to visit so far (but not impossible - ask me !), yet the information is invaluable and highly interesting. Xinjiang is a destination which, thanks to the information contained in this guidebook (and ONLY thanks to that information, which you won't find elsewhere !), you will be able to combine with your trip to the five former Soviet nations of Central Asia. Buy it now, and you will be on your way even sooner than you plan.

Take it from an American expat living in Uzbekistan and traveling throughout the region - this is by far the best guide to any place in Central Asia. The authors do a great job of covering all the countries, and they have practical advice on necessary precautions. The general information about the area is solid. Every expat who lives here has a copy, and we all rely on it for advice on where to go and what to see. Also, the historical review is thorough without being tedious, and the practical information on things like climate and local customs is generally dead on.

Nevertheless, you can't rely on this book (or any other) for specifics like suggested hotels and restaurants or things like visa fees. These all change so frequently in the CAR that everything is out of date before it's hit the printers. Use this as a guide to the area, but don't rely on it for planning the details about where to stay and where to eat.

As with all countries in the far east, one has to use a guide as simply a guide and not a bible. Lonely planet is great in giving travel warnings without preaching. This style leaves it with a laid back approach to traveling. Unfortunately in Central Asia where things do change often, where situations can be increadibly dangerouse or unbelievably gloriouse, no guide can stay so up to date. This guide is nessasary in Central Asia. There are few in between which can cover the scope which Lonely Planet Manages, however I can't stress any more how important it is to do research on all five-stan republics. Pay attention to travel stories, keep a positive additude and enjoy the wonderouse Rejistan, Karokarum and charming turk peoples. A deffinate and more concise version to the first, there is still less coverage on visas and dealing with officials then is needed for the westen traveler. And as usual there should be much great getting there and away information. Four Stars

Central Asia is steeped in rich mediaeval architecture, soul stirring music, amazingly friendly people, complex history, delicious food & a sense of the prehistoric.
Solo or individual travel to this part of the world is not for the squeamish amateur traveler. Travel here will test you and occasionally frustrate you. But, then the warmth of people and the amazing architecture and natural beauty will more than neutralize that frustration.
A guide to Central Asia is your life support system. You won't be able to do without it and as usual LP does a great job. The information is very accurate and up to date.

I only have some minor comments & recommendations for people planning to Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan.
1. The shared taxi prices in the guide are notional. Most taxi drivers will quote a much higher price (usually in USD), which may be 2 to 3 times the price quoted in the guide. Their rationale is that they will take you out in a brand new Daewoo Nexia car and the ride will be comfortable (hardly ever the case).
2. A popular scam is that taxi drivers will negotiate a price for a non-stop shared ride to your city of interest, but they will cunningly drop you at the nearest taxi stand & transfer you to another taxi, which will leave much later (1-2 hours wait) and demand that you pay them the whole amount. Some times, they'll even ask for an advance. The best way to avoid these scams is to insist on the same driver till the destination and do NOT pay in advance even if it means creating a big row & walking out of the deal.

I have no doubt that Lonely Planet did excellent research when it comes to easily traversable, popular destinations in places Kazakhstan and possibly even Uzbekistan. A week in Turkmenistan, however, made it painfully obvious that it's writers did not take the time to actually visit the country about which they were writing. Or if they did visit, they were blessed with a local "fixer" who made their life simple and prevented problems. The bottom line is that the information contained on Turkmenistan is woefully inaccurate and / or outdated. For example, the 350 km drive between Ashgabat and Mary is advertised as taking 3.5 hours. Lonely Planet probably arrived at this by looking at the map, saying "Oh, that's a highway! Call it 100 km / hour and it should take 3.5 hours." The actual trip takes over 6 hours due to the poor quality of Turkmenistan's roads. We experienced the same frustration a second time while driving to the border with Uzbekistan from Mary when the "2.5 hour drive" turned out to be 4.5. Furthermore, of the 4 travel agencies listed in the 2007 edition, 3 are closed, and the lone survivor complained vociferously about Lonely Planet ignoring their pleas for accurate updates. Although not as egregious as the Turkmenistan section, the rest of the book is full of errors as well. Estimated prices and travel times are way off and local maps not only are poorly scaled, but often fail to show the city's main attractions, instead opting to provide the reader with a meaningless map of city streets. In the end, this book is best utilized as a source of background knowledge that can help you determine an itinerary and means of travel, but it is incapable of helping you plan down to the fine details. The bottom line is that Lonely Planet Central Asia fails to meet the high expectations of its brand name; it is best read before commencing travel, and then left at home.

This doesn't answer questions such as, "What kind of winter jacket should I bring", but it does tell you about the traditional Kyrgyz practice of wife abduction. The packing lists on the Peace Corps wiki are a good source if you need to know what kind of clothes to bring: [...]. Type in "Packing list for ___(country)___". Unfortunately, they only have lists for the countries in which the Peace Corps has volunteers. However, most likely they have people somewhere in the region about which you are interested.
This book is full of practical information about each country (and some funny tidbits), some ideas for itineraries, and useful tips. Since I have not seen any alternative, this is your best bet if you want a guide to Central Asia.

The Lonely Planet Central Asia Guide is simply the best guidebook out there covering all of the five "Stans" making up the former Soviet republics. They even throw a section on Afghanistan in for good measure, though the authors acknowledge they did not actually travel to Afghanistan for researching the book - which is understandable. That said, this guidebook is pretty much the only one out there covering this little travelled region as a whole. It covers some of the major tourist destinations quite well - such as Almaty, Kazakhstan; Samarkand, Uzbekistan; and Bukhara, Uzbekistan. However, it does start to show some weaknesses when the traveler begins venturing from the major transportation centers.

One particularly glaring error is the amount of time the authors of the guidebook suggest it takes to travel in the region via automobile. For example, I had to travel from Bukhara to the border crossing with Tajikistan at Denau, which according to the guidebook would take 5 ½ hours. In reality, the road venture took more than 12 full hours to cover over sometimes very bad roads and through multiple police checkpoints. While this region is probably one of the more difficult to cover for travel guidebook writers, errors such as this makes you wonder how much of their recommendations they've actually experienced themselves.

Bottom line: if you are travelling to the region, you really must have this guidebook to accompany you. Virtually every single tourist we met in the region had their own copy of it. That said, considering where you are traveling, you need to accompany this guidebook with a lot of other work to really understand what you are doing. There are lots of good travel blogs to help you plan your trip, and even Tripadvisor has some good hotel and restaurant picks for Central Asia to consider beyond what Lonely Planet offers. Get the Lonely Planet guide, but plan of doing some reading and planning beyond what it has to offer.

I used this guide when traveling in Uzbekistani cities in 2003. I found it very helpful ESPECIALLY THE MAPS.
There were a few comments/inaccuracies that I noted and I called those to the Lonely Planet's attention. Despite this, this is probably the most useful reference for the English speaker -- at least for Uzbekistan. (If traveling in Almaty, I would first recommend the "Almaty Guide Millenium Edition" written by the Almaty International Women's Club.)

This is a handy book if you're traveling briefly in Central Asia, but if you are going to spend a lot of time in one country, there isn't enough good information to last you beyond the first couple of days. Some of the information on Uzbekistan was outdated. If you want to read a fiction/thriller that takes place in Uzbekistan and accurately captures the people and culture, check out The Opportunists. Here's the link: The Opportunists: A Novel

I cannot imagine anyone visiting Central Asia without this guide. I used it on a one-month trip around Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan and found most of the information to be remarkably complete and accurate. The authors obviously did not travel overland between Khojand and Osh via Batken but even the few sketchy references were enough to see me through. I saved $20 by hiring a taxi only to Kyzyl-Kiya rather than right through to Osh, a tactic they will probably include in the next edition. In Dushanbe, the Vakhsh Hotel has tripled their prices but all of the other hotel listings I used were right on. The good news is that tourists no longer need to bother with OVIR registration in Tajikistan. I found Central Asia safe, friendly, and inexpensive. It was intriguing and I am grateful to this book for showing me around.