Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Croatia (Country Guide)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally a travel guide for Croatia. For several years, Croatia was left out of the various larger, multiple-country guidebooks; somehow it wasn't considered a part of Eastern Europe or Central Europe! I have worked in this country for about two years, and recently had the opportunity to explore the coast with the help of this book. The information was excellent and quite accurate, considering a year or more has passed since the publication and much has changed in that time. The only quibbles: some mistakes in the pronunciation guide, and the suggestion that people try swimming in the Drava River, which is polluted--a friend of mine wound up in the hospital for a week after taking a dip. My colleagues and I had to laugh at that recommendation! Like most tourist information on Croatia, the book is strong on the Adriatic and weak on the rest of the country--admittedly, not quite as spectacular, but with some places of interest nonetheless. The book is compact, the perfect size for toting around, and includes lots of intriguing historical sidebars. It will need updating soon, as the country is going through considerable change.

Shortly: this is the worst ever Lonely Planet Guide that I bought. I have just returned home from Croatia and this book didn't help me at all. I could have had a 5-pound stone in my pocket and it could have helped me more.

Explained: the book is absolutely incomplete because it simply doesn't cover the north half of the country (about half the territory of Croatia). It misses towns like Sisak, Virovitica, Cakovec and it doesn't contain anything about the Osijek castle. I don't know why the writer ignored this part of the country, I suppose she might have liked the beautiful sea-shore better but this doesn't make an excuse at all.

Then: it ignores some significant towns near the Bosnian border, like Knin and Sinj, I know these places aren't the most likeable ones but they have a historical significance - these were the cities most affected by the civil war and these places are a part of Croatian history and quite an important one.

Moreover: even though she spent most of her time on the shore, what about Novi Vinodolski, Senj, Karlobag, Umag, Porec and the inner Istria? These places are worth discovering and there isn't a single word about them in the book.

It is dated, because it doesn't contain up-to-date information about the country. For example: if you drive a car (having a picnic in the countryside) or walking around you should be prepared for mine fields - there are still many of them in the country. These fields aren't on the map and they are near main roads, too. The section on driving is incomplete in another aspects, too. There are also other failures and mistakes that I don't want to list, it would be too long to fit into a review.

So I don't suggest anyone buying this book. Try something else. This time Lonely Planet is your worst choice.

I used LP Croatia side-by-side with the Rough Guide to Croatia during May and June 2006. I only visited Southern and Central Dalmatia including Split, Hvar, and Dubrovnik.

LP Croatia is concise and had no serious inaccuracies but it lacked lots of the context, detail, and history that the Rough Guide provided. If you're just looking for places to go, how to get there, and where to stay I'd get LP. If you want more of a tour guide with lots of bios, background, art & architecture info, I'd take the Rough Guide. If I went again, I'd take both.

Pros: Good logistical information on how to get around and where sites were. Good food sections (burek is amazing) and good language/phrase sections(except that the most important words were all buried). Also, did a great job of explaining how the private room accommodations work. Provided good, practical advice on how to get the best rooms, etc.

Cons:
Maps were sometimes inaccurate--Rough Guide's were generally better. This was largely because of the lack of street signs and lots of small alleys that trick you. GPS would have been very useful.

Unusually, I think LP underrated some places--namely Dubrovnik.

Doesn't prioritize where to go or what to see. For instance, Diocletian's Palace in Split was covered in graffiti and the city had little to offer.

They need a section on "If you have to choose" between different sites and different cities that tells you which are the best sites overall for certain interests.

Bottom line: LP Croatia was a solid travel guide but it could have provided more advice to the first-time traveler.

I believe this is the first comprehensive English language guide to Croatia and has been well worth the wait. The author has put a lot of effort into the book, and I especially enjoyed the short special features in boxed text throughout the text. The history is a great guide to a complicated country. I have always been fascinated by this part of the world and I certainly am even more inspired to get out of my armchair and see it now.

My husband and I just came back from Croatia and used this guidebook religiously for the past three weeks. We thought it was just great. All of the information was spot-on and the descriptions were amusing and accurate. The author clearly loves Croatia and offers in-depth insight into the country. We particularly liked her choice of itineraries and highlights. Traveling around Croatia is so complicated that we really needed to rely on the boat information. Here again, the book didn't let us down. We checked out a lot of guidebooks before settling on this one and we weren't sorry.

Croatia is magnificent country, it possesses an endless ammount of beauty and is a destination that can blow you away with its variety of unspoiled attractions and crystal clear water.Croatia offers travelers a large variety of experiences for all tastes and budgets and is relitively untouched and not overcrowded.If your planning a trip to Europe see the Croatian coast you wont be disapionted! Those were my experiences of Croatia.

In my opinion the book is fair but does not do justice to Croatia.The history section does not give a good account of Croatias history and is misleading.Croatians are portrayed very poorly and there is an overwhelming bias against Croatia.I wont point out the many factual wrongs in the history section, but to justify my point the Bleiburg massacre of 200,000 Croatians at the end of World War 2 by Tito's Partisans was virtually overlooked and not mentioned!This is one of the most significant events in Croatias history and its not mentioned at all! Also Croatias struggle and suffering from the Serbian dominated Yugoslavia is not accuratly potrayed.

The book shows Croatia fairly well and is very informative and easy to read but is to critical of Croatia. Considering that Croatia endured 50 years inside Yugoslavia (Croatia was virtually imprisoned inside Yugoslavia) and Croatia was 1/3 occupied by Serbian and the 50 billion dollar damage the war caused it is a miracle that Croatia is were it is today.

I would recomend this book if you are interested in travelling to Croatia in the near furure.Since there is a lack of publications on Croatia this book will just have to do.I hope the authors fix their mistakes in the next edition and if they do so it can potentially be excellent.

Lonely Planet's CROATIA travel guide is worth a look for any traveler going to Croatia, although this 1st edition has its share of faults.

Information on Zagreb is pretty limited. The map of the city does not live up to Lonely Planet standards and it covers only about half of the city.

The guide itself was published in 1999 and prices have changed not too drastically, but significantly.

When it appears in its second edition, I hope the guide will have corrected this things. In the meantime, Lonely Planet CROATIA is worth getting, but it can't stand alone for the traveler headed to Croatia.

For a first edition travel guide, this book is excellent. Full of useful travel information and historical context. However, Croatia is changing massively and rapidly. It went from communism to authoritarianism to... maybe democracy this year. It went through wars and occupation and is rebuilding every day. It experienced massive migrations and refugee flows. Some of the information in this book (particularly in Eastern Slavonia) was already dated as the book went to press, there needs to be an annual update.

My wife and I used this book recently on a trip through Croatia and found it a very good mix of broad and deep, offering plenty of the details we needed for our stay in Split and drive down the coast towards Makarska, as well as great recommendations on what to do and where to go in general. We followed the book's advice when we went to the island of Brac (just off the coast near Split) for the day and visited a tiny little town on the far side of the island called Milna, and found it to be just amazing. Recommended.

As someone who travels to Croatia fequently, this book is by far the best guide money can buy. I've used other, more expensive books, but this one is the most up-to-date book I've encountered. It's also packed with TONS of useful travel information including that which is necessary for the budget travler.