Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Discover Australia (Full Color Country Travel Guide)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At the outset, you have to realize that this sort of a guidebook just can't contain enough information on any particular location to serve adequately to guide a newcomer to a country as vast as Australia. Imagine trying to cram a guide to the United States -- the lower 48 states are about the size of Australia -- into 400 pages. A guide like that could give you the high spots of some of the bigger cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles -- and paint with a broad brush over vast areas of the country like New Mexico and New Jersey -- just to give you an idea of what the authors are up against.

It's very much the same with this pretty guide to Australia. The photographs are excellent, beautifully reproduced; the authors are almost all Aussies very knowledgeable about their country; and the itineraries for specific areas are excellent, based on my own travels in this fascinating country.

At the same time, much detail must be left out. One reviewer here rightfully criticizes the book for giving short shrift to the the wonderful Kangaroo Island -- only four pages -- but that is one percent of the entire book -- and at least the authors let you know that wonder exists.

That's the way I would use this book: read it over before actually travelling to Australia. Once you've decided on where you want to go, get a more detailed guide to actually make your plans. Or, use it like I did this morning: just page through it and remember what I've already seen and wish I could go again and find new discoveries.

Robert C. Ross 2010

Discover Australia (Full Color Country Guides) is a great book for someone who wants to go to Australia or has been there and wants more of an experience in terms of the best the country has to offer.

I'm planning a trip to Australia in the next year or so and have never been there. I'm looking to put together a two week vacation that will allow me to more fully experience the areas I end up choosing to visit. Since my trip will be combined with a week long volunteer project, I'll be able to get the real scoop on what to see and where to go from Aussie natives, but want a comprehensive guide that will give me some starting points.

The book contains useful information under "Things You'll Want to Know" which includes info on ATM's, currency, electricity and the like. Simple things which help you choose which credit cards to bring, how much cash and of course adapters!

Some of the things I look for in a travel guide or in my Internet searches for a country include the museums available, city tours (I love to start my time in a new city with a city tour), gardens, shopping, bird watching and animal life. This guide does detail museums and city tours for the major cities. Plus each city has the "if you only have three days, here are some highlights to see" lists.

Because Australia is so massive in terms of size and diversity, this guide has been extremely helpful in narrowing down which cities to visit based on my interests. I've been able to combine the book with Internet searching to narrow down my options even more.

And, finally, the book does include some stunning pictures. Mmmm. Maybe I'll change my mind on those cities I want to visit or just add a few more days to the vacation! Australia here I come!

My title isn't meant to be oxymoronic. It accurately describes this guidebook's ideal audience. To someone who has never visited Australia before, it offers a good selection of the country's best sights and experiences, with essential information on how to get to them and what they will cost. Also included are lots of color photographs and a selection of reasonably useful maps.

This first-timer had better not, however, be new to foreign travel, for the practical side of the journey is scanted. For example, electricity flummoxes many novices: Can I safely plug in my computer or my cell phone charger? Will I have to have a converter - or a transformer - and what's the difference between them? What sort of plug adapters do I need? Not knowing the answers can be nerve-wracking and, once in a while, disastrous. Here is the totality of this volume's advice: "Electricity: Three pin, 240 V AC, 50Hz".

The section on "Internet Access" is less terse but not much more helpful, particularly as it leaves the reader with the erroneous impression that Australia is a land of dial-up connections.

One of the traditional purposes of guidebooks is to recommend places to sleep and dine. For "Discover Australia", that function has been reduced to a vestige: a dozen restaurants each in Sydney and Melbourne, seven in Brisbane, three in Perth. Hotel coverage is very slightly better.

As one expects from Lonely Planet, the text includes left-wing political commentary. Happily, the publisher's opinions are now isolated in a potted history of Australia rather than, as used to be the case, diffused throughout.

"Discover Australia" thus deserves a bifurcated rating: four or five stars for those who need only sightseeing suggestions, one or two if "Three pin, 240 V AC, 50Hz" means nothing to you.

I used an old Lonely Planet guide for a year's stay in Italy and it was marvelous, with loads of information about major cities and small towns, festivals, transportation, etc. So I purchased this one for Australia with high hopes. When it arrived I was first dismayed by its weight. The paper is very heavy stock, great for printing color photos...which is most of the book...but not something you want to carry or even put in your luggage. Its 408 pages weigh more than the 692 of my old Frommer's.

We're going to visit three cities; Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide plus Kangaroo Island. I'd already pulled a lot of info from the Australia website to plan the itinerary. If I'd been using this book, however, I'd not have much of a trip. The Sydney section is only 42 pages long (including 4 pages of maps) and about 1/3 of the remainder is just glossy photos, some brief "highlights" of the harbor and beaches by--guess what--a harbor cruise captain and the owner of a surf school. Information that is provided is VERY skimpy. There's nothing about several of the local transportation options (ie metro and local buses) and just a line or two about the ones that are described. The description of the Harbor Bridge simply says you can choose between the over the top climb and a Discovery climb through the inner workings.

By contrast I have a 2006 Frommer's Guide that gives MUCH more detail--86 pages of more compact type and no glossy photos. Do I really need to see 1/3 page photos of a flower, water in the harbor, and an opera house close-up? Frommer's also gives many more hotel and restaurant listings and in greater detail. The Frommer's section on the opera house lists much more about the tours and ticket purchasing options as well as more details about the building.

When I looked up Adelaide in this book, there was exactly ONE SENTENCE about the city, two sights, and a short list of hotels and and restaurants. Two pages in total. Kangaroo Island got less than a page including the big photo of the seals. Frommer's gives 4 paragraphs of background on Adelaide, info about the festivals, a money-saving transit pass, and 20 pages of coverage in total. They give 9 pages to Kangaroo Island including the best time to go and info about a pass that will save money if your stay is 3 or more days. Plus lots more.

Enough griping. Bottom line: DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. Pick up a Frommer's or some other guide that actually provides needed information, not gloss. And you won't have to pack a brick in your suitcase either!

Wow! This guide is like having someone collect all the pretty tourist brochures and organizing them into a cohesive stack, keeping all the cool photos and phone numbers while tossing all the annoying adverts and coupons.

Each region has its own colour-coded brief 30-50 page section: Discover! Sydney, New South Wales, Brisbane & Queensland, Melbourne & Victoria, Central Australia, Western Australia and of course Tasmania. Each of these free-standing sections read like mini tourist booklets, peppered with colourful photos, verbiage and a handful of contact numbers (for a select few restaurants, lodgings and activities) that gets one excited about going to see and do stuff. In fact, this is a great book to just rip out the section you want and leave the rest back at the hostel/hotel.

Seemingly to make up for the briefness of each region's section, there is a section on Australian history and culture at the end along with the requisite logistics section on how to get there, temperature highs and lows, local transport, currency and such. Also at the front of this guide is a photo-studded section on Australia's 25 top experiences, a large map of the country and a handful of sample itineraries: a cool but feeble attempt at trying to make this seem like a planned guide book rather than a stack of smaller booklets bound together.

An upbeat guide for those that don't want to sit around thinking and planning too much and would much rather get out there and just do/see stuff. This is not recommended for those that like to research-to-death before traveling.

Lonely Planet's "Discover Australia" offers an exhaustive overview introduction for the first-time traveler to the Land Down Under. Well-organized, thorough, with a wide variety of interests and sites, you're sure to find many helpful travel hints here.

My first impression was that I would have preferred the volume to be a bit bigger to flesh out the lovely photographs within. That, of course, would make the book too big to practically travel with ("Discover Australia" should fit nicely in a carry-on or large purse). I'll have to get my coffee-table photo fix elsewhere, but this volume has certainly whetted my appetite.

Ordered by first by region then by several sub-genres, "Discover Australia" initially left me thinking that rather than ask what's covered by the book, it'd be easier to ask, "What's NOT covered?" Of course, as with any travel guide, it will miss the hidden gems that only locals can tell you about, but for the regular, see-the-main-sights tourist, however, "Discover Australia" should prove to be a great resource.

I love Austrailia. I have been there twice and am looking for a guide that help me find the hidden treasures the next time I am there. But this book is not it.

I feel like I am looking at an internet page. A lot of hype but very little substance.

For cities like Sydney and Melbourne, there is a lot of information but most of this information could easily be found in a hotel lobby! Not only do I want to find the main sights but those little treasures.

For the other areas information is scarce. One of my favorite places is Kanagroo Island. There is just four pages on this great nature preserve and half of them are dedicated to hotels. They don't tell you about Paul's Place - a hidden treasure that my neice found on the internet. It would be nice for locations like this to give a one or two day itinerary for the self traveller who does not want to go on a guided tour.

Maybe Austrailia is too big for a book like this and it should be broken down to the major areas but this would be useless in planning a trip!

Unlike Lonely Planet's other more traditional guide books, this was published in full glorious color. The pictures are really pretty and give you an idea of what to expect at certain places. The color maps can be pretty helpful, but I'm certain that more up-to-date maps are available at each place you visit in Australia.

As with any guide book that explores a whole country, the information contained in this "Discover Australia" book can be spotty. I like the highlights of each region supplied by Aussies; I think this helps trip planners by focusing on what are the must-see and must-do stuff. The majority of the highlights are outdoorsy activities, e.g. Bondi Beach, the Zoo, harbors and checking out rock formations, so if you're into art, theatre or any other indoor activities, you may want to supplement this guide book with other sources. Each section covers a different area of Australia. The information on accomodation and restaurants are very much distilled and is not very diverse. The hotel reviews cover a range of budgets. The internet may be more helpful resource in finding great restaurants, e.g. [...] for Melbourne spots.

This book also contains the standard travel info such as when's the best time to travel, emergency information and transport, but I particularly enjoyed the section titled "Australia in Focus" that is a primer on Australian history, culture, food & drink and family travel. For a guide book that covers a whole country, "Discover Australia" is pretty compact, which can be an important factor for light travellers. Overall, this is a helpful start for trip planning but should be used in addition to other more up-to-date sources. Although I enjoyed the full-color pictures, personally it didn't really add any utility when I planned my trip.

This book provides a good broad stroke outline of activities for all of Australia. The maps are pretty useful, however, you'll need to get bigger scale maps if you are planning to do any sort of driving. I like the references for activities to popular ones. All in all, my book got plenty of face time on my trip!

I purchased 2 other books on australia before I ordered the lonely planet one there's no comparison this 1 so much better.