Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania (Scandinavian and Baltic Europe)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The best thing about this edition is its stunningly beautiful cover. It goes downhill from there.

The previous edition (was it around 1995?) was really, really very good; ahead of everyone in the business. I wrote a glowing review at that time. Since then, the countries have moved on at an amazin pace, but LP did not manage to catch up.

Cultural information is still good (and that is the area where fewest changes were needed). It is not as good with practicalities: the book is full of small inaccuracies - money, costs, payment options, transport information all suffer from lazy, complacent research.

Another sad fact is that the authors seem to draw upon their one-off impressions: waiters tipping themselves by not giving you the change, what's that about? Credit cards accepted in "main cities and towns" - well, hello, when did you last go to any of the countries? These things go on and on.

As for "Getting There" information, one wonders which planet are Lonely Planet researchers living on. Has anyone told them about the Internet? About cheap offers from the airlines? How long can continue with their ridiculously irrelevant drivel about bucket shops and courier flights?

A good thing that can be said about this Lonely Plant is that it is not of trademark "bleeding-heart" variety and that anti-American propaganda still has not found its way into it. You will have to get the Iceland guidebook if you want some of the most bitter, biased and unwelcome LP campaigning.

Overall, it seems like Lonely Planet is cutting costs, and the most recent thing that they have chopped off is proper research and verification. This is unfortunate, for the start was really good.

In common with our Lonely Planet publications, the book is extremely strong on research and honesty; the latter sometimes can border with cynicism, but then I do not see anything wrong with this. It is perhaps a good idea to have realistic expectations.

For getting around, lodging and day-to-day needs, the book is superb (although upon arrival, you will also want to buy one of locally published "In Your Pocket" guides - these remarkable and inexpensive magazines are in the league of their own).

Unless you already know a lot about the history and spirit of the Baltic states, you may long for some more pictures and articles where timetables and opening times are NOT mentioned. In this case, Baltic States by Insight Guides can be recommended as a supplement - but by no means as a substitute.

The Baltic countries, which do not have a streamlined and shrink-wrapped tourist industry, are a destination where a Lonely Planet guide is needed, whatever your budget. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are friendly and well-developed, but even premium-paying customers can seldom expect to be steered through their holiday or business trip without a bit of understanding how things work. This book is a perfect tool fitting this purpose.

I am a fairly frequent visitor to Vilnius, and can confirm that this is by far the best guide to Vilnius and the rest of Lithuania, whether as to culture, history, or current attractions. (Leaving aside, of course, the invaluable Vilnius in Your Pocket which you should buy at the airport). I haven't been to Tallin since 1993, but the Estonian section seemed very good too. The Vilnius section of the competing Let's Go Guide to Eastern Europe is riddled with errors.

In May and June 2000 I used this book to travel through Estonia and Latvia. I found it to be an awesome guide through the area. The people who wrote this book clearly spent a lot of time in the region and did a lot of research. It is geared toward the independent traveler and includes all sorts of detail that cannot be found in other travel guides. It includes information about Internet access while traveling and provides addresses for relevant Web sites. It's the bible for Baltic travel.

Note: some of the listings, particularly in smaller towns, are a little bit out of date. In Haapsalu, Estonia every restaurant listed was now closed. But things change quickly over there.

I enyoyed reading this excellent guide for visitors wanting to visit the Baltic countries for the first time. I appreciate the attempt to include web site addresses.

A major disappointment. I bought this book expecting useful information on travel between the three Baltic Republics but found virtually nothing of value. The book does devote a half page to Trans-Siberian train travel with mention of side trips to Lake Baykal and Mongolia. Figure that one out. Most of the "Getting There and Away" has to do with getting to the individual Republics from Europe and other parts of the world and even a lot of this is out dated. It seems that much of the book is cut and paste and lacks continuity between the various pieces. This book is need of a complete overhaul. Sorry to say, it's better than nothing, but not by a significant margin.

As usual, Lonely Planet guides give the most detailed information on the "nuts and bolts" of travel (bus and train instructions, locations and practicalities.) We found this particularly useful in a region where we did not share a common language with the people.

However, tourism to the Baltic region boomed in 2004 with these countries' entry into the EU, making the book's hotel listings completely inadequate. I don't fault the authors/editors for not anticipating the boom, but rather comment that, for example, with only 3000 hotel rooms in Vilnius a guidebook now needs to list a lot more hotles so visitors can hope to get one of those now-coveted rooms!

The other drawback of this book is common to most other Lonely Planet titles: the information on cities, buildings, monuments, etc., is very dry (lacks color) and is overly terse. For such information, I have come to enjoy Rough Guides which usually include enjoyable walking tours of the major tourist areas.

I've used this guide to travel from Estonia to Lithuania via Latvia, and I can assure that the coverage of those countries is absolutely great. The stories included in the book are simply juicy drops of culture, and surely they capture your interest and push you to get more deeply in the history of those sites you are visiting. No matters where you go, you will find the essential information and much more than that. This guide worth the money.

This guide beats other travel guides for the baltic region by far. It is up-to-date, gives vital information for long-term stays and even points out the "hidden" places and hot spots of Tallinn, Riga and the other major baltic cities.

I found the Lonely Planet Estonia Latvia & Lithuania book very helpful on my first trip to Lithuania. Six women traveling, we felt very safe, the maps were well written and made our daily planning easy. Time distances on the bus were accurate. Information on customs made us feel more at ease. We looked for relatives because my grandmother left Lithuania 100 years ago and found them. A bus trip to the city she was from, visiting the Tourist Information Center(as was listed in the book), an English speaking person in the office and we asked for a phone book which listed two phone numbers with my grandmother's last name. Wow, thank you Lonely Planet.