Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Hawaii (Regional Guide)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I rely a lot on Lonely Planet guides, and I'm sure the printed version of this book is fine. But the Kindle edition for this book is a big disappointment. I downloaded it to the Kindle app on my iPhone. The table of contents is an incomprehensible list of subsection headings, not divided by chapter -- so, for example, if you're looking for a list of places to stay in Maui, there is no obvious way to find this information. And the chapters themselves contain no maps or other graphics, just page after page of type without clear headings. It's a shame they didn't just copy the printed version, page for page, leaving nothing out, including graphics.

My husband and I purchased this in preparation for our honeymoon to Kauai and Maui. It was our first time visiting Hawaii, so we needed a lot of background to select what islands we wanted to split our time between. The itineraries LP provided helped us narrow it down based on our planned activities (snorkeling, hiking and camping). The text integrates a healthy dose of trivia with each bit of logistics, which kept the drives especially interesting. The food recommendations managed to peg some real gems (such as the affordable and delicious pizzeria in the generally unaffordable town of Wailea (Maui), the surprisingly delicious and frequently visited Monico's Taqueria in Wailua (Kauai), and the very fresh Koloa Fish Market (Kauai). The lodging recommendations were reliable, though we booked too late to stay in most of the small hotels and cottages ("top picks") and mostly split our time between camping and staying at large resorts. We relied heavily on the guidebook's descriptions to decide which beaches to hit and were happy with the comments on water safety and snorkeling suggestions (we even managed to see sea turtles!).

I can't help but look at a Hawaii visitor guide and check out whether my favorite eateries, locations, and activities are included. This one has a lot, but it covers all the Hawaiian Islands that visitors may, well, visit! That's a lot of material for one book to cover if its intent is to be complete. There are island-specific books that give more info (for example, the "revealed" series), but this one is darn good. It certainly focuses more on the activities for the low budget traveler than most do.

I know Oahu better than the other islands, so how accurate is Lonely Planet's Hawaii? It's pretty good. There are so many eateries in Honolulu than many are not included. Maybe it's good that you will be steered away from my favorites! Seriously, I like The Shack in Hawaii Kai, Island Manapua in Manoa, and Volcano Joe's Island Bistro across from the UH campus for some delightful vegetarian [EDIT: Volcano Joe's is no more...]. There's the Xcel outlet store in Haleiva, BBQ in Wahiawa, super diving off Makaha, and a less exploited trail and waterfall in Lyon Arboretum, right next to the heavily-used Manoa Falls trail.

There were some favorites included. Willows is a buffet treat in Makiki, Deep Ecology in Haleiwa is a very pleasant and knowledgeable dive shop, and the Honolulu Zoo, although okay as zoos go, has its Wildest Show in Town summer music series every week (only a $2 donation requested... cheapest deal in Waikiki).

This isn't a bad choice for a guide book if you are only going to take one book. Nothing beats asking a local, however. Be friendly, and show aloha to the residents and to our special places. Don't litter, and pass a site by if it looks too crowded. There are plenty of things to see and do.

Mahalo.

LP always delivers... great info as always! My girlfriend and I already booked a unique B&B we would not have found without the guide.

I'm a huge fan of LP wherever I go--the letdowns are few and far between. According to my bookshelf, this was my 10th guide purchased/used and it continued to live up to its reputation. If I remember right, few accommodations were listed in the Big Island's Puna district, so I had to take some big chances there. Otherwise, it contained all I needed to know and really helped me through the trip. The few disappointments I had were entirely my own (such as not checking distances between cities or hotel and city).

I purchased this book for my mom before her vacation to Hawaii. I later found out that she already had a guidebook, but still used this one because it was so comprehensive. She really enjoyed learning about the culture, people, and best places to visit (which were luckily already on her itinerary) before she landed on the islands.

What can I say? You can't go wrong with a trip to Hawaii and this is
one of the best guides for the islands. Enjoy!

Book arrived in good condition to Mexico in 2 weeks, faster than what I was told (1 month)

Before one can embark on a trip to a location they've never been, they must do some research on the location, the surrounding area and plan out all of the sights to see and activities to do. A quick trip to the bookstore will yield endless results of travel guides all offering the same information, but the question becomes which one to get. Lonely Planet is the perfect set of travel guides for any economical traveler including students, families and even seniors looking for their next getaway. According to its website, Lonely Planet was founded with "a beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket, and a sense of adventure." It's that same founding spirit that makes Lonely Planet the perfect guide for students and young travelers who just want to get out and explore what the world has to offer them. Lonely Planet does an excellent job at preparing trips for the economical travelers so people can spend less time enjoying their trip than worrying about their wallet.

The front of the guide is covered with one picture to represent the location, Hawaii has a sea turtle and London has a city scene. On the inside cover of each guide is a quick reference guide that provides a rundown of every piece of useful information travelers could need while on vacation and also shows you how to use the guide. This resource is followed by a few maps of the destination which could possibly be the only color artwork in the guide. As readers continue flipping through the guide they will stumble upon a brief history of the destination they plan to visit.

Lonely Planet is the perfect guide for travelers who are looking to learn a lot about the place they're traveling to complete with suggestions on places to go and things to do. In addition to the background history of the destination found in the beginning of most guides, but sometimes the back, the writers continue to sneak some history in as you move through the destination. In addition to providing historical information, Lonely Planet also provides very useful information about how to get around using public transportation, where to find medical facilities and all of the normal facts one would expect from a travel guide. However, these facts don't just pop out of the guide at the reader, as travelers read through the guide, they will find the useful information they are looking for specific to each area of the location they are traveling.

The fact that the review is text heavy should not scare away readers from Lonely Planet. The writers at Lonely Planet do an excellent job of making the guide easy to read and paint a beautiful picture for the mind with their vivid blurbs about the things and places they suggest. In fact, the writing is so descriptive and alluring readers could take a vacation in your mind while reading the guide. One Hawaiian suburb's description begins, "with its marina and picturesque canals surrounded by mountains, bays and beach parks ..." which demonstrates how easy the text is to read.

The bulk of the guide is full of suggestions of activities to do, places to visit, and restaurants dine at as you travel on your trip. For example, in the Hawaii guide as readers travel through the islands the Lonely Planet gives them an overview of the island and any general information travelers may need to know. Lonely Planet also makes suggestions of places travelers might want to visit, places to eat and of course places to stay with an indication on how much each of these places might cost. Meal suggestions run as low as $6 and accommodations as low as $65 a night while most suggestions in the guide run between $100 and $300 a night. The Lonely Planet serves as a pocket travel encyclopedia for the islands of Hawaii.

The London guide is full of more pictures (in color) and is less heavy on the text. This particular guide might be better suited for use around children who may enjoy the colorful pictures. However, the London guide still offers the same great suggestions and information as the Hawaii guide, it's just accompanied with better and more pictures and a pull out map one can take along the journey.

At first glance, it may seem like Lonely Planet is for everyone. Don't be mistaken, it is not. While it is an excellent guide, if readers are not willing to do a little bit, more like a lot of reading they may want to consider using a different guide for their trip. Pictures of the guide's destination aren't heavily used throughout the guide and if pictures are shown within the guide, they are usually in black and white print which doesn't help to show off the destination to travelers. For example, all of the maps in the Hawaii guide are black and white and although it's not imperative for a map to be in color, it may be easier to read and become more helpful to the traveler if it's in color. In addition to bland maps, the bigger guides lack useful maps for travelers to use as they peruse the unfamiliar territory. Lonely Planet may also be more helpful to travelers if the writers did more to review places instead of writing quick descriptive paragraphs about each place they suggest. After each location or activity mentioned in the London guide, there is a 1-3 sentence description about the place or activity which doesn't really help the traveler know if that is somewhere worth going or not.

Lonely Planet offers guides for destinations any traveler's heart could possible desire, even Antarctica. Their guides also offer great suggestions of things to do complete with advice from the locals and at around $20 for each guide it's perfect for the economical traveler, including students and families looking to fully immerse themselves in the location they plan to visit.