Lonely Planet India (Lonely Planet India, 8th ed) [Paperback]

Christine Niven (Author), Teresa Cannon (Author), David Collins (Author), Peter Davis (Author), Paul Harding (Author), Mark Honan (Author), Bradley Mayhew (Author), Richard Plunkett (Author), Phillipa Saxton (Author), Sarina Singh (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet India, 8th ed | Publication Date: November 1999

This guidebook includes the low-down on what makes India tick, politically and economically, and a 32 page colour section "Sacred India", highlighting the country's religious diversity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Firmly ensconced in the budget travel canon, Lonely Planet: India has become as essential to subcontinental backpacker culture as the Himalayan hill stations, Arabian Sea beaches, and crafty rickshaw drivers it describes. Beyond the frank, thorough coverage of the country's highlights and pitfalls, indispensable maps and a snazzy full-color guide to India's religions make this sturdy tome an endlessly useful one-stop reference. Though the emphasis is on "budget" travel, there are hotel and restaurant picks to accommodate you whether your budget is $10 or $500 a day. The book's only problem is that to some degree, it's a victim of its own success--it can be difficult to get off the beaten path when every English-speaking backpacker in South Asia is carrying the same guide. Fortunately, given India's (and the book's) seemingly endless charms, there's still enough to go around. --Andrew Nieland

Product Details

• Paperback: 1264 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 8th edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0864426879
• ISBN-13: 978-0864426871
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,800,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bradley Mayhew was born in Sevenoaks, Kent in 1970 and currently lives in Yellowstone County, Montana. A degree in Oriental Studies (Chinese) at Oxford University kickstarted 20 years of independent travel in the remoter corners of Asia and a career writing guidebooks. With his classmate, he wrote the Odyssey Guide to Uzbekistan, the first guidebook to the country, in 1995. He has since written over 25 guides for Lonely Planet, specialising in Central Asia, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, China and Yellowstone National Park.

In the course of his research trips he's been arrested in the Tajikistan Pamirs, forced to make a self-criticism in Tibet, slept in a cupboard in Nicaragua and spent way too much time eating mutton kebabs across inner Asia. Bradley has also written for Insight guides and Rough Guides and has lectured on Central Asia to the Royal Geographical Society. He was recently seen retracing the route of Marco Polo for a five-hour German TV documentary (Arte/SWR), airing in 2011.

Follow his blog at www.bradleymayhew.blogspot.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it all before you go (but don't take it all with you), February 17, 2000

By 

"jvonh" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet India (Lonely Planet India, 8th ed) (Paperback)

I used the 98 edition while travelling in Sept/Oct 99 and found it extremely informative even though the prices were outdated. Prices may change overnight but 1,000 year-old temple ruins probably won't. It did seem as though every other traveler (and hotel owner and rickshaw driver...) owned a copy, yet it provided an excellent orientation to the places I visited and served as a great reference tool for further exploration.

The maps were better than anything I found locally and the cultural info was very helpful.

The book is bulky/heavy but tearing out key sections can easily solve this. I cut my book in half this way and got lots of envious stares from others lugging their entire LP or Rough Guide around and actually referring to maybe a third of it.

Get this book, get the LP Hindi-Urdu phrase book, but skip the LP travel atlas unless you want to walk across India.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Everyone's obsessed with Lonely Planet!, March 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet India (Lonely Planet India, 8th ed) (Paperback)

I was in India earlier this year and as it was my first trip out of my own country I made the mistake of presuming that the Lonely Planet guide would be the best as it is the best known. After struggling with it for a few weeks, I pretty much stopped using it. My criticisms of it would include - poor maps and outdated information on things such as banks and costs. These are not things that particulaly bothered me after I had worked out that The Lonely Planet wasn't actually a bible, but just a tool for travel. I think the Lonely Planets biggist problem is that everyone has a copy and is out there doing exactly the same thing as everyone else. In parts of India such as Calcutta, Darjeeling and Sikkim, this wasn't such an issue because there were'nt so many tourists. The hotels I stayed at were generally how they were described in "The Book" , the prices were right and the people unaffected and friendly. Sometimes I was the only westerner staying in a hotel. But the places that were unaffected were few and far between. Most places I would go the Indians were all obsessed with the power the Lonely Planet had over travellers. For example, In Agra, there has been a sceme going where a resturant will purposely poison a tourist and then get a cut from the hospital from the unfortunate victims travel insurance. This is good advice and I must admit that I didn't risk eating at any other place other than that recommended, but the Indians had taken full advantage of this and all the resturants were incredibly expensive as a result. While this is not a direct fault of Lonely Planets I would definately suggest getting a lesser known guide, such as The Rough Guide, so that you don't spend your whole trip surrounded by Lonely Planet readers.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only one book you must take it with you to India, April 27, 2001

By 

SANG-HYUN LEE (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet India (Lonely Planet India, 8th ed) (Paperback)

I cant believe how previous reveiewer criticized this book by staing "wrong map, description...etc."!!! This is not true! Those wrong reviewers must be working for other travel guide publishers or must be the ones just laid off from LP. HAHAHA

I have travelled India three times. I travelled there more than six months. I had three guidebooks with me since I was bagpacking alone. LP is the only one with exact map, right price, description..etc. LP is updated with newer editions alomst every year. SO almost everything in the book is up to dated unlike other guides. It is very informative and even fun to read.

If this is not the book you need for travelling India, there must be nothing else!