Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Philippines (Philippines, 7th ed)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Im an Australian living fulltime in the Philippines and travel extensively as I'm a realtor selling islands & beaches here. Do not waste your money buying this book. Firstly, it is a second rate copy of the previous editions written by Jen Peters. You are better of buying his "Philippines Travel Guide" also available on Amazon.

Secondly, its full of so many errors and danger warnings that I'm suprised anybody would come here if it were really true. For instance they write that Palawan is dangerous based upon a bomb being found at the airport. The bomb was in fact a defunct WWII hand grenade which was found in the grass at the edge of the runway, hardly something designed to kill tourists. It warnings about danger in Palawan are COMPLETELY wrong in every instance. I live there and crime and danger are almost non-existant. Yes the Abu Sayeff kidnapped people from a resort, but they were from Mindanao on the other extreme of the Philippines and there has not been 1 single incident since then .. 5 YEARS AGO!

El Nido, one of the best places in the Philippines see EL-NIDO.NET The authors came for 1 day and how can the possibly have researched a whole town in 1 day? The write that the trip from Puerto to El Nido by road is 14 hours, when in fact it is now only 7 hours and half of that on the new concrete highway.

Yes, there are dangers in the Philippines, but I feel safer here than living in any western city. Provided that you follow common sense you wont have any trouble here. This is one of the most under-rated tourism spots on the globe, exactly because of lame travel books and stupid travel advisories from overseas embassies.

Do yourself a favour buy the Jens Peters Guide and ignore whatever the Lonely Planet Guide says.

I love Lonely Planet travel guides. The pithy been-there-done-that tone and insider information is invaluable. Every where I travel, I take along an LP guide. My recent trip to the Philippines was no different, but I cannot recommend this travel guide to anyone. The LP Philippines guide simply does not live up to the standard.

The historical information is biased and slightly anti-American. The authors go out of their way to make anti-American comments throughout the historical section, while saying little or nothing about the historical atrocities committed by other nations in the Philippines (Japanese death march anyone?). The authors clearly feel that is their duty to inform the world that the United States is an empire building, bumbling, inept nation. I found the condescending tone and political prejudices personally offensive.

Secondly, I felt like the guide was written like a research report. There is so much that isn't reflected in the guide. We hired a taxi or van (with the driver) for about 2,000 pesos and hit all the tourist areas for the entire a day, in Bohol, Cebu, and Davao (note: it is expected you feed the driver and he eats with you or at another table). Depending on how you negotiate, the rate can go as high as 5,000 per day for an air conditioned van and driver. This guide would have you waiting for taxi's or navigating Jeepney routes all day.

In general, the travel information is adequate for the northern islands, with some notable exceptions. If you plan on visiting Mindanao, find another travel guide entirely. The authors are simply ignorant of the political situation in the Philippines, and the section on Mindanao is filled with inaccurate travel warnings.

The information about Mindanao and Davao are almost non-existent. If you are going to visit Mindanao, I would urge you to get another travel guide. After spending time in and around Davao, I began to wonder if any of the authors actually visited Davao, or did their exploration over the telephone.

The information in Manila is incomplete. I was amazed at how little information was available on a modern city of that size.

Surprisingly, the information about Cebu and Bohol, was more or less correct, but the price information was totally out of whack on panglao island on some of the resort hotels.

I was recently in Indonesia for several months for work, and I could not thank Lonely Planet enough for a wonderful job that is the Indonesia guidebook, which we referred to as The Bible in the course of our travel. When I came back home, I bought the Philippines guidebook because I was curious how they did it. I was so disappointed! The inaccuracies and omissions were horrible. One appalling omission: arguably the Philippines biggest and most colorful festival, the annual Sinulog in Cebu, is nowhere mentioned in the book. (I'm telling you guys planning to go the Philippines, this book could have been a lot thicker). And the worst part of reading this guidebook, you get the sense that as if the writers hacked their way through the archipelago to write this. Unlike in the Indonesia book wherein the writers sound like they truly loved the places they covered and have in fact spent some time in the places to be able to write about them accurately, in the Philippines guidebook it seemed that they finished it just to get over it, without passion and care. (Although I have to admit, Manila was amply covered). I suggest you still get this book for some practical tips, but for the attractions themselves, you could visit the website of the Philippine Department of Tourism (www.tourism.gov.ph) to complement what's written in this book.

I have read lots of criticism of the Lonely Planet Philippines guidebook but I feel much of it should be disregarded by the first-time visitor to the Philippines. When one is planning a trip to the Philippines, especially if the traveler has not been there before, what one needs is qualitative advice, help in figuring out where it's worth going and where not to bother with. In this, Lonely Planet is excellent, perhaps the best of all the guidebooks. It will give you good advice about which places are worth visiting and which are not of much interest. If you've never been to the Philippines, you need frank advice about these things. As you spend time in the Philippines (I live there full-time) you may make your own judgments, but I have found Lonely Planet's advice to be quite good.

There is no question that Jens Peters' Philippines Travel Guide offers far, far more detail than does Lonely Planet; many more detailed maps, more complete listings of accommodations, transportation details and so forth. No other guidebook comes close.

I live in Iloilo City. I believe Lonely Planet's well-written Iloilo City narrative conveys the spirit, paints a true picture of the place in a way that allows the trip planner to decide if he or she should even include a visit to Iloilo City. For the trip planner this is more important content than extensive details about bus terminals, ferry links and so forth. Once you're here you may wish for the detailed information that Jens Peters' book gives.

That's why, in my opinion, there really is no single best Philippine guidebook. For the person on their first trip, Lonely Planet offers plenty of information and advice in a compact format. It is in need of an update.

I'm an American and have read complaints of my fellow citizens that the Lonely Planet guide is "anti-American". I suspect it may seem so only to those who are not familiar with some of the sadder episodes in the history of American involvement in the Philippines; the brutal crushing of Philippine independence, imposition of decades of unfair trade rules, our unwavering support for the Marcos regime so we could keep our Philippine bases and so forth. It would be better if the Lonely Planet's jabs should inspire some reading and soul searching rather than flag-waving. Stanley Karnow's "In our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines" would be a good start.

The Philippines is a big place and the plane is the best way to get around. This is particularly true as most visas are for only 21 days. Manila outside of Makai is a depressing tgown, Ermita particularly as poor families go there in the hope of begging from tourists. Quiapo of black statue and pirated videos fame is best avoided at night. Pagsanjan, Baguio and other nearby tourist spots are easily reached under your own steam. For Negros, Mindanao or Cebu, a plane is best and LP is worst.
Places like Mindanao do not get many tourists and this is evident in the friendliness of the people. Caution is needed there as kidnappings are a popular revenue earner and bomb explosions are not unknown. However, I feel that LP again sells short here as the information is sketchy. To take Davao as one example: it is littered with cheap hotels from 100-300 pesos near San Pedro Cathedral and there are plenty of middle class hotels around Illustre Street that are much better than Sunny Point Lodge and El Gusto Family Lodge and Royale House, all dumps that LP recommend. Galleria in Illustre Street is a quantum leap above htem and is similarly priced.
The book has too much trivial padding and too little hard facts. LP is simply too big an outfit to do the serious research a modern streamlined tourist book needs. This probably explains why they are branching out into coffee table books and the like. There is nothing in htis book that a few good maps and a visit to a tourist office will not improve.

While it would be difficult to rate this edition as completely useless, it certainly is quite a disappointment from previous editions. The last two editions of Lonely Planet's Philippine Guide Book have been an mish-mash of out-dated and incomplete information. There is just too much information that is not accurate to list them here. But for instance, the Centrepoint Hotel which has been shut down since 2000, is listed as still open for business as of 2004! The information regarding hotels and restaurants in Baguio City is both incomplete and biased. And La Trinidad is not even mentioned any more! Also, the information about resorts on Panglao island are just wrong and incomplete. How can the publisher's at Lonely Planet call this information current or up-to-date? Did the contributors visit recently the places they wrote about? I literally walk through places in the Philippines with the book in hand noting any discrepencies as I go. I have my pages filled with notes!

Also, this edition has many instances of a strong social or political bias in the writing regarding several places in the Philippines. I don't want a political diatribe, I'm interested in accurate information about getting around the Philippines!

This is a total re-write of the previous 6 editions. This is usally a good thing, but I thought the previous author, Jens Peters had a keen insight to the types of things the traveler who would purchase a Lonely Planet guide was looking for. I found the new edition to be much less informative and interjected the writers opinion a little too much in some areas and not enough in others. For example, on Angeles City the writer basically said not to waste ones time there and that only middle aged Australian or European men would want to visit there. My wife and I regually visit there to buy quilts and trek to Pinitobo, not to visit the bars. But we do not judge people for where they visit. The hotel and restaurant reviews seem to been scaled back also. I am taking my 6th edition with me on my trip.

I am just returning from a 3 week journey thru the Philippines, during which I have used this guidebook intensively. In my opinion this is the best guidebook available for all independent travelers. The Rough Guide for instance has less practical information.

However, I was a bit disappointed about the level of detail. For example for Palawan, many descriptions are rather pointers and leave a lot of room for further exploration. Other information needs an urgent update (regarding prices, quality of service, better hotels for less are available... ).

For instance for the town of Sagada: one burial cave with hanging coffins is only accessible with a guide, since the access is locked; on one recommended hike up to a mountain top "with beautiful views", there is no watch tower anylonger since a long time...

This is astonishing, since the latest version has been published in 2006!

Despite a new batch of authors, the listed places were almost a direct lift of Jens Peters' work (including the ommission of Bulacan). What is different is the condescending way it is written. After reading the guidebook, you would think the Philippines is there with Afghanistan, Liberia, Rwanda and other wartorn countries. Although there are dangers, the risk level in Manila is about the same as any other major city in the world.

This guide was a total disappointment. I have never been a fan of Lonely Planet guides but since they are popular you can get them cheap second hand. I always end up taking one with me wherever I travel but this is the first one I threw away because I didn't want to carry the weight around.

If you have no guide and found mine in the trash it may be worth having but if you are planning a trip and want to buy a guide, this isn't it.

Coverage is lacking, prices are wrong, recommendations are out of date. I honestly don't know how anyone could have been to the places I visited and write the coverage supplied in the book.