67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst Guide Book to the Philippines !!!, March 10, 2004
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.
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66 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Does not live up to the Lonely Planet standard, November 19, 2004
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.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
rewrite this thing, January 13, 2005
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.
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