Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Poland (Country Guide)

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

 

 

I'd wonder how much time and frustration it would take finding out all this in depth information about the country and it's attractions myself. Especially since we didn't know much about Poland in the first place. It was a true blessing having this book around, especially since many Poles at places you need it most often don't speak English or German. Only price information should need some adjustment (which might have something to do with EU membership related inflation?). I used the print which was updated in Jan 2005, but some prices already doubled!

As a Pole living abroad (but frequently visiting) I have the dual perspective of "a local" but also that of a tourist. This book is easily the best source of background information on all sites and places in modern Poland, from the well-known tourist attractions to the small villages off the beaten track. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of historical, ethnographic and cultural information about many of those places.
Thanks to this book I managed to discover some interesting places in Poland that I should have known about, if not visited before. Once I got there, I found that relying on the information in the book (especially on "how to get there" or "where to stay") proved more reliable than the information available to the visitor "on the ground". My short trip to the Jura National Park, north of Cracow, was a perfect example of a trip I would not have done if it was not for this guidebook.
Thoroughly recommended to anybody planning to spend an extensive holiday in Poland, or for repeat trips; if your travel is limited to the main cities like Warsaw, Cracow or Gdansk you may find other guidebooks, specific to those locations, sufficient.

My wife's maternal grandparents hail from Poland, so when planing a Eurpoean vacation for this summer, Poland it was. As independent travelers, we have always favored Lonely Planet travel books in the past. Once again Lonely Planet delivered the goods. Detailed descriptions of things to see & do, places to stay, and various methods of transportation. Additional internet rescources for finding more hotels than the ones reviewed. I would recommend this series of travel books to all from young backpackers to mature (myself) travelers.

Lonely Planet has been known for covering EVERYTHING in it's books. Thie one really does have a big flaw. Sites are quite OK and hotels are good too - though sometimes choices may be strange. However shopping is done dreadfully - at least in Warsaw. If your happy with the souvenirs you bought using this book, then you are quite lucky. Many shops with fine hand craft, genuine Polish hand-made are unlisted. Also shops with Jewish memorabilia, getting more popular after turbulent history tend to be missing. And when you come to normal shopping its a complete disaster! You wanna hang out in a mall or buy clothes a lot cheaper then in western Europe? Sure... Tourists and Ex-pats do it. But for sure NOT using Lonely Planet. The ever popular Arkadia Mall (biggest in this part of Europe), a place where English, German, French, Spanish and other languages are often heard as often as Polish is missing. So is the not much smaller and also popular with expats Galeria Mokotów. And what mall do tehy list? The dull out-skirt Sadyba Best Mall with a few stores, the usual fast-food joints and a few crappy stores. And it's lonely planets best tip on shopping? Come on! Almost no one goes there, except primary school trips (it's only attraction is the IMAX cinema).

I am puzzled by teh Warsaw shopping chapter. You can't come to the city and not here of Arkadia or Galeria Mokotów. If you see them, you can't recommend the crappy Sadyba Best Mall. So either someone didn't reaserch shopping at all (and just went to SBM) or Lonely Planets standards are dropping and the choice was made in some different dark ways. I just hope the ownership was not an issue. SBM is the only American mall. Arkadia is European, Galeria Mokotów - Jewish and most others French... What other thing could have provoked such a choice?