Lonely Planet Puglia & Basilicata (Regional Travel Guide) [Paperback]

Paula Hardy (Author), Abigail Hole (Author), Olivia Pozzan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Regional Travel Guide | Publication Date: February 1, 2008

Discover Puglia & Basilicata

Dance the taranta til dawn, shuffle along with penitents and indulge in bizarre pagan festivals

Dive, swim, sail and snorkel your way around the Salento's turquoise coast

Discover Lecce: the Florence of the south without the crowds

Sip Mandurian wines, sample Italy's finest bread and olive oil and savor those sun-ripened southern tomatoes

In This Guide:

From celebrity hotels to beach campsites, LP's first edition of Puglia & Basilicata goes where no other guide has gone before

Family-friendly content for the most family-friendly of Italy's regions

Visit lonelyplanet.com for reviews, updates and traveler suggestions

Editorial Reviews

Review

For sheer global reach and dogged research, attention must be paid to Lonely Planet…' --Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2003

From the Publisher

Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travelers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travelers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
*We update our guidebooks by visiting thousands of places in person to get the details right and tell it as it is.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travelers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travelers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 1 edition (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741790891
• ISBN-13: 978-1741790894
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Travel > Reference & Tips > Guidebooks
  • #79 in Books > Travel > Europe > Italy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as I've come to expect from LP, March 9, 2009

By 

P. Branson "Jack of All Trades" (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Puglia & Basilicata (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)

I bought this book in preparation for a month-long business trip to the region.

1) I found the background information on general region to be extremely interesting if not terribly useful. Many of the generalizations are not quite as true as the book would have them seem. Others seem to be missing entirely

2) Having used the book, the most fun/interesting local attractions, while mentioned are often not highlighted in such a way to really make them stand out enough. While they are sometimes broken out in their own boxes (like the Putignano Carnival Festival), those boxes are left in with smaller towns and often not mentioned at the header paragraphs about the sub-region, and thus often not found until after the fact.

3)I the town maps to be a bit small (I parked just a couple very short blocks out of the heart of mapped part of Lecce by accident, which in the very indistinct and poorly signed sprawl of the residential area near the heart of Lecce, made for a fun scavenger hunt for my car).

Overall the book is a great planning tool if you read thoroughly, but is somewhat lacking as a quick reference guide.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars you can trust this guide 100%, July 8, 2008

By 

Helena De Vroede (Belgium, Europe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Puglia & Basilicata (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)

We got this new Lonely Planet guide just in time for our 2 week vacation last May and I can assure you : we extensively visited the Salento region, the beautiful Valle d'Ittre with the fairytale-like 'trulli' and Basilicata Matera with its 'sassi'
and always we had full and correct information about what to see, where to eat, visiting hours, etc. This guide together with Michelin map n°564 is all you need to make your visit to this part of Italy an unforgettable experience as it was for us !

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don' rely too much on the information in this book, February 24, 2011

By 

thefinleydog (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Puglia & Basilicata (Regional Travel Guide) (Paperback)

We bought this book before our vacation last summer, since it seemed to be the only book specifically on Puglia and Basilicata. We were very disappointed.

This book led us in so many circles last summer. It discussed quaint little towns, and made you want to visit them. However, there were no maps provided of most of the little towns mentioned. And, more frustrating, no places to park in these towns. So, we spent many hours driving around these towns and not stopping, because of a lack of parking.

Also, they didn't bother to tell you that restaurant reservations are essential in Lecce on a weekend night, so we wandered from place to place, until a restaurant mercifully allowed us to wait for a table. We were seated around 10:45! We started our search for dinner around 8 pm.

Get it for basic information, but don't rely too much on the specifics.