Lonely Planet Russia (Country Travel Guide) [Paperback]

Simon Richmond (Author), Marc Bennetts (Author), Greg Bloom (Author), Marc Di Duca (Author), Mark Elliott (Author), Michael Kohn (Author), Leonid Ragozin (Author), Robert Reid (Author), Mara Vorhees (Author)

Book Description

Series: Country Travel Guide | Publication Date: March 1, 2009

Lonely Planet Russia

Join the thunderous applause for the sublime ballet dancers in the Bolshoi Theatre
Perfect your banya etiquette before joining in this steamy Russian ritual
Surround yourself with majestic rugged scenery as you drive across the world's deepest lake
Feel St Petersburg's contemporary pulse by clubbing in converted stables and Soviet factories

In This Guide:

Nine authors, more than seven months of research, countless shots of vodka
All new Activities chapter and tips on how to cut through red tape to secure your visa
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights

Product Details

• Paperback: 788 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 5th edition (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741047226
• ISBN-13: 978-1741047226
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Travel > Asia > Russia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Guide for 17,000,000 Square Kilometers, November 3, 2009

By 

Marc David Miller "www.DiscoveringRussia.com-... (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Russia (Country Travel Guide) (Paperback)

So you have already seen the present (Moscow) and former (St. Petersburg) capital, and now you would like to see the "real Russia", or you have an airplane conference to attend in Kazan, or you have adopted a child from Murmansk, or you are meeting a prospective bride from Magadan (don't laugh--whenever I answer questions from people who are traveling to regions outside of Moscow/St. Petersburg, 80% are going for adoption or marriage!). There are almost no current guidebooks to regions such as Perm, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Volgograd, Crimea, Minsk, and the Far East. The 'Lonely Planet Russia and Ukraine' has the largest area coverage of any guide currently published in English.

It is also ideal for those taking a river cruise between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The coverage of the famed Trans-Siberian route is ok, although I think the 'Trans-Siberian Handbook' and 'Siberian Bam Guide : Rail, Rivers & Road' do a better job for those particular regions.

The Moscow/St. Petersburg sections are ok as well, although anyone spending more than a few days in each of those cities should look into guides that cover only those cities.

Restaurant, hotel and travel information are good, although could use more details. The history sections are adequate considering the scope of the book. Also, the twice-yearly updates at Lonely Planet's web site, although lacking in breadth and depth, provide some more timely information than what appears in the book.

Marc David Miller, Discovering Russia, New York

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs a Little More Work, August 15, 2010

By 

SF Guy (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lonely Planet Russia (Country Guide) (Kindle Edition)

A good first try for an interactive book, articles are hyperlinked throughout, with external links to some very interesting websites. On the negative side, detailed maps do not have enough resolution to read easily, and zooming doesn't help. The inclusion of the index is puzzling, as it serves no purpose as implemented. The entries do not have page listings and they are not hyperlinked, so the index is a huge list of topics leading nowhere, and at nearly ninety pages it is too large to search through easily.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, November 4, 2010

By 

tr (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Russia (Country Travel Guide) (Paperback)

My husband and I bought this book originally because we are planning on adopting a child from Russia and wanted to make sure we knew as much as possible about customs, and such prior to leaving the US, it has lots of good information.