Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Taiwan (Country Guide)

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

 

 

All the other reviews for this book are for the previous edition. I'm very happy with this updated Taiwan 7th edition which came out a month ago. The two writers live in Taiwan and have added an extra focus and assembled detailed information on a range of Taiwan's attractions like hot springs, mountaineering, river rafting as well as the more well-known things like eating out, temples, museums etc. that bring people to Taiwan. At the same time, the urban attractions of Taipei and more established destinations like AliShan, Taroko Gorge, Kenting beach and other areas have been updated and more obscure areas have been added since the last edition. Despite its small size and reputation as a junkyard, Taiwan has a wealth of things to see and do and this Guide, for my money, has been successful in showing how to get the most out of it.

For the seventh edition of their Taiwan guide Lonely Planet didn't just stick a new cover on an old book. The guide has been extensively updated and includes some new places. The east coast section has been expanded with details of many of the interesting places between Taidong and Hualian as well as the expected coverage of these two cities. There is also more detailed coverage of Taiwan's islands such as Penghu and Kinmen.

There are always a few places that will get left out of any guide book. Nanzhuang and Taipingshan were two that I thought were notable for their omission. However, I don't think this is such a bad thing. It still leaves a few interesting places for the traveller to discover and adds an element of surprise. There are also a number of places listed in the book that I had never heard of but am certainly curious to visit. The Danayigu Ecological Park is one. I suggest you read the book if you want to find out more.

The coverage of hiking is great and there a range of hikes covered from easy walks that take a few hours to multi-day expeditions. I like the writing style of the with its many interesting little anecdotes.

There are plenty of maps, as is the standard for Lonely Planet guides. The map keys have place names written in English/Pinyin as well as Chinese characters. Names in the text also have pinyin with tone marks which should be useful for getting the pronunciation right.

Overall, this is an excellent guide that would serve any traveller in Taiwan very well.

For a long time, Taiwan was rather neglected by Lonely Planet, and their guide to the country used to be awful - many reviews here still refer to old editions! That has changed with publishing this edition, which is very good. Completely rewritten by authors resident in the country, it now covers diverse attractions with accurate, detailed practical information of the sort LP specializes in.
If you simply want to tour the main tourist sites of the country, aided by prior knowledge of prices and the like, this is pobably the best book to take.
However if your interest extends to exploring further off the beaten track and especially to hiking in the national parks, or would love to know more about Taiwan's culture and history, get the Rough Guide, which is even better!

Forget the negative reviews in this list...they are for the 2004 edition, which had many problems. For some reason, they've lumped the reviews for the 2004 edition in with those for the far superior 2007 edition. Many of the problems people complained about regarding the 2004 edition were addressed and fixed in this one.

The 2007 edition has excellent information about hiking, which is fitting, since Taiwan is a hiker's paradise. And there's a lot more about hot springs, of which there is a great variety, from luxury hot spring resorts to remote wild hot springs; fitting all budgets from free to bank-busting. An added innovation is the maps which include Chinese characters.

My main complaint with the book is the photos...too many of them are uninteresting, unrepresentative of Taiwan (especially the cover photo). Lonely Planet would do well with seeking out the fine work of some of the many outstanding photographers in Taiwan's expat community.

I used both this book and the Rough Guide Taiwan on a recent trip. Both are excellent, but Rough Guide is a lot more thorough. If you are staying more than a few days in Taiwan, I recommend getting both.

Good points of this book:

- Easy to find things quickly. Item descriptions point you right to the relevant map, and the maps are gridded to quickly locate what you are looking for. Keys to the symbols used are on inside front cover.

- Just about everything listed includes the Chinese name (character + pinyin) in addition to the standard western name. Anyone with some knowledge of Chinese should appreciate this.

- Diagram of Taipei Metro is conveniently located on the last color page, where it is easy to flip to quickly. This was invaluable for getting oriented in Taipei. (But check also the Taipei Metro web site, because new stations have been added since the book appeared.)

- The author often shares lesser-known sights that are favorites of his.

Shortcomings:

- Index is pathetic. When you see something on a map, it can be difficult to find where it is described in the text.

- Taipei sights are grouped by category (all temples together, all museums together). It would be more helpful to group them by geographic neighborhood.

- Could be more detailed. For many places outside Taipei, this book has only half as many pages as the Rough Guide.

For lodging, the best place to look is online sites like HostelWorld or TripAdvisor or LonelyPlanet. I consider the book listings just a starting point.

Travelers interested in the Alishan Mountain Railway should note that it has been closed by damage from a 2009 typhoon.

... but all the same this is a good guide. I used it in conjunction with the National Geographic Traveler book. The lovely photos of the NG book showed me what locations to visit, and the LP book told me roughly how to get there. I found it quite useful to use the two books together. The maps which included the Chinese characters were useful to show cab drivers, or to identify the correct bus to get on. There could have been a lot more detail about the nuts and bolts of getting around, how to use the libraries for internet access, and I agree with a previous reviewer that there needed to be more detail about Kaohsiung. Sure made the country more accessible than it would have been without it!!

I've purchased the Lonely Planet for Japan and really enjoyed the book. The Japan Lonely Planet was well organized, included useful maps, and contained useful information. Therefore, when I purchased the Lonely Planet Taiwan I similar expectations. However, the book has been fairly disappointing. I find myself constantly checking the internet to double check information contained in the book. The maps are over simplified and outdated (they won't be that useful). The telephone numbers included will also be useless. The numbers included in the books do not include the area code (imagine getting a number for a hotel without the area code in the US).

I noticed on Amazon that they released a 2011 version. Hopefully, this will fix some of the problems, but I'm a little skeptical.

Frustrating to read an entire section about a fascinating place only to discover at the end that you need your own car to go there. How many people reading this book have there own car in Taiwan?! Anyway the maps were moderately useful and it's more concise and well-organized than the Rough Guide, but neither of them are very good to be honest. Hopefully a 2010 or 2011 version will come out soon. However, if you are traveling to Taiwan, I'm sure you will love the place regardless of the poor travel books.

This is a very easy-to-follow and updated guide. Very useful for those who want to visit Taiwan specially its landscapes. I highly recommend it!

Going to Taiwant in October and I have really learned alot from reading this book. Other reviewers have differing opinions perhaps because they have travel there before, but for the Taiwan newbie there are some really helpful suggestions. Nothing beats google and actually being there but this book is a nice start!