Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Tanzania (Country Travel Guide)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Lonely Planet produces excellent travel guides, and their Tanzania/Zanzibar edition is no exception. I have used this book on four different trips, and found it indispensible. The guide does an admirable job describing the popular tourist stops (the game parks, Zanzibar's Stone Town, etc.), but its real strength lies in giving the details necessary to take the roads less travelled.

I have found the hotel prices in the guide to be remarkably accurate, though naturally some things have changed. The "getting there and away" sections provide options for transportation to and from cities and towns; while the range of alternatives generally stays the same, departure times and prices can change drastically. Always plan on things taking longer than you expect.

Tanzania and Zanzibar are amazing places to visit, and the Lonely Planet will give you the means to make the most of your trip.

We are a couple of divers and we decided to go to Zanzibar for diving holidays. We took the book with us and the only thing we can say is - it's a bible for budget travelers. There are some excellent recommendations about the overnights and good restaurants. The prices in the book were fairly accurate. Important thing was that it gave us a good start in bargening. The only thing this book was lacking was some more info on island pemba.

This is one of the worst editions of Lonely Planet books I've ever read.

The book is full of factual errors which probably is a result of poor research. I doubt that the researcher actually have been at some of the places, and that he has copied information from the Internet instead.

I traveled this summer in Tanzania, and ran into errors in this guidebook time and again. The Rough Guide was far more accurate, even though that book is two years older.

I can accept that phone numbers are wrong, given the constantly expansion and changes in the Tanzanian mobile phone system, but addresses should be right most of the time.

Further more, I can accept that travel times can't be relied upon as accurate in Africa, but if the journalist had actually travelled the distanses himself, he would have noticed things like:

Travel times for bus companies are given to the region, not necessarily the city it self. That can mean a lot of difference given that the regions are huge.

The slow ferry to Zanzibar does not take 3 hours as stated in the guide - however if you ask at the ticket office they will tell you that. The slow ferrys are all old freight boats with an extra deck, and they take between 6 till 8 hours on the entire journey.

Several restaurants in this edition do not exist, or haven't opened yet. Given the lack of information on the food and service I doubt that the journalist actually bothered to sit down to eat at the places mentioned in the book.

Shopping districts mentioned in the Dar es Salaam chapter does not contain the type of shops mentioned. For instance, there are virtually no curio or souvenir shops along the Samora avenue, even though the book claims there's a whole lot of them.

The research behind this book is just so bad that it can't be relied upon. Get the Rough Guide instead - it's much better!

Torstein

I was traveling with friends in Tanzania. I had the Lonely Planet and one of my friends had the Rough Guide. Lonely Planet is a good book but when it came down to the book that we REALLY found indespensible and would stay up at night reading -- the Rough Guide Tanzania won. Lonely planet is good, yes, but Rough Guide contained much more cultural information. It depends on what you are looking for. We are students and we were working in Tanzania. Rough Guide was better for the daily living and budget stuff. If you're just a tourist, Lonely Planet is perfectly acceptable.The Rough Guide to Tanzania, Edition Two (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

After having read both the Bradt and the Lonely Planet (LP) guide I can say that the Bradt guide, which is also available on amazon, is much better. Not that the LP guide is bad; in fact it provides a lot of information, which is why I give it 4 stars whereas I rated the Bradt guide 5 stars. The Bradt guide provides much more details about lodges/hotels it recommends and the presentation of information and maps are just much better

Since I'm an independent traveler, I always purchase a few tour guides when in the planning process of my next trip around the world and Lonely Planet's guides have never let me down. I've purchased Lonely Planet's tour guides for Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Peru, Ecuador and Tanzania and have yet to be disappointed with any of them. They are easy to read, straight forward and give "off the beaten track" things to do, where to stay and eat. I have only 1 complaint and this is that I feel some guides may need to be updated more often so the information is current. The Tanzania guide book gave me some excellent information and ideas that turned our trip to East Africa into a fantastic experience.

Whether you plan on doing a safari, or relaxing in the beaches of Zanzibar, or visiting the less traveled regions of Tanzania, this book provides all the useful information that you need to plan your trip or to have a more complete experience once you are there, whether you are planning to travel with a limited budget or not. The book covers Tanzania's wildlife attractions, historical sites, seldom visited places, culture, political history, food, health, maps, local traditions, etc. I didn't find any flaw worth mentioning with the book. So if you plan on going to Tanzania or are just thinking about it, this book will convince you that it is a place worth visiting, with more possibilities than you can imagine.

This book provides a lot of useful information for planning to travel to Tanzania and getting the most our of your trip when you get there.

This book is wonderful. I originally bought the East Africa LP and quickly moved on to this gem. I was teaching in Dar es Salaam and found myself using this book even after many months in Tanzi. It is a necessity - well -a very good idea to bring this along, especially if you have never been to Africa.

You will save the fee of the book immediately as you are aware of fees, know where to book for tickets along the way, and will have peace of mind being aware of "things" before you get to places. It only makes sense to carry this with you - and there is a good "general" section on Safari trips with great images. If you are spending time in the game parks in addition to this get a good wildlife guide book - if this is interesting to you. If species identification is not your cup of tea there would be no need, many safari goers are quite happy to enjoy the destination without over analysis in Darwinian styles out in the savanna - if this is the case this is the only book you will need.

Great section on Zanzibar as well - especially advice for getting past the touts as you get off the ferry near stone town.

I regularly use the Lonely Planet books for preparing for my trips and while traveling. This book covers the most popular hotels and restaurants, and it has pretty good general travel advice for Tanzania and safari.

For hiking Kilimanjaro, I like the Cameron Burns book. For wildlife reference, I like the Wildlife of East Africa book.

My only complaint is that prices get outdated very quickly, but there's not much you can do about that with a published book.

As a tour operator with Adventures Within Reach, this book is used by most of our clients. If you only have one book with you in Tanzania, this is probably the best choice.