Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Travel Guide)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

It would nice if Amazon put kindle-specific reviews on the kindle-edition page for a book, rather than just the regular reviews for the book. Because sometimes there's a big difference. Such as for this book.

I tossed my hardcopy of the Lonely Planet guide in favor of this kindle edition. I wish I hadn't. Using a guidebook requires lots of hopping to a specific page or pages, which is not the kindle's strong suit. It's very hard to find anything quickly in the kindle edition. So hard that I'm basically finding it almost useless.

Also the maps show up so small that they are effectively impossible to read. The kindle only has one level of zoom, and it isn't enough to help.

I found this purchase useless, and if Amazon would allow me to cancel it (I don't see a way to do so), I would.

meh.

Of the four guides that I recently took with me to Thailand: Thomas Cook's, Let's Go, Rough Guide and Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet Thailand has a few areas that makes it a top contender.

Its `Bangkok' section is better organized than the other guides and its Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai coverage is superb. It has an excellent section titled, "Facts about Thailand", that introduces you to this exotic country and its section "Facts for Visitors" (Visas, money, health etc.) maybe the best out in a Thailand guide. The accommodations recommendations are reliable and normally good. Both accommodation and restaurant prices are given in Bahts (much better than Rough Guides 1-9 numbers), but because the guide is slightly dated (2003) the information is about three years old by now and you will have to adjust the prices by at least 20%.

Bangkok is a huge sprawling city, much like Los Angeles, and this guide logically separates the six regions within the city that you are most likely to visit. You will find the map, hotel and restaurant recommendations and sites closer together than Rough Guide, but neither guide makes it easy to navigate this concrete jungle.

The maps in Lonely Planet are plentiful but more difficult to decipher than in the Rough Guide's maps. Good, easy to use maps are critical, especially when you are trying to find a recommended restaurant while the 95 degree heat saps your patience, the traffic and noise assaults your senses and your frustration grows with this guide. Becuase of the tiny, small print, the small 1/3 page map that is designed to covers 5 square miles of Bangkok you turn the book 360 degrees and scream (don't work your voice will not be heard amongst the din). This is a important area that needs tweaking.

Rough Guide (see my review) does a much better job with restaurant recommendations than Lonely Planet. This guide will list a restaurant and write something banal about the place, like "has Thai food" and leave it at that - "duh". Occasionally, the guide sticks out its neck and says something risqué like; "has good food". Seldom, does the guide commend a dish to try. "Rough Guide" both tells you why they recommended the restaurant, i.e. "relaxed riverfront eatery under bamboo shelters... marinated pork or chicken", and often tells you what dish you should try, "the chef's signature green peppercorn sauce served with steak, chicken or duck." This is what good "guides" are supposed to do, guide you. Another area that needs tweaking.

If you are going to go to Bangkok, Chang Mai or Chang Rai then this guide would be my first choice. If you are going throughout Thailand and will not spend time in Bangkok then consider Rough Guide first. Finally, if you are going to do the sun and surf (Southern Thailand) and not go north of Bangkok then `Lonely Planet Thailand's Islands and Beaches' is the book to have (see my review).

You've just finished your final morning of two weeks basking on the Perhentian Islands in northeast peninsular Malaysia, and you're ready for Thailand. You'll get to the border late afternoon, giving yourself enough time to cross at Sungai Kolok and get to the first provincial capital of Narathiwat before nightfall. You've heard the BBC, CNN and your Mum talk about the troubles in Thailand's far south, but you're confident that as long as you travel in daylight and sleep in the major centres you'll be fine. After all, you've got the latest edition (August 2007) of Lonely Planet's Thailand guidebook stuffed in your pack -- what could go wrong?

Well, unfortunately a lot.

Despite having a swack of extra pages, overall Lonely Planet's 12th edition of its Thailand title succeeds only in delivering less than previous editions. While some sections, notably Chiang Mai province, have improved, other coverage drags down what should have been a far better title.

For starters, coverage of Thailand's strife-torn far south has been largely gutted. Maps of the provincial capitals have all been deleted and accommodation listings drastically cut, border-crossings are either vaguely treated or simply not mentioned. So there you are, in the very situation when you really need a guidebook -- crossing a border into an area known to have security concerns -- and the book is close to worthless. The coverage of this unstable region is far superior in Lonely Planet's previous edition, so if you're heading that way, be sure to pop into the library and photocopy the relevant sections, or refer to www.travelfish.org for maps and more detailed information. Of course it could be worse -- the recently released (June 2007) Footprint title, doesn't cover the region at all -- not even Songkhla province.

Compare this to Thailand 12's west coast border-crossing coverage: there's timetable information, costs and trip durations -- even notes on how many people a chartered boat will hold. Comparing these two sections, it's very difficult to take Lonely Planet's claim that "when we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time" at face value.

Listings
Lonely Planet has a number of overlapping books, including "Bangkok" and "Thailand's Islands and Beaches". Both of these, will probably, I'd hope, have more comprehensive coverage than the respective sections in this new edition.

Bangkok's Khao San area has just six budget guesthouses -- all of which were in the previous edition. Other examples: Mae Nam beach, Ko Samui (three listings), Ban Tai and Ban Khai, Ko Pha Ngan (one listing). On the other hand, Chiang Mai (which unlike Bangkok and Southern Thailand doesn't have it's own title) has two dozen budget listings (admittedly for the entire city rather than just one area).

While you could argue that somewhere like Khao San Rd is self-explanatory, I think a few more recommendations -- especially from among the bevy of places that have opened since the last edition -- would have been good. Bangkok does do better on its flashpacker and mid-range scene and a new section for Ko Rattanakosin, including little-known gems like Ibrik, Chakrabongse Villas and Arun Residence stands out.

Likewise when you're talking about beach bungalows you could argue "they're all the same" but the fact is they're not, and you may find yourself more than a little disappointed being supplied with a single listing for Ban Tai and Ban Kai on Ko Pha Ngan -- an area with well over 50 places to choose from. Entire beaches, including one of the best on the island, entirely escape mention. On Thailand's west coast, Ko Phi Phi's coverage pointedly avoids mentioning any of the budget haunts on the east coast of the island and instead steers budgeteers to Ton Sai village and it's immediate surrounds -- arguably the least attractive part of the entire island and certainly not the place to go if you're looking for a quality budget bungalow. Many of Phi Phi's luxury places though -- including Zeavola (16,000 - 37,000B a night) -- do get a mention, which leads to my next point.

There is a detectable shift in the focus of the book, at least regarding accommodation, with more space seemingly given over to flashpacker and mid-range places. Seeing over half a page dedicated to "Samui's top five top-end resorts" may have the old backpacker stalwarts rolling over in their hammocks, but it's a valid reflection of a tourist scene that is attracting travellers, backpackers, flashpackers and top-end-resort layabouts -- unfortunately this title will struggle to satisfy them all.

It's not all bad though.

The coverage of Chiang Mai is about as comprehensive as a guide can be.

The accommodation listings are thorough and numerous. Likewise the food, entertainment and shopping sections are all done well. Filling out the package nicely are cut-out sections for pummeling and pampering, quirky sights and markets -- should keep the flashpackers and shoppers happy.

The northeast section is also very good. Big-ticket destinations here are covered just as well as the more obscure, lesser known haunts, there's plenty of maps and some encouraging pointers to homestays dotted through the region. A long, informative, boxed text detailing the Phi Ta Khon festival is included. If you're planning significant time in Isan with this title, you'll be well served.

Maps
Thailand 12 carries 150 maps -- including 17 pages dedicated to Bangkok.

Aside from the above mentioned shortcomings in the far south, the majority of spots you're likely to need a map for are covered. The colour, countrywide map is easy to read though oddly doesn't mark the border crossings.

Photos
Thailand's a photogenic country and the selection of photos does a good job of selling the Kingdom. A 16-page full colour insert on "Thailand's Natural Wonders" succinctly covers Thailand's environmental state of affairs.

I was surprised though to see a photo of the Tiger Temple placed atop a list of environmental volunteering opportunities -- while I assume the placement is incidental, it's unfortunate given the ongoing controversy regarding the conservation "value" of breeding tigers in a stone quarry as the Tiger Temple does.

Conclusion
So if you're going to Thailand, are not going to the far south and don't plan to cross any borders, how is the book? Well it depends.

If this is your first time to the Kingdom and you don't consider yourself to be too demanding when it comes to guidebooks, then you'll find Thailand 12 to be just a satisfactory buy. Likewise, if you're happy just to be pointed in the right direction, you'll probably find it to be ok.

On the other hand, if you're a bit more demanding and you like to have a good range of accommodation recommendations to choose from, then you'd be well advised to either stick with the previous edition or consider an alternative guidebook.

I'd like to thank Lonely Planet for their complimentary copy of the Thailand 12th edition and co-ordinating author China Williams who generously spent time answering questions about the title via email.

I was really disappointed with the newest Thailand edition to the Lonely Planet series. This is a huge volume and is more a history lesson then a guidebook. Learning the history of your destination is great but that information is not necessary when carrying around a guide to find a place to eat. Many of the authors' recommendations are already outdated. The price ranges for places to eat or sleep are not accurate or sometimes not given at all. My main problem is the way this guide links the map to the text. In order to find out where a place is located, you must refer to several different pages when reading the map. Why can't the description of a restaurant also tell the map page and grid point without having to look on a separate index? Poorly designed and not easy to use when on the go. Keep this one on your bookshelf and take a smaller guidebook when traveling. I recommend the Time Out series as my favorite.

For my first trip to Thailand 10 years ago, I purchased just about every guide book available. Only one book has stood the test of time - Lonely Planet Thailand. Over the years, I have picked up new editions as they have become available. From personal experience, I would argue that the quality of my trips has increased along with the quality each subsequent edition. As tourism, culture and economics in Thailand evolves, so too does Lonely Planet Thailand, keeping pace with changing social trends, places of interest, as well as places to avoid. All this, of course, in addition to the vast body of information critical to planning where to stay, what to eat and what to do while in-country. More than a strong recommendation, this book is a must-have for any traveller to Thailand.

The 13th edition of this guide is one of the worst and most unreliable LP Thailand guides ever printed.

Much of the information in the book in unreliable, inaccurate and outdated. Lonely Planet's "expert" writers, at best, are worse than incompetent, amateur fact-checkers. The editing of this book is no better. The writing, descriptions and travel guidelines are not remotely cohesive or consistent. This book suffers from having too much half-a##ed writers, un-charming anecdotes and "personality" and zero competent editing.

Many lodging descriptions are completely bogus--it is clear that whoever wrote many of them has not visited the properties in years. Much of the contact info (phone numbers and websites) for hotels/guesthouses/etc... is inaccurate and unreliable. Example -- a hotel in Krabi described as "quite comfortable" is in reality a run-down, dirty, mold-filled, over-priced s-hole. There are at least 1/2 dozen far cleaner, far nicer, safer and significantly cheaper accommodations on the same street. It is clear that LP has not bothered to verify their information in years. What may have been "quite comfortable" 5-7 years ago is now a dump. Another example-- none of the contact info for a very popular, highly rated, new hotel on Phi Phi is valid.

Many travel/transport guidelines are ridiculously and unacceptably incomplete, inaccurate and useless. For example -- the directions on how to get to Ko Pha Ngan recommend that you take a train to Chumpon then a ferry to KPN. But there are no ferries from Chumpon to Ko Pha Ngan! There's only one catamaran that makes 2 trips a day to Ko Tao and costs 5 times more than the Raja ferry from Don Sak to KPN. Chumpon is probably the worst route, longest boat ride and most expensive option for getting to Ko Pha Ngan by boat. The other option presented in this book is to take the ferry that departs "6 times a day from Surat Thani". But here is no day ferry from Surat Thani. There is a ferry that departs at least 6 times a day from the Raja Ferry pier in Don Sak, which is 50 km east of Surat Thani. But you won't find that out until you waste time traveling to the Thong Sala pier in Surat Thani. This is a complete failure in the most basic, elementary fact-checking for one of the most popular destinations in all of Thailand. If LP can not be trusted to provide accurate information for traveling to one of the most popular destinations in Thailand how can they be trusted at all. The entire book is filled with gross failures such as this.

I have lost almost all confidence in LP with this book. It is clear that they are getting lazy, greedy and taking advanage of the reputation they have built over the years as a reliable, trustworthy source of accurate travel information.

They say the way to judge a travel guide is to use one in a city you are very familiar with. I have been to Bangkok countless times in the past 2 years and am thoroughly familiar with the city and have a strong understanding of the language. My friend visited Bangkok and I left my travel guide (Let's Go) behind in my village to lessen my load. I figured I did not need much, just a few maps and the background of the areas we would be visiting.

This book could not have been more useless. In the Army I taught map reading and land navigation and was able to get even the most directionless soldiers to pass the tests in this area. I could not make head or tails from the maps provided, in a city were I generally know the layout. The maps were either too large to provide any useful detail or too small to provide for any frame of reference. It was either getting a broad shot of the galaxy or a microscopic view of a gnat.

After the first day we left the guidebook behind and went on my knowledge of the city and my Thai language skills. For those of you who do not have either I would suggest the Let's Go Thailand book. The maps are useful and the information is laid out in a way that is easily understandable.

I have to say I found this guidebook extremely deficient. It defaults on the central obligation of a good guidebook - to provide, or attempt to proivde, vivid evocations of the character and attractions of a place to help the prospective traveller faced with thousands of choices narrow down his options and decide on where to go. The LP gave me no help at all in deciding where to go, because it quite simply utterly failed to provide any kind of description of places and locations. It's almost like the writers simply coulnd't be bothered to make the attempt.

Consequently it is virtually impossible to decide if a location is worthwhile visiting using this book. It's so frustrating to have the guidebook offer, in a very typical passage, that a town has a thriving lumber industry as the only bit of description of that town. What the....? How does this help decide if I want to go there or not? Perhaps some description of the natural beauty, character, feel, atmosphere, etc would be useful to potential visitors faced with a dizzying array of choices? Perhaps even an attempt, however feeble, to provide a vivid of evocation of a place and why I might want to visit there rather than somehwere else? But no, LP doesn't seem to think this is the function of a guidebook, where in my opinion this is nothing less than the central function of a good guidebook. The result is a dull, dry, verging on useless guidebook which is no help whatsoever on planning a trip.

I went to Thailand with the LP book and acidentally glanced at a Rough Guide in the bookstore. What a revelation! My entire trip was transformed. The RG had a fascinating section on motorcycle trouing the North of Thailand with wonderful descriptions of towns and scenery which immediately inspired me to take that trip. Using the LP I wasn't even aware of such possibilites!

I have to say you are much better off with a Rough Guide. LP has quite simply lost any edge it once had and is now a tired imitation of itself. It lacks passion, and the writing and sheer level of intelligence is far, far inferior to the RG.

The one good poin about LP is that the pratical information is indeed very well organized and presented, and quite accurate and thorough, outperforming Rough Guide in this respect.

I was disappointed with this Lonely Planet book. I bought this guidebook because it was the most up-to-date. In general, I found the descriptions of hostels and hotels and restaurants to be so skimpy as to be completely unhelpful to the reader. The descriptions of the sights was less skimpy but still unsatisfying. I also brought along a Rough Guides guidebook. While it was a few years older than Lonely Planet, its descriptions were far superior. Buy the Rough Guides instead of the Lonely Planet.

I live and work in Bangkok, and when travelling to other parts of Thailand on holiday I always take along the Lonely Planet guide. I've tried Rough, Footprint and a few other lesser known publications, but LP tends to more informative, and considerably more accurate, in fact more so than all the others combined.

Another thing, I've been buying each new edition of the LP guide since the early 90s, and can't understand the amazon user reviews dated 1999 or 2002, etc, that identify this guide as the work of Joe Cummings alone. Since the late 90s it has been a team project (with Steven Martin initially, currently with a total of four authors), as any look at the title page or About the Authors page will reveal. So if you don't like the tone, blame the whole team (or more importantly the LP editors, who no doubt play a large role in determining how this book reads), not Cummings!

One thing I did notice about the 2003 edition is that it is considerably shorter than the last couple of editions. Gone are some of the more interesting out-of-the-way destinations in the various regions. I suppose LP felt it had to cut down on the size and weight but I would personally rather see them return to a more comprehensive scope.