Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Thailand

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

 

 

Since 1987 I have been buying each new edition of the Lonely Planet Thailand travel guide. Back in the 1980s, this was the only worthwhile travel guide to Thailand, but Lonely Planet and Joe Cummings are clearly resting on their laurels. There is very little new material in each new edition that comes out every few years. Now, in 2002, there are lots of new and better
guidebooks out there. I can recommend Insight Guides, Rough Guides, and DK travel guides, to name only a few good ones.
Joe Cummings has been the main author of the Thailand Travel
Guide for over two decades. He is also the author of many other
travel guidebooks published by Lonely Planet. The problem with his books is that he is not excited about travel, and this feeling comes through in his guidebooks. He is an expert on Asian art history, and I think that it would be more appropriate if he wrote books specifically about this subject, instead of travel guides for the general public.
To get a good feeling about the kind of writer that Joe Cummings is, I would strongly recommend that you also read through the reviews of his Travel Guide to Laos, which is also
published by Lonely Planet.

I was surprised to see that this revision contained very little additional or revised information. During my travels up north, for example, I found in several cases that certain lodgings that had been shut for several years still appeared in the "new" edition. Coupled with other dated or inaccurate information, it appears that the authors actually visited and researched few of the locations that were off the beaten track. It is almost as though Lonely Planet have cornered the travel book market for Thailand, and there is little incentive to put a great deal of effort into the new revisions, since it appears that nearly everyone going to Thailand buys the LP guide anyway.

I recently completed a trip through India, Nepal, Thailand and China, and used Lonely Planet guides for all four countries. They all had their ups and downs, but I thought the Thailand one was the best, by far. First it was the most accurate, that is the info was closest to what I actually encounted while travelling around. And second it had the most evocative and confident prose. One could really sense the authors' strong affinity for the country. Like another reviewer wrote, Cummings doesn't talk down to his readers yet he doesn't pander either.

I felt very much as if I had my own personal guide leading the way with the Thailand book. The other three seemed more like compendia of information gathered without regard to any central zeitgeist.

The Pattaya reviewers must have tourist businesses in that city! The authors seemed very even-handed in their treatment of the city nonethess. Furthermore 12 pages on any destination seems plenty to me, however, so I don't understand tte complaint.

I also used LP's Thai Phrasebook and found it very useful.

Some of these reviewers work for other guidebooks; these guys are pretty unscrupulous, as their guidebooks reveal.

Joe Cummings wrote the Lonely Planet guides to Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos. His insight into the societies and politics is unsurpassed, and I recommend his guidebooks for that reason alone. (Sometimes LP authors are a little condescending; Joe is not at all. This is important to me.) However, I had the old guide and I recommend you get this newer one (it came out while I was gone).

I didn't give it five stars just because, for Christ's sake, it's a guidebook, not War and Peace.

My friend and I took the Lonely planet and the Let's go travel book with us to Thailand. We found Let's go a lot easier to use. Lonely planets' index was useless causing time wasted while hunting through the book looking for info. Let's Go Thailand had better maps and was easier to follow all around.

Sometimes, I think Lonely Planet has become so popular on the backpacking set that no one even questions its substance.
When I was in Thailand, people referred to this as their "Bible", an incredible overstatement. It isn't that the information was wrong, just incomplete when it seemed to matter.

I think there are other guidebooks that offer better information, even though budget travellers are made to believe it is the only series for them. Shop around before you buy this.

Lonely Planet Thailand has just about everything you need to know about Thailand, and then some. A great book if you plan on living, visiting, or just learning about Thailand. It is limited on the pictures, but makes up for being the book having the most information on Thailand that I have had the chance to read. I used this book frequently and carried it with me everywhere, but it was no match to me and the harsh heat of Thailand. The book's binding glue gave, and I was left with sections falling out and a pretty cover. I still use it though, because of its tons of information!

I've used a number of Lonely Planet guides, but this one is clearly the best. Joe Cummings has a deep understanding of Thailand, not only the good parts, but the ugly sides as well. For travelers going to south-east Asia for the first time, the chapters covering Thai culture, etiquette, and customs are vital. This guide is also an excellent source of very accurate information on finding accomodations and getting from place to place. This kind of info is extremely valuable especially for travelers in Thailand, where it is not always easy obtainable from local sources. Too many locals try to make a living overcharging and ripping off tourists and are too often the wrong people to talk to. All this makes Joe Cummings' guide indispensible for getting by and getting the most out of your trip.

I had the 8th edition in my first travel, and I couldn't avoid to but he 9th for my last travel to thailand. A very updated and complete guide that leads you to one of the most marvellous countries of the SEA. Story, geography, warnings, food information and even a quick guide to the red-district of bkk. Another LP success.

I agree with some of the other customer review that this "guide" is far from one of the best. The information is sometimes wrong (unfortunately at the most inconvenient of times). In addition the book is hardly a "guide". The walking tours, for example, give you little information and simply plop you at a site. This is more of a handbook to accommpany a map. The book seems to inspire the kind of tourism where one looks, but does not realy try to understand the culture around you. The worst part about this book is that it is not arranged well. Each area you visit is arranged by "activity" like accommodation or food. This is particularly annoying in the Bangkok section, where one has to constantly flip from section to section in order to figure out anything about where you are in the area of town you are visiting. On the positive side, the recommendations of accomodation are decent. Overall though, I recommend to get another guide. Lonely planet has gone lazy.