Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Wales

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I usually get both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides for my trips, and generally both are good. In this case there is no comparison, and I would recommend just getting the Rough Guide. It's 585 pages compared to Lonely Planet's slim 332 and contains much more detailed information. The fourth edition of the Rough Guide (May 2003) is even less expensive! And where Lonely Planet usually wins, in color photographs and maps, the Rough Guide has at least caught up. I do like Lonely Planet's giving phone code and population for each city/town/village, but that alone doesn't make it worth carrying around!

The plethora of eateries and places to stay, more than the sights, shops, and ambiance of much of Wales, permeates these pages. You get less of a sense of why to visit so many of the places rather than where to sleep and munch when you get there. This emphasis on the practical, of course, makes this an essential reference for any traveller. Yet, I would supplement it with cultural reading and research before planning a vacation, for too often too little of the reasons to go to one place rather than another are lacking in this Lonely Planet guide.

Extra credit, however, for stimulating, if too brief, introductory material at the start that places as marginalia recommended books and websites (inevitably some of the latter being puffed up as better than they actually are regarding their depth). Too often in many guides, such lists are appended rather than featured prominently. All in all, a helpful nuts-and-bolts guide to where to go and what to do, but as I mentioned, the why will be better found in other books and guides for the newcomer.

Lonely Planet has a tradition of delving into regions that most other guidebooks give only a passing glance, and "Wales" is a perfect example. Most guidebooks lump Wales and England together (ask the Welsh how they feel about that), which is unfortunate if your travels are concentrated only on Wales, as ours were. Complete, useful, and a bit irreverant, as most LP guides are, if you are planning a trip to discover only the magic of Wales, and not Great Britain as a whole, you need this book.