The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia [Paperback]

Rough Guides (Author)

Book Description

Series: Rough Guide Travel Guides | Publication Date: October 24, 2002

This guide covers nine countries: Brunei; Cambodia; Indonesia; Laos; Malaysia; Singapore; Thailand; Vietnam; and the Philippines, plus the Chinese-administered territories of Hong Kong and Macau. There is exhaustive practical information, including coverage of overland routes and border crossings, visa requirements and border transport. Locations range from vibrant cities to remote beaches, with information on the best palces to stay, eat, drink and party.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Written and researched by a team of 22 contributors, including many established Rough Guide authors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1136 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 2nd edition (October 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858288932
• ISBN-13: 978-1858288932
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,520,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Accurate and Well Designed" Guide to Southeast Asia, April 4, 2004

By 

zopak (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia (Paperback)

I spent March '04 doing a whirlwind tour through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia with the Rough Guide book as my bible. Traveling as a solo woman, it provided me security and companionship. Although not 100% accurate due to changing environments, it's pretty close. I planned all my trips including tourist sites, guesthouse stays, restaurants, and shopping with the book.

The book is planned out intelligibly starting with overview advice including top recommended sites in the region and then proceeds alphabetically through the countries. Each country section first highlights top sites and provides great overviews including well highlighted logistical requirements (visas, transport, air departure taxes, etc) and concise information for the top cities including maps with the tourist sites and reviewed guesthouses and restaurants all clearly marked.

Whereas some travelers enjoy traveling ad lib sans guidebook, they regretted not having the price information on hand. In this regard, the Rough Guide was excellent in letting you know accurate fares for tourist activities including, for example, the fair price for motorbike rides on the Hue mausoleum tour and each of the associated entrance prices. This information is important as most transactions require haggling. It also warned against common ruses like being told falsely in Bangkok that some of the main sites are closed.

The only thing I found lacking was that there were no timeframes mentioned for each of the suggested tour activities. This was only a problem for me because I had a compressed schedule to see all four countries. However, the longer I traveled, the better I was able to gauge the time I expected to visit a site given the detail of the book's description and also by visiting the ubiquitous tour agencies to compare against their scheduled tours (and often sign up for them).

Altogether, I recommend this book. I had originally wanted the Lonely Planet, but their SE Asia copy was much older (they're just releasing the latest version now) and so ended up with the more recent Rough Guide. But I've been very pleased and traveled confidently with this book.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Covers a veritable wealth of available activities, January 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia (Paperback)

The Rough Guide To Southeast Asia is a comprehensive and superbly organized travel guide to Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Enhanced with a full-color illustrated section introducing Southeast Asian highlights, The Rough Guide To Southeast Asia provides the traveler with accounts of destinations ranging from urban city nightlife to beautiful isolated beaches. A compendium of reviews for the best places to reside, the best foods to eat, the best drinks offered, and the best places to party, The Rough Guide To Southeast Asia also covers a veritable wealth of available activities ranging from a sunrise climb up Mount Bromo to boating down the Mekong River, to diving into the waters off the Philippines. Profusely illustrated with maps and plans for every region, as well as dependable transport details (including border crossings and island ferries), The Rough Guide To Southeast Asia is "user friendly" and highly recommended for anyone planning a visit anywhere in the exotic countries and climes of Southeast Asia.