Thailand (Country Guide) (Paperback)

by China Williams (Author), Aaron Anderson (Author), Brett Atkinson (Author), Tim Bewer (Author), Becca Blond (Author), Virginia Jealous (Author), Lisa Steer (Author)
Key Phrases: Getting There, Chiang Mai, Phi Phi (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
For sheer global reach and dogged research, attention must be paid to Lonely Planet…' --Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2003


Product Description
Discover Thailand

Uncover Bangkok's best street stalls or enjoy skyscraping gourmet dinners.
Climb aboard a long-tail boat and island hop to your own isolated beach paradise.
Get soaked at Songkran, the Thai celebration that becomes the world's biggest water fight.
Trek off the beaten path in remote Isan to watch a rare solar alignment at an ancient Angkor temple.

In This Guide:

Ten authors, 259 days of in-country research and 150 maps.
Trek, dive or monkey-watch with our detailed coverage of national parks and natural wonders.
Visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler suggestions.


See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 820 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 12 edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741043077
• ISBN-13: 978-1741043075
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,599 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Travel > Asia > Thailand
  #12 in	Books > Travel > Asia > Southeast
  #25 in	Books > Travel > Guidebook Series > Lonely Planet

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best all-country Thailand guidebook, September 24, 2007

By	M. Baum (Sometimes West, Sometimes East) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Beating up on whatever LP guidebook applies to wherever you find yourself is a favorite pass-time of the road-weary or the jaded ex-pat. You instantly become a cool-guy for bashing the guidebooks. Yawn. Then you try to offer (or sell) you own advice! Let's back up for a second and review this guidebook for what it is: a guidebook.

About me, I'm a perpetual farang (Thai for westerner). I've used at least 4 of LP's Thailand books, a handful of competitor's Thailand books, and at least a dozen regional guides and city guides that overlap with this most rececent LP Thailand. I've been making trips to Thailand for more than a decade. I've worked there, taught there, and been a student there. I love Bangkok. I love it when a guidebook can tell me something new about BKK or Thailand. And ust when I think I knew it all, this one manages to show me a thing or two!

This LP Thailand is moving in the right direction. From the first few pages you can tell that LP has cut and cleared some dead wood from the old editions and has freshened things up significantly. The voice is new and lively, not like some loudspeaker at a bus terminal calling out bays and destinations. Production value is up. Content is fresh but still reliable. Hello LP: The key to being a good guidebook is to avoid what's ultra-new and trendy and instead give the reader dependability. When I want to know about the hot new club or the latest border-crossing info I go to the web or I talk to other travellers. Those things change weekly. It seems like LP has figured this out with this volume. When others say that it's missing from this book I wonder if they really know what they're asking for.

Looking back, the older LP Thailand books listed a bunch of places to stay in the main tourist spots like Khao Sarn. I always thought that was a silly waste of space. By and large those backpacker boxes are all the same. And as soon as one of them gets in the LP, the price goes up and they stop changing the sheets. It's that simple. Ever go to one of the listed spots and look around (look up from your LP book) and see everyone else there with their LP book? Please folks: do yourself a favor and use this book as a guide --it's not the phonebook. There are hundreds of excellent places to stay in BKK and in Thailand that aren't listed in this book or in any other book. Use this book to get a feel for types of accomodation being offered and corresponding prices. Then make your own choices. This book will help you make choices; it won't choose for you.

I applaud LP for thinning some of its listings and focusing more on important attractions and providing valuable and interesting cultural insights. Going forward, with message boards and emails flying around the world in a blink, listing-type info (just bare facts about place and price) really isn't what I need from a guidebook. LP seems to be keen to this idea and appears to be working hard at giving me more than that.

Finally, let me say that this latest LP Thailand is really fun to read. It makes me want to go there right now! Some guidebooks read like a laundry list. Not this one. Read the book before you go...use it while you're there. Then give it to someone who's coming in as you head for the airport to go home --that's if you can find someone who doesn't already have it.

And when someone bashes a guidebook or suggests you do something in particular, always ask yourself: "what's this guy trying to sell me?"

Chok dee. (Good luck.)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't plan your Thailand trip without this book, October 4, 2007

By	Jeffrey Flynn "perpetual student of world cul... (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, could be better, July 21, 2008

By	M. Chuang (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Basically, my main complaint is that they took out the good stuff from the old edition and replace them with irrelevant stuff.

One example would be in the last edition, they had a section with color pictures of different types of food served in Thailand, something I find interesting to note when traveling to a foreign country. They replaced this section with a section with picture of people riding on elephants and scenery that don't really tell you much.

The reason why I did not give them too bad of a rating is that the information is pretty much the same between the two editions. In this edition, there is less information on border crossings, but that is due to increase safety concerns (so I can understand why they did that). I would still recommend the last edition. Besides being cheaper, you actually learn a little bit more.