Customer Reviews

Trekking in Russia and Central Asia

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I spent 5 weeks this summer traveling and mountaineering in Central Asia, primarily in the Tien Shan Mountains. Maier's guidebook, Trekking in Russia and Central Asia, was extraordinarily helpful for planning my travels and choosing destinations while travelling. It provided the essential information I needed to get into mountains. The maps and trek descriptions were almost always accurate, and the glossary in the appendix was very useful for breaking down language barriers. I'd rely on it again for future trips.

While this book may be interesting to those who have not been to Russia/CIS yet and have no other sources of information, those who have and were expecting more detailed practical info on trekking will be sorely dissapointed.
It does have lots of background information on various regions that are of interest to hikers, but unfortunately it is EXTREMELY thin on practical details.
It tends to write pages about how interesting a region is in general, before finally moving on to "describe" a single trek of several days' length in maybe 10 lines or so! This is particularly bad in the sections about Asian Russia - the European part is covered a bit better.
The maps and trail descriptions are all but useless for those planning to attempt the hikes on their own.
Finally, the general advice on travel/hiking in Russia in the introductory section is so out of date now - having been written more than a decade ago - that it is of very little help either.
All in all, if you want to read about how nice places await discovery out there, you will get your fill. Just don't expect this book to be of much help in actually trying to "discover" them!

Traveling Russia is like nowhere else in the world, and Maier is uniquely qualified to help make sense of it. This book was the most interesting and useful of the required reading for Peace Corps volunteers going there.

Now that I've been to Central Asia, I understand why the Lonely Planet guidebook refers to Maier's book so often. This is a unique perspective on getting off the beaten path. Her advice is inspiring and practical. Recommend it for anyone who wants to get out of the cities.

This woman has managed to see things that some of us, Russians, are unable to notice, for the reality we live in is too close to our eyes. This book gave me a rare pleasure to see our people and places in a new, clearer, nearly stereoscopic, light.