Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not for everyone, but my guidebook of choice, July 29, 2005
Contrary to what several other reviewers have posted, this is in fact a surprisingly thorough guidebook to a locale that's only in recent years been opened up to the public, particularly tourists.
There isn't a lot of material in English about Laos, and Cummings makes a good attempt at showing us the deep richness of Laos and the fascinating aspects of the culture.
He approaches Laos with respect, and not like some rampaging farang looking for a good time at the expense of the natives.
It's a guidebook that tries to honestly tell you something of the place.
Does it always succeed?
Perhaps not, but it's quite useful not only as a "guidebook" but a more condensed reference book about Laos, considering there are so few readable books about Lao culture, geography and society out there.
And having used it on my own month-long trip through Laos, it got me through things just fine. I also had a Let's Go guide, and between the two, I pitched Let's Go somewhere in Southeast Asia and still kept Cumming's book with me.
So I hope this review helps anyone thinking about this book.
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine guide book, typical for Lonely Planet, April 9, 2003
I have recently completed a 12-month backpacking journey around the world, a trip that included Laos. In each of the 20-some countries I visited, the Lonely Planet I carried proved invaluable. However, after having read some of the other Amazon reviews of the LP Laos book before using it, I was expecting this particular guide-book to be worthless. But in fact, after using Cummings' book for nearly a month in Laos, I was pleasantly surprised to find it as useful as any other LP that I have used. Actually, expecting this guide-book to be useless, I brought along another Laos guide-book, which proved to be much less useful on the road when used side-by-side with the LP.
Not only did I find the accomodation and eating sections for popular locations as accurate and update as I would expect, but Cummings' did a fine job of briefly describing many off-the-beaten-track places, providing initial ideas for numerous adventures into the unknown.
And of course, as in any country to see the "real-thing", it is always rewarding to venture to places that you have not read about in a guide book. For this reason, I would certainly not criticize Cummings for not writing more.
All in all, in my opinion this book certainly meets the lofty standards set by Lonely Planet.
A bit of advice to would-be travelers: During my 12 months of diligently using Lonely Planet guides, I have been amazed by the travel-blunders made by fellow travelers who have carried travel guides, but have not used them. Some travelers perfer to do it "on their own", but I have seen numerous costly, time-consuming, and uncomfortable mistakes made that could have been easily avoided if they would have simply consulted the book in their hands. A little diligence goes a long ways.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing! Buy the Rough Guide instead., November 30, 2000
After using the Thailand Lonely Planet guide (also written by Joe Cummings) extensively this summer (it was extremely helpful), I found the Laos guide really disappointing.Laos is changing at an alarming rate and a lot of the information in this guide was out of date. Also, unlike the Thailand guide which is quite detailed, I found this book to be kind of skimpy. The maps aren't very good, a lot of towns weren't included, transportation details were no longer correct or not included, and because of the surge in tourism and high inflation rate, the prices listed were meaningless. Until edition 4 of the Laos Lonely Planet guide is published, I would recommend buying The Rough Guide Laos which was published in January 2000 and was getting good reviews from other tourists.
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