Lonely Planet Eastern Europe (Paperback)

~ Paul Greenway (Author) "There is so much to see in Eastern Europe that compiling a top 10 is next to impossible..." (more)
Key Phrases: boat passenger terminal, country phone code, hotel turist, Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Black Sea (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lonely Planet guidebooks are, quite simply, like no others.' --New York Times
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Note from Publisher: This is the old edition of Lonely Planet's guide to Eastern Europe.

Lonely Planet's new edition of Central Europe may be found by typing the ISBN number, 1740599268, into the search box.

The fantastic new 8th edition is the only available multi-country guide that covers Albania and Macedonia, with numerous excellent maps plus tip-top regional itineraries.

Lonely Planet's new guide to Eastern Europe covers Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia (Moscow, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad), Serbia & Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 7th edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740592891
• ISBN-13: 978-1740592895
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #995,399 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good on average, but lacking in some respects, August 24, 2005

By	L. P. D. Heinen (Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lonely Planet Eastern Europe (Paperback)

The guide is up to LP's usual standard, which is good, with good information regarding the backgrounds of countries, cities and regions. Also, almost every town mentioned has maps and plenty of accomodation and restaurant suggestions.

However, it is incomplete or simply incorrect in some areas:
- the costs of accomodations and places to eat are noted in euro's, and, as the exchange rates have changed since the time of writing, there are quite significant increases in costs (in euro's). This can be a setback when counting on this financially
- some maps are somewhat incorrect; I came across this twice when walking from a train station to the centre of town (real distance was much greater than the distance mentioned on the map)
- when buying train tickets in Eastern Europe, the procedure for seat reservations differs from country to country. This wasn't mentioned for instance in the case of Bulgaria: there you have to buy a train ticket AND pay for a supplement for a seat reservation (regular tickets only buy transport, no seating)
- train connections were displayed differently when comparing one country to another; in some information would be in the city chapters, in others it would be in the country directory. Also, the amount of information displayed varies greatly.
- Often people will travel to Istanbul as well as lots of countries mentioned in this guide, or maybe Greece as well (I went from Istanbul through Northern Greece to Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia), and nothing in those countries is covered. Perhaps omitting Greece is logical, but at least a couple of pages on Istanbul (geographically in Europe) would benifit the traveller.

And, my big disagreement with practically any LP guide is that makes judgments about destinations, instead of merely describing what is there. These judgments may fall into the liking of the mainstream traveller, but are not a success for everyone.

To wrap it up: this guide is great value if you're travelling to or through Eastern Europe, but especially in the transport area: ask around and don't rely solely on this guide.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2007 Edition: Well Updated & Comprehensive!, March 27, 2007

By	Laszlo Wagner (Hungary) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lonely Planet Eastern Europe (Paperback)

Not all Lonely Planet guides are equal, but I found this one to be very good!
It covers pretty much all the former socialist countries westwards from Russia, including the Baltic states, Central Europe, the Balkans, Ukraine, and even obscure, very rarely visited Belarus and Moldova.
It already has a separate country chapter for Montenegro, which only became independent in the summer of 2006!
Inside, you will find all the details that can be expected from this series: in addition to the usual background info on history and culture as well as listings of recommended sights and activities, LP does provide useful practical details like prices and contact details of accomodation options as well as fares and journey times for public transport. These seemed pretty accurate to me, though are bound to change within the lifespan of this book.
The detail provided about each country described of course can't compete with single-country guides, but is probably sufficient for most people planning to visit several countries in one trip. As a rule, there are enough places described to fill at least 2 weeks in each country. In comparision to LP's Europe on a Shoestring which covers the whole continent but goes into more detail about the more visited Western European countries, this one has about 3 times more info on Eastern European ones.
I would highly recommend this book for both those who are still in the planning stages and need info to decide which countries in the region to visit, and for actual use on the road to those planning to visit several countries on one trip.
Of course, if you only want to concentrate on 2-3 countries only, you may find individual country guides more detailed - though right now quite possibly less up to date! LP and Rough Guides both publish such guides to the more popular countries in this region, while Bradt covers even the more obscure ones like Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Macedonia, Serbia or Slovakia as separate titles.
For the region as a whole, this book is the one to get for sure though!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bad idea for an update, October 22, 2003

By	WM Roffel (Leiden, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

I had the fifth edition and thought it would be nice to be up-to-date for my next holiday with this 7th edition. That proved to be a mistake.

LP has added a lot of countries (the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Moscow and Petersburg) without adding pages. As a consequence the information about the other countries has been reduced. For example Albania went from 40 to 25 pages.

So if you don't have the guide I can still recommend it because I generally like LP. But if you have an older edition you should think twice about upgrading.