Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring (Paperback)

~ Kevin Anglin (Author), Becca Blond (Author), Jean-Bernard Carillet (Author) "Africa is the Mother of Civilisation and North Africa her regal head..." (more)
Key Phrases: principal public holidays, following neighbouring countries, clean rooms with fan, South Africa, Cape Town, Burkina Faso (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

…the book was once designed purely for travelers on a shoestring, but the new edition also has listings for more sophisticated or affluent travelers who prefer not to go the do-it-yourself hostel route.' --USA Today
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Covering the countries on the African continent, this text is designed for all budgets and provides a comprehensive guide to the region. It includes: cultural, political and historical notes; travel advice; information on border crossings and visas; and advice on health, safety and local transport.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 928 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 10th Revised edition (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740594622
• ISBN-13: 978-1740594622
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #163,154 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't head for Africa without Africa on a Shoestring in your pack, September 5, 2005

By	Jason Brown "Africaddict" (Northern California, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As someone who just returned from a solo tour(via local buses, trains and hitch-hiking) through Botswana, Zambia and Namibia with this book in my pack I feel I can review it more fairly than those who have simply looked it over while dreaming about a future trip.

While no single book can give an indepth look at every country, this one gives you all the information you need to travel through Africa on a budget. Best of all it is small enough to fit in your pack and well built enough to make it through the trip in one piece. I will be going back next year and this book will be coming along.

As you can guess, with only about twenty five pages per country, some info is glossed over or left out all together. Due to space constraints Lonely Planet left out some of the "where to go and what to see" advice but they made sure to include all the information relevant to transportation and lodging. If you need more indepth information you should buy one of the individual guides that cover each country you plan to visit along with Africa on a Shoestring.

My one gripe with this book is that it seems a bit too focused on the backpacker/camper type lodging. I personally prefere to travel like the locals and stay in guest-houses and cheap hotels and at times this book skips right over this information. The worst way to save three dollars a night is to pitch a tent on the ground instead of booking into a local guest house. When you stay at one of the urban campsites the only "culture" you are going to experience is provided by the young, loud, drunken tourists. Not my idea of fun.

If you are looking for a book that will make traveling in Africa trouble free you are going to be disspointed, that book does not exist and never will. In Africa almost nothing is easy and that includes travel. But that is part of the adventure.

If you want to see Africa without all the hassle then you need to talk to one of the travel agents who offer all inclusive tours for small groups in large overland trucks. You will get some nice photos but you won't really be traveling "in" Africa, you will be traveling "over" it, and you don't need any book for that.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as detailed as the previous edition, July 21, 2007

By	M. Tran (Orange County) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lonely Planet Africa (Paperback)

I was traveling with the LP Africa on a Shoestring 6 months ago. I purchased this new edition to see how LP has updated it and I'm not impressed. I don't think they did much for the Southern Africa section except remove a few things like places to stay and cities that they didn't feel tourists would get to (ex: Barra in Mozambique, Nata and Ghanzi in Botswana). Don't even think about just taking this book when you're traveling (and I have seen travelers with only this book!). If you're planning just to do Southern Africa and/or East Africa, get the books LP has out for these two regions because they will be more detailed and meet friends along the way for more recent advice/info. I was surprised to find that some of the places I visited and enjoyed in Southern Africa were no longer in the new edition. The general country info and other advice in this book are still as good as the last edition (with more current events added) and I recommend it to anyone thinking about doing a multi-country trip to Africa. It is great for planning your travel destinations.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overall, but very disappointing in places, March 1, 2006

By	Robbie Honerkamp "Robbie" (Tucker, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Lonely Planet is the leader in travel books. This isn't just my opinion, I've met many other travelers who won't go anywhere without the appropriate LP book. Africa on a Shoestring is a great guide, with information on places to stay and what to see, for travelers who don't want to spend a fortune and aren't afraid to get out and actually experience the local culture.

That being said, I'm really disappointed in parts of this book. As the market leader, LP should be able to keep its books properly updated. Yet many country sections start with: "We were unable to do on-the-ground research in (country_name), so some information in this chapter may not be reliable". While this is understandable in someplace like Liberia or Cote d'Ivoire where the national security situation is volatile, it's inexcusable for countries like Nigeria. Yes, there are some problem areas in Nigeria, and Lagos can indeed be chaotic. But Nigeria is not Lagos. And Nigeria is not the Niger Delta. I certainly hope that they manage to update some of these chapters for the next edition.

In the interest of full disclosure, here are the countries LP didn't bother to update for this edition: Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo-Brazzaville, CAR, Congo-Kinshasa, Burundi, Somalia, Angola. Libya is listed as potentially being partially unreliable.

If you're traveling to Africa, my advice is to get this book _and_ the Rough Guide to whatever region of Africa you're going to. If you're going somplace that LP's book doesn't cover, look for a specific book that covers it. My last bit of advice for Africa travelers is to roll with the punches. There aren't nearly as many folks going to Africa as there are to Europe, so the information on Africa isn't as cutting-edge new. That hotel you read about and planned on staying in tonight? It burned down six months ago. But there are always other options, so just relax and take it easy.