like all travel guides, you can find something that is not there in 'lonely planet peru'... i traveled peru for three months last year and had the advantage of using three different guidebooks along the way... they all have their pros and cons, so a review of any of them must necessarily discuss these:
the pros: the maps and city plans are substantially better than in the competitors' guidebooks (where footprint is severely lacking, for example)... lonely planet is one of the few cheap-o style travel guidebooks that gives you information on at least a few hotels that are not youth hostels, dives or other forms of bottom-barrel accommodation; in other words, they at least give you a few mid-range and expensive options if you wish to go that way... all the essentials are there, with great suggestions on places to sleep, eat and visit
the cons: as with ALL of the backpacker/youth travel guidebooks (LP, footprint, rough guide, let's go), the information on sights/monuments/museums, etc., is SEVERELY lacking... there is just the most basic of information on the history of the sights that you have gone so far to see... which makes it necessary to buy another book, pay an expensive guide or some such thing... (for instance, you will rarely read detailed descriptions of the artwork to be found in a church and are often left wandering about saying 'this is so beautiful, i wonder what it is...i wish the guidebook would tell me more!') i know this would make the guidebooks huge, but even 50% more information would be wonderful so as to have a little bit more of a grip on what you are looking at after taking a 12-hour bus ride through the andes to get there!
which is why, despite its quality, i always felt the need to take another guidebook along, just in case...using my usual technique of tearing out just the pages i would need from each book
