4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
poorly designed, Mar 24 2004
This review is from: Lonely Planet Thailand (Paperback)
I was really disappointed with the newest Thailand edition to the Lonely Planet series. This is a huge volume and is more a history lesson then a guidebook. Learning the history of your destination is great but that information is not necessary when carrying around a guide to find a place to eat. Many of the authors' recommendations are already outdated. The price ranges for places to eat or sleep are not accurate or sometimes not given at all. My main problem is the way this guide links the map to the text. In order to find out where a place is located, you must refer to several different pages when reading the map. Why can't the description of a restaurant also tell the map page and grid point without having to look on a separate index? Poorly designed and not easy to use when on the go. Keep this one on your bookshelf and take a smaller guidebook when traveling. I recommend the Time Out series as my favorite.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
same old, same old, Mar 8 2004
This review is from: Lonely Planet Thailand (Paperback)
I enjoy writing, but this crummy book isn't even worth the effort. I noticed that amazon.com removed the 9th edition book, and all the reviews that went with it, possibly to try to help Lonely Planet, which is truly a faint and sad shadow of it's former, ancient (1980's) self.
This book just repeats the same old info and "who cares?" attitude of the 9th edition.
What the heck ever happened to LP I don't know, but they have changed from an inspired company to a cynical company that appears to not care about anything much anymore.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The cream of Thailand guides, Dec 20 2003
This review is from: Lonely Planet Thailand (Paperback)
I live and work in Bangkok, and when travelling to other parts of Thailand on holiday I always take along the Lonely Planet guide. I've tried Rough, Footprint and a few other lesser known publications, but LP tends to more informative, and considerably more accurate, in fact more so than all the others combined.
Another thing, I've been buying each new edition of the LP guide since the early 90s, and can't understand the amazon user reviews dated 1999 or 2002, etc, that identify this guide as the work of Joe Cummings alone. Since the late 90s it has been a team project (with Steven Martin initially, currently with a total of four authors), as any look at the title page or About the Authors page will reveal. So if you don't like the tone, blame the whole team (or more importantly the LP editors, who no doubt play a large role in determining how this book reads), not Cummings!
One thing I did notice about the 2003 edition is that it is considerably shorter than the last couple of editions. Gone are some of the more interesting out-of-the-way destinations in the various regions. I suppose LP felt it had to cut down on the size and weight but I would personally rather see them return to a more comprehensive scope.
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