Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Guide)

Review by for Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Guide)
Rating:
This guide–like previous Lonely Planet guides to Thailand–offers the full range of Thailand to the potential tourist. Indeed the famous R&R resort city of Pattaya receives only 12 pages, but the fact that one-third of visitors to Thailand go there anyway means that the glitzy notoriety of Pattaya’s “entertainments” are probably already well-known enough abroad. Cummings’ book is directed to a different audience. For those who do not wish to read about the political or social problems involved with certain kinds of (shall I say “predatory”?) tourism, there are other guides to Thailand. But for those who have traveled to Thailand and elsewhere before with Lonely Planet guide in hand and have appreciated the careful attention these book pay to parts of the country and aspects of the culture that might otherwise be missed, we can rejoice that Cummings has spent many, many pages turning our eyes toward the beautiful yet neglected or underappreciated parts of Thailand, all the while reminding us of the potential for abuse that is may be latent in even the gentlest of tourists.Cummings book is simply not designed for the tourist who deplanes in Bangkok already drooling after the “delights” available in some neon-illuminated corners of this othewise beautiful, hospitable country filled with many, many thoughtful, kind, and decent people. Those tourists who would dismiss Cummings’ commentary generally don’t need a guidebook anyway. For them, everything they want out of Thailand will be offered in all its sleazy glory as soon as the touts see the glint in their eyes and their tongues hanging out. The third copy I have purchased of Cummings’ thoughtful book will be in my hand this January when I get to Thailand. Previous editions have guided me and my family on the most memorable (and inexpensive) trips we have ever taken. This book makes it possible to enjoy Thailand with a fullness and richness that other guides can’t match.

Review by AP for Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Guide)
Rating:
UPDATE:

The book turned out to be decent background reading, but nothing one would take as a first choice everywhere. Many restaurant recommendations were good, some not so. But to be fair, the opinions were honest. And I am not sure what else I would take for a trip to Thailand. Its not a very difficult country to navigate with English spoken well and everywhere. Warning though on the prices, they were most inaccurate.

ORIGINAL:

We’ve been to Thailand before and covered a fair amount of the country. So purchasing the updated edition we were expecting to see a lot of the highlights of our previous visit, covered extensively. In this regard, Lonely Planet was a mixed bag. Some of the highlights from our visit to southern Thailand including details in and around Krabi were just not there. Also, visitors tend to use guidebooks and lean upon them for detailed recommendations of hotels. This book sets up brief and basic introductions, hoping instead that you use the internet instead to follow up on more details. Same for restaurants. If this was the true intention, websites and internet links would have been most helpful.

Its obvious that the book is not a complete overhaul from the pervious editions. A lot of the material is identical, word for word. Details of new hotels, ferry schedules, or the new low cost airlines flying internally in Thailand or within S.E. Asia are just not mentioned.

Still, its a reasonably exhaustive first step towards getting to know Thailand. And helping you plan your itinerary. Be warned though that you’ll still want to use the internet a lot, to complement the information here.

Finally, I was contempleting getting the Lonely Planet Thailand’s Beaches (including Bangkok) but that’s not been updated at all in a long time (I intend to primarily spend time in the southern coast) and this book would be fine for most people especially if you are not anticipating the northern areas like Chiang Mai. Because this full LP version is rather heavy… and you are likely to not carry it with you everywhere you go. Still, overall– a 4 star effort.

We are off to Thailand in August 2006. Stay tuned for updates to this review, the following month…

Review by for Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Guide)
Rating:
Lonely Planet’s Thailand text is as good as any, and in many ways stands out from the majority of other travel publications on Thailand. Cummings’ environmental advice and recommendations come as a breath of fresh air in this world of selfish package tourism that we live in. To criticise him for shining light on important social, political and economic issues relevant to Thailand is both irresponsible and ridiculous. I don’t know what kind of world the reader from Japan lives in but in mine these issues are extremely important. It is attitudes like the one contained in this person’s commentary that have resulted in much of the abuse of Thailand’s natural environment that has occured in recent years (ie. the ruin of Ko Phi Phi). Buy this book and go to Thailand informed. Cummings’ work has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with awareness. The simple fact is that if every traveller to Thailand carried this book the country would be a more enjoyable place to visit. Wake up.