SEA Field Trip: Guidebook Gets It Right
We used Lonely Planet: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Greater Mekong while traveling Southeast Asia. Here's where it led us in the right direction.
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by ced138
The Pop Culture Travel Guide
Tag: Guidebooks
SEA Field Trip: Guidebook Gets It Wrong
We used Lonely Planet: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Greater Mekong while traveling Southeast Asia. Here's where it led us astray.
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Speaking of Beijing: New Zagat Guide Debuts
Our recent foray into Beijing was more of a cultural primer for first timers and Olympics-watchers. But what to do if you need the nitty gritty details like which restaurant pours on the Commie kitsch and which nightclub has an awesome 80s night? The newly released Zagat Beijing has all the info you need, crammed into a super-slim volume perfect for packing.
A couple warnings: Like most Zagat guides, the Beijing book tends toward the pricey, and while we actually think the quote-packed descriptions are cute, perhaps you don't. And when it comes to cultural stuff, the background info in this book is a little skimpy. (Just one paragraph on Tiananmen Square? Really?)
Still, if you're just headed to the city for a week or so, do you really want to haul around a couple hundred pages of Chinese history you'll never actually read? We'd rather just know that Red Capital Club is the place to eat and that we should rock our leg warmers at Alfa.
Related Stories:
· Zagat [Official Site]
· Beijing Field Trip [Jaunted]
· Beijing Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Tim and Nina Zagat]
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by pbb
Rough Guide Says: English Love Tea and Arguments
Where: England, United Kingdom
Love or loathe the English? The latest Rough Guide for England has a few choice things to say about them. First the bad news: It says that English people are quarrelsome, contradictory and "obsessed with toffs and C-list celebrities."
The good news is more, well, quaint, than good. The Rough Guide people decided that England is
A country of animal-loving, tea-drinking, charity donors, where queuing remains a national pastime and bastions of civilization, like Radio 4, are jealously protected.
We've heard a few complaints about the British before so this quirky Rough Guide assessment comes as no surprise. But since we love a good cup of tea, we haven't struck England off our visiting list just yet.
Related Stories:
· Rough on England? [Ananova]
· World's Worst Tourists: The Bad, Bad British [Jaunted]
· UK Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: pondocus]
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by amandak
Virtual Travel: Lonely Planet on the YouTube Train
Maybe Lonely Planet has been feeling a little isolated lately. The travel guide publisher just launched its own video site, Lonelyplanet.tv, and is looking for your videos of excursions far and near.
Of course, to be featured on the Lonely Planet YouTube channel you'll have to compete with a bikini'd man swimming in Antarctica, a "Hills"-worthy tour of Paris and (above) a belly-dancing, ghost-riding cabdriver who confidently declares, "I am not normal."
One bit of advice: Videos of you guzzling cachaça and popping pills in a Brazilian hostel while on assignment, we'd imagine, won't earn you a five-star YouTube rating from LP.
Related Stories:
· Travel Videos coverage [Jaunted]
Lonely Planet Not Exactly Inspiring Sympathy
In the wake of Thomas Kohnstamm abusing them for publicity, Lonely Planet has decided to show how classy an outfit it is with... a recipe for world-class pub crawls?!
We know most of the people who are dumb enough to tote an LP guidebook--besides those nice new National Parks guides of course--will probably rate getting wasted in a foreign pub as the greatest thing ever. But do lager louts really deserve a play-by-play?
For a great pub crawl, you need a few ingredients:
· a city with pubs in profound proximity
· a forgiving transport environment (you don't want cars bearing down on you as you stumble towards your goal)
· good weather (try crawling on ice--not fun!)
· an established drinking culture (you don't want to be the boorish outsider who's annoying the locals)
There you have it, Lonely Planet-carrying tourists: No boorish outsiders, please!
Related Stories:
· World's Greatest Pub/Bar Crawls? [LP]
· One Travel Writer, at Least, Might Just Go to Hell [Jaunted]
· Lonely Planet coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Kirstysplodge]
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One Travel Writer, at Least, Might Just Go to Hell
Uh-oh. Guide book writers tell lies. Not a big surprise to us, but poor Lonely Planet must be decidedly unimpressed by what former author Thomas Kohnstamm has said in his soon-to-be-released book Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?
LP must surely be wishing that Kohnstamm would go to hell, because he's claiming, among other things, that he wrote a guide book to Colombia without ever setting foot in the country. He claims he wrote the guide in question from his base in San Francisco, getting info from a girl he was dating who happened to be interning at the Colombian consulate.
The story goes that Lonely Planet--and probably a whole heap of other guide book companies--don't pay their writers enough to actually research everything that needs to go into a book, and their policy is not to accept any freebies. Whether this news goes down as a "we can't trust Lonely Planet" or a "Kohnstamm's a big cheat with a newly released book to sell" story remains to be seen, but if you're heading to Colombia, perhaps some other guide book might be a better choice?
Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet Reeling After Author's Fraud [news.com.au]
· Lonely Planet Writer Doesn't Bother Going to Colombia [Lost Weekend]
· Lonely Planet Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Blacknell]
5 Comments - Add Yours by amandak
Snap Guidebook Review: Lonely Planet's New National Parks Series
Lonely Planet has just relaunched its series of national parks guides and the publisher sent over a couple for us to check out. We're not the biggest fans of LP books in general, but the sheer number of titles can certainly be helpful. (Who else sells chapters on Eritrea?)
There are four new guides to the national parks, and you'll get info on multiple parks in all but one of them. The books are designed specifically for the parks, with itineraries and activities based around what's inside the gates rather than in surrounding towns--though some of that info is there too.
What stood out to us is the cool "Hiking" section. Each book has a couple dozen different trails listed. After a header with the basics (distance, elevation change, etc.), a long description of the walk and what you might see follows. Totally handy, and given the fact that the new books are compact and light, you'll actually want to tote 'em along on the trail.
Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet A La Carte [Jaunted]
· National Parks coverage [Jaunted]
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