|
from what i can tell, it is a good guide book. however it hasnt been indexed this means that you cant type in a word like a park name and go to it directly. instead you must seqentially go through every pqge in a chapter until you find it
Australia is a huge country with so much to see and do. This book is a significant help in working out where we can go and should go in a period of time. It is a big book with beautiful photos and substantive info.
I rarely go anywhere remote or exotic without picking up the Lonely Planet book for the destination, and I just got this most recent Australia guide (I have a couple of older ones). I've got the Mongolia guide, too, and as with Australia, that eye for detail in more remote settings makes a big difference. I've traveled to a lot of countries with Lonely Planet guides, and they're always good, but they seem to particularly shine in countries with wide-open spaces, such as Australia. I do usually buy more than one guidebook for a destination, at least if I'm going on a longer trip, but if there's an LP guide, that will be one of the ones I get.I'd say the only slight drawback for the Australia guide is that the type is a little small, especially in the history section and boxed features -- but I don't think they could use larger type unless they broke it into two books, as this volume is already over 1,000 pages. I've been to Australia several times, and have even written a book about Australia, but even with all I know, I can't keep up to date with new restaurants, changed hours, different owners, or lodging in remote towns, and Lonely Planet is perfect for that -- though it has also often guided me to good places in big cities. It's just a wonderfully detailed resource. It's probably vastly more information than you need if you're only going for a couple of weeks. But if you've got a lot of time, this is almost as good a resource as having a friend in Australia.
I have not personally gone to Australia yet but I did spend a great deal of time planning the trip. I would not think of traveling without one. I have been using Lonely Planet guides for all of my overseas trips. Then fuel prices went throught the roof and then the stock market collapsed. The guide is shall I say more geared to the adventurer than the high end tourist. It does cover more expensive establishments but only as a part of the whole. Sort of put my trip on hold for a while. When I do go, this will be in my pack.
The listings are informative and we agreed with most evaluations they made. I bought Australia before I went in Sept. I'd heard from friends that the Lonely Planets guides are spot-on for travel. When you go that far for a vacation, you certainly don't want to waste time finding your way around or waste money by going to bad venues. 2008 and we used it at Uluru (formerly Ayres Rock), in Adelaide, and in Sydney. It was EXTREMELY helpful. This book will help prevent both. The only negative is that the book is heavy and was a bit of a chore to haul along.
|
