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 enlarge | Authors: Sarina Singh, Joe Bindloss, Rafael Wlodarski, Amy Karafin, Paul Harding, Lindsay Brown, Mark Elliott, Simon Richmond, Virginia Jealous, Tom Spurling
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $17.47
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New (42) Used (7) from $17.47
Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 14851
Media: Paperback
Edition: 12th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1236
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.9
ISBN: 1741043085
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.404532
EAN: 9781741043082
ASIN: 1741043085
Publication Date: September 1, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
Good basic introduction to India March 17, 2005
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Having grown up in India I thought I could wing it when we went for an extended stay in India. We were going to be living in Bombay, now called Mumbai...a city that I had never lived in, but had visited briefly 15 years ago. But, once we landed in India and started exploring Bombay, we got suggestions and opinions from various people. Some of these suggestions were good, and some not so good. It was then that I decided to reach out and buy a copy of Lonely Planet India. (I believe India was the first country Lonely Planet people wrote about.)
I had previously used Lonely Guide editions to different countries, and found their guide books very useful. I thought their book on India might help me in discovering Bombay and other parts of India.
After having used the book for a while, I have mixed opinions about the book. I think the mixed opinion stems from two reasons: one India is too vast a country for one book to capture everything, and two having grown up in India my expectations maybe a little bit more demanding of the book.
The strength of the book is that it provides a good basic introduction to the country, and a broad overview of the history and culture along with a laundry lists of do and don'ts that are very useful things to remember. For instance, they do an excellent job of providing information on various modes of transportation and how to reach your destination.
With referfence to Bombay the book provides a good thumbnail sketch of the city and some good basic information on what to do, where to eat etc etc. However, the information provided on the city is confined mostly to the southern tip (referred to as "town" by the local denizens) of this vast sprawling city. They miss out on some interesting things about other parts of Bombay, and the new eating joints etc etc. What they have failed to capture is the changing and dynamic nature to Bombay.
I would recommend this book to those who are visiting India for the first time. If you need more information you might want to buy a couple of travel magazines that are available in news stands or pick up any one of those handy travel brochures. And if you have any friends who have travelled to India do ask them for suggestions.
No one guide has it all.... September 21, 2003
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
One should never rely on just one source for a major adventure, as any trip to India is, and this very complete guide is no exception. This guide has excellent information on the history, culture and people of India, and the color section on Sacred India is a nice touch. It has lots of very practical information on what to bring, what you can and can't photograph, what to read before you go, how to avoid "cultural misunderstandings." It's helpful for preparing people for the assault Westerners often experience--ask for directions and you have a friend/guide for life, often accompanied by a very aggressive demand for money. The health and safety information is also pretty good--except that they say that tap water in cities is OK to drink--ignore this advice! I find this guide limited in its retaurant and hotel selections, especially if you're not a low-budget or student traveller. Also, information changes constantly--internet cafes spring up and close overnight, new restaurants and hotels open up every day, and the political situation bears watching up until the day you leave. And of course no guide book has really good maps. But why limit yourself--the internet is chock full of information on this wonderful, confusing, fascinating country!
If you use it you will get help from it. June 2, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is the second time to visit India.Both time I took the same Lonely Planet. Always I choose hotel from it and felt not bad. In some small city, hight rank hotel means good servie and the price was not so high as you image it. First all the price listed in the book is as same as in the hotel, so try to cut off nearly 30% off is the very important thing to do during the trip.
Also I visited Jaisalmer on May, but if you following the book you will never go there in such cray summer. In fact, the summer was high enough, but still interesting. No more tourist means you can enjoy alone, and only myself in the hotel you can get nearly 50% discountdown for low season. If you read you can find a lot of things from the book, but on the trip everything is changed, you never image the book can guide you everything. Try to ask person around you, and get the most reasonable price.
I will plan to go to india again, by the guide of Lonely Planet, but I think I need a new version.
An excellent accomplishment, heavy but well worth it July 31, 2002
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
This edition of "Lonely Planet India" is better than the previous one, which was very very good itself. Despite the immensity of India and the numberless topics and regions that therefore have to be covered, the authors have done an excellent job indeed. Some weaknesses are inevitable, and this is perhaps why this is not one of LP's masterpieces, but it is indeed inevitable for travel guidebooks to be the better, the smaller the region they cover - this is why this book should perhaps be complemented with the individual LP guides to different Indian regions. But in itself, this book does cover most of what a visitor will need or want to know. And in a place that is chaotic and tough for foreigners like India, this may indeed be an essential tool for the less experienced travellers. The coverage of places to stay and eat is absolutely excellent, not just for the major cities but also for minor towns and sites (the authors would indeed seem to have been on every single square foot of land in India !). The section on permits and other legal matters is of immense value to anyone, and well up-to-date. And of course, the sections and special chapters on history, culture, religion, are extremely well written, great for the traveller and the armchair reader alike. Even though the best discoveries are those a traveller will make herself / himself, this guidebook is surely a great tool and help in anyone's discovery of this wonderful land. All in all, a masterpiece despite its limitations. A weakness is of course that things being as they are in India, information is subject to change, and some may have become out-of-date by the time this book was printed. But this is of course inevitable, and it simply means that - as in any country - a traveller should not rely on only a guidebook, but make a considerable effort to grasp as much as possible of current circumstances on her / his own.
 pinch of salt June 26, 2002
11 out of 26 found this review helpful
As mentioned earlier, this book can seem to easy to knock because of its veneration by the wide eyed and uncool. I recommend this book for travel information, ie buses, trains, etc., for the first time visitor. I disrecommend it for its recommendations of hotels and eateries. India is a land overflowing with places to stay and eat, and those mentioned in this book are full of aforementioned hordes of the 'uncool', and correpondingly overpriced.
I also disrecommend it because info on local points of interest leave a little
to be desired, the tone of the authors is often a little smug, and by buying this book you are funding the ruination of hard found havens by the unwashed hippy masses. But I suppose that's inevitable.
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