Lonely Planet Mongolia (Country Guide)

 (29 customer reviews)

I recently returned from a trip to Mongolia, where the Lonely Planet Mongolia guide was my principal source of information.

I am an experienced world traveler, and have had both up-to-date and out-of-date guidebooks with me. I have had books where I agreed with the characterizations in the books, and others where the characterizations seemed far off. Despite being a few years out of date when I bought it, this guide performed extremely well by both standards. The objective information all remained remarkably accurate and up-to-date, and the subjective characterizations were pretty much on the mark as well. Right on down to the small details, such as which museums make you pay a photography fee, which ger camps are more attractively located, and so forth. The history provided in the book is also very relevant; though not extensive, I was struck by how, during my travels, the history I encountered had pretty much all been laid out in the Guide.

I had a splendid...Read more

Some of the negative reviews on this website actually got me wondering whether I should buy this book or not. Now that I'm back from the trip, I have no doubt about it: it's pretty much a must. Had I not brought the book along, I would've had to keep borrowing other travelers' copies during my visit. The information's extremely useful and complete, whether you agree with every single comment or not. I'm not familiar with other similar guides on Mongolia in English, but every foreigner that I met there seemed to be carrying a copy of this one.

Perhaps it is because Mongolia is changing so fast (individual visas were only issued from 1 June 1997) but this book is one of Lonely Planet's worst - and that's sad because Mongolia is a fantastic country. For example, almost all the backbacker accommodations mentioned in the UB section have closed down, and it doesn't mention Gana's Guest House which is the only place to stay if you're on a budget. Also, it underestimates the travel times between different towns, and makes some of them sound quite big when in fact they are tiny. But don't wait for a new edition - go to Mongolia before it changes!