Lonely Planet Nepal (Country Travel Guide)

 (9 customer reviews)

Have been to Nepal and found the lonely planet to be a useful tool there as it is in other places. If you are going to Nepal it would be wise to buy this as you can save the price of the book before you go from the advice it gives in simple matters like booking gust houses and avoiding taxi scams as you arrive at the airport.

Remember that with this book on Nepal, and most Lonely Planet Book things will be out of date, this is a given as from the time of creation to the date of publication time has a tendency to change things, so although I found things very reliable - but ready to be flexible within reason.

I would also recommend another book or two on the region so you can build your background knowledge on the area, especially if you have not been to a nation like Nepal - BUT I feel from my travels abroad LP is something I don't leave home without.

I was thrilled to have a Kindle version of this book, and the links worked well (once I got used to using them.) Some items were vague, for example the Bat Cave in Pokhara - although the information was true, maybe more emphasis on just how small that exit hole is would have been more informative. Another example: a trail trek from Nangarkot to Changu Narayan was totally not an easy trek - a lot of the trail is washed out, and there is no information on how long it is. (4 hours to a tiny town, about halfway to Changa Narayan, then another 7 km uphill in a beautiful forest, but you'd better be in shape!) In general it was a wonderful guide, but better to ask the locals about specific treks, etc. One great "Plus" is having it on the Kindle, it's not more weight in your backpack!

We recently (Feb 2012) returned from 3 week trip to Nepal. We hiked in the Everest region for a week, spent a week in Kathmandu, and a week traveling around by car. We took both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guide books with us. Generally, we found that the LP book was better, both in practical details and in site descriptions. One thing we liked was the walking tours in LP -- through old town Kathmandu and through Bhaktapur -- RG has similar things, but without maps, and the LP has maps for these tours -- I can't imagine trying them without the maps to help guide myself. Also, in general the LP maps are better than the RG maps. Generally, we like RG more, but for Nepal, LP was superior -- there were places where RG was better, but if you only take one book, LP is the way to go for Nepal.