Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(11 customer reviews) 35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Below the LP standard, and biased in the region's favour,
April 23, 2002 Maurizio Giuliano (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lonely Planet South Pacific (Travel Survival Kit) (Paperback)
As all of Lonely Planet's guidebooks, this is of course an excellent travel tool, and truly "sets the standard". Any traveler is surely better off to the South Pacific with, rather than without, this densely written and wonderfully filled book (even though, for this particular destination, the Moon Handbook for the South Pacific would also be a very good choice). However, two things should be said about this particular LP guidebook. First, its coverage is hampered by the region's magnitude and diversity. The effort to cover so many different islands, with their own realities, their own peoples and cultures, is surely a noble endeavour. Yet, it resulted in lack of clarity, and data which is vague or uncomplete, especially on some countries (such as those of Micronesia) more than others. Getting separate LP guidebooks for individual countries or sub-regions (Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Rarotonga & Cook Islands, Tahiti & French Polynesia, etc)...Read more
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Incomplete,
June 19, 2005 Readz Alot (USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Lonely Planet South Pacific (Paperback)
A typically good LP guide, but be aware that while earlier editions of the title included the whole South Pacific area, this edition does not include Micronesia. (And LP hasn't updated their micronesia guide since 2000.) So if you're planning to visit Kiribati, Palau, or other countries in Micronesia, this guide won't meet your needs.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A great starting point for the South Pacific,
September 26, 2009 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Lonely Planet South Pacific (Multi Country Travel Guide) (Paperback)
I'm extremely impressed at the South Pacific book by LP. Sometimes with books that are published as multi-country guides, you're worried that they're going to totally miss the smaller islands that themselves don't warrant their own individual books. To my surprise, places like Niue, Tuvalu, Pitcairn Island (itself a curious choice) were covered and yet misses Nauru and Palau.
However, nitpicking aside, this is a really good book, even for travel book standards. It's pretty comprehensive, and you can tell that the book had boots on the ground instead of less dubious LP authors just writing about what they find on the internet.
As someone who likes to find a brand of travel books and stick with them, I feel that Lonely Planet fell apart over the last few years and are slowly getting back to the top of the heap. I plan to use this book as the primary source of information for Fiji and Tuvalu for starters, and then see where the winds take me. I'm happy with a travel...Read more
