Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(23 customer reviews) 32 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Tibetan Travel Made Easy,
October 20, 2000 Bibliophile (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lonely Planet Tibet (Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit) (Paperback)
I traveled to Nepal, Tibet and Thailand alone in the summer of 1998, and this book was indispensable. In fact, while staying in Kathmandu, prior to my trip to Tibet, I met someone who was contemplating a trip to Lhasa. She asked to borrow my book, and I spent a couple of worried nights awaiting the return of the book. I don't know how I could've planned my trip to Tibet nor how I could've survived successfully without this book. I bought it before the trip and read it on my way to Nepal, while in Nepal and on my way overland into Lhasa, Tibet. The book is filled with facts and helpful, necessary information. The maps are wonderful. In fact, I usually had a pretty good idea of where my driver was headed and where we actually were based on the detailed maps the book provides. I found the most important parts of the book deal with the acquisition of necessary visas and documents when traveling from Nepal to Tibet, the uncertainty of your passage from one country to the next, security and...Read more
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Cursory and limited, but somewhat sufficient for travel,
January 25, 2007 Danpopa (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lonely Planet Tibet (Paperback)
This book does what most of the Lonely Planet guides do best: provides clear, personalized reviews of places to stay, eat and explore wherever your destination may be. However, LP Tibet focuses mostly on Central Tibet and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), with very little info and inadequate maps for what was Kham and Amdo (now contained in Sichuan and Qinghai provinces). This is where other Tibet guides, Gyurmed Dorje's Footprint edition in particular, shine. LP Tibet will get you around the TAR comfortably, but lacks the depth of information and regional exploration required for more intensive and insightful travel there.
For the most extensive discussions of religious sites (but DO NOT USE these routes and maps!), try to find the "Tibet Handbook" by Victor Chan (out of print). Also, Keith Dowman's "The Power Places of Central Tibet" provides excellent, traditional descriptions of Tibetan sacred sites.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Excellent travel guide, although politically biased,
June 18, 2009 Nomad (Shanghai) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tibet (Lonely Planet Country Guide) (Paperback)
This is probably the best Lonely Planet guide, and the best Tibetan guide ever written. I normally prefer Rough Guides, and reluctantly bought this book because Rough Guide doesn't have a Tibet guide, but it turned out to be great. It's a work of love, unlike some other guides where you can detect boredom between the lines. The authors are obviously passionate about their work, and it's amazing how they don't even miss some temples so remote that the nearest town is almost a day's drive away. The only sight I read about elsewhere but not mentioned in this book is the spooky Skull Wall in the remote Biru County, but that's unlikely to be on any foreigner's itinerary. I only wish that the book would cover more of the ethnic Tibetan areas outside the TAR, mainly Qinghai and Sichuan provinces.
Unfortunately, the authors' love for everything Tibetan often leads to a strong bias against the ethnic Chinese. They apparently bought everything produced by the exile Tibetan...Read more
