Lonely Planet Vanuatu & New Caledonia (Country Guide)

 (4 customer reviews)

I used this guide for travel in New Caledonia, so my comments don't apply to the Vanuatu section.

I was very disappointed in the quality of information presented in this "completely" rewritten edition. Most historical, political, or other contextualizing information is now gone (I suppose due to space constraints?). Some descriptions were oddly incomplete. For instance, the guide did not specifiy how long a certain hike might take, or how far you would need to walk in what sort of conditions.

Since this edition is both a guide on Vanuatu and on New Caledonia, the index and other shared sections of the book are extremely confusing to use. It was not always clear which country a particular entry or health comment was talking about.

However, this edition contains updated telephone contacts and other new information that is simply not available elsewhere. My recommendation is to buy both this AND the previous New Caledonia edition.

i've used this book for visiting New Caledonia only. i've been to NC five or six times for work so i have gotten to know the area pretty well and my feeling about this book is that it just doesn't have a whole lot of content. i realise however that one of the problems is that Noumea has changed dramatically in the past 5 years and to be fair this is the best book available, as far as i know.

if you are going to NC then get the book and read it. however, be prepared to investigate NC beyond the limits of the book otherwise you might have a pretty average holiday.

For some odd reason the previous edition of the LP Vanuatu guidebook seems to have much more details than the new one. Each island had its own detailed chapter. On the new edition, some islands are mentioned too briefly and only by a few sentences. I do not understand why some of LP guidebooks revised editions become less qualitative.