Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174441 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 540 pages

Synopsis
the longest running and best selling guide to South India we have extensive coverage of Goa and Kerala, it's not all sun, sand and full moon parties, this guide also features top tips on South Indian cuisine, arts and culture superior maps, listings and practical information South Indians are far more likely to be vegetarians than North Indians, no tandoori chicken or vindaloo curries here Kerala is the only Indian state governed by the Communist Party of India perhaps coincidentally, Kerala enjoys the nations highest literacy rates and lowest disease rates Kerala's state language is Malayalam, which is a palindrome and they are far more likely to speak English than Hindi

Customer Reviews

Don't leave home without it!
I'd bought my flight tickets, travel insurance and the all important Visa for entering India. Next on the list was the guide book. It was a choice of this one or the Rough Guide.

Both were published around the same time, and I've used both before for different countries, so I'm happy with their layout and content. However, choosing the right guide this time seemed far more difficult.

Both contained detailed information about the places I plan to visit. However, I found some bits were present in one book, but not the other, and vice-versa. In the end I decided to go for both books. I'm travelling in South India for 3 months, so I thought it would be worth the luxury of having two guides.

Having read both now, I can confirm that both are indeed excellent and each would provide an excellent insight into an amazing country.

Just to prove my point however, here is one example of an item (that I think is critical) that differ in books.

Apart from a small section dedicated to 'Todas', the Rough Guide doesn't really mention trekking in Ooty, which is one of the highlights of the region. Lonely Planet dedicates just under half a page to this essential activity.

Anyway, I don't expect both books to be the same, and here is a summary of the strengths of each book, I hope this might help you decide which book to buy:

Lonely Planet.
Travelling around by train.
Essential information.
Maps.

Rough Guide.
At a glance section on Highlights of South India.
History of India and its regions.
Food and drink.

All in all, I don't think you'd go wrong with either guide and wish you a safe a pleasant journey through this magical country.

Lonely Planet south india
I actually used this book to tarvel around Tamil Nadu for one month. It was very usful including all details about resaonable hotel and transportation, however many prices such as hotel price has been changed lots and I find out this is annoying.
Hope they can update about that but other than that it is good guide book to find out South India

Accurate and Dependable
From the restaurants to the hotels and places to see described,this book is the ideal guide to this region.We relied on it completely when we were in Tamil Nadu and it was wonderful.Made our holiday very worthwhile and relieved a lot of the stress of finding a place to stay or somewhere to eat.It also describes the region and its historical atractions well.