Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14842 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 492 pages

Customer Reviews

Needs an update
After several visits in the last year to the Philippines I have come to realise that this guidebook is seriously out of date. Mostly because this print is already an update of an earlier print. Especially with regards to Northern Luzon (information about Baguio), Mindoro (a.o. Puerto Galera and Roxas) and about transport from and to Metro Manila (due to frequent changes in busterminals). About other regions I can't give any statements because I have not been there. But based on what I have found out so far I'm first making use of the Internet and local contacts (through e-mail and telephone) before turning to this guidebook. Of course the book can be used for reference material.

complete rubbish
Very disappointed with this supposedly updated edition. Hotel reviews were woefully inaccurate and have obviously been done without being visited - on my trip I came across the previous edition which described one hotel as being rundown - the same hotel was described as the best hotel in town in the new edition and it was obvious it hadn't been done up in the intervening period! Restaurant recommendations rarely describe the food on offer and, when they do, seem to focus on pizza or burgers. And I would truly love to know what is meant by a 'cookie cutter' hotel which is how one place is described. Easily the worst LP guidebook I've ever come across - and unsurprisingly a view shared by several other travellers I met. My top tip? Never stay at the first hotel listed by LP as it always seems to represent astonishingly bad value for money with complacent staff and inflated prices.

Would recommend
Found this book useful and informative. I've often found Lonely Planet to be quite out of date, but not on this occasion - price guides seemed quite accurate and didn't find anything that had disappeared. I've seen some other reviews (by Americans) criticising it for having an anti-US bias in the history sections - but I didn't agree with this. The Philippines has had a very difficult history and has suffered at the hands of other countries colonial interests - the US included - and I thought this was well explained. The general commentary is informal and I would recommend this guidebook for all generations.