Product Description

Includes a stunning colour section featuring the highlights of the wonder that is India; a colour section showing the magnificent array of Indian arts and crafts; accommodation and transport options for all budgets; a clear and easy-to-follow section on the delicacies of Indian cuisine; and bargain shopping tips.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292516 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1072 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Firmly ensconced in the budget travel canon, Lonely Planet: Indiahas become as essential to sub-continental backpacker culture as the Himalayan hill stations, Arabian sea beaches and crafty rickshaw drivers it describes. Beyond the frank, thorough coverage of the country's highlights and pitfalls, indispensable maps and a snazzy full-colour guide to India's religions make this sturdy tome an endlessly useful one-stop reference. Though the emphasis is on "budget" travel, there are hotel and restaurant picks to accommodate you whether your budget is US$10 or US$500 a day. The book's only problem is that to some degree, it's a victim of its own success--it can be difficult to get off the beaten path when every English-speaking backpacker in South Asia is carrying the same guide. Fortunately, given India's (and the book's) seemingly endless charms, there's still enough to go around. --Andrew Nieland

Customer Reviews

the best LP guide
and the best guide I've come across for India. Packed with detail and a reasonable cultural/ historical introduction. Maps are great, the timetables are pretty accurate, the opening times and prices are correct...

There are some very bad LP guides out there. Vietnam springs to mind. But LP India has been consistently good throughout the years. I think I've used 4 versions of the guidebook and have been pleased with the improvements everytime.

Obviously the negativities are that it is pretty big but how else are you supposed to cram in all that information.

Best guide for India
This book is not only by far the best guide to India that you will ever find. It is also the best Lonely Planet guide I have ever read (I have 6 other LP guides). Everything you will ever need in your traveling through India is written in this guide, and every aspect seem covered. There is a reason why every single traveler in India has this book, and this might be the only weakness: if you follow this guide, you will follow an already taken path in a country, that provides plenty of possibilities for the opposite. But that will be the case with any guide, so go ahead and get the best one available, this one!

A decent job.
Given the size of India, and the sheer number of things to do see and smell, a book that covers the entire country will always have to make compromises, but LP have done a good job with this guide.

This is a BIG book, so it is not really necessary unless you intend to travel widely across the country. Regional guides would be a lot better for just the north or south.

I did however, find this book to be very useful. I Also saw the Rough guide a lot. Whilst I thought that the RG was a far more detailed and stimulating read in terms of history and background, the LP won when it came to listings, maps and transport connections- which in India are far more useful in the road. Also, the RG has gone a bit upmarket, which is great for some, but this has left few budget options. The LP however always gives good cheap loging and eating.

Creating a detailed guide for all India would result in a 12 volume encyclopedia, even condensed, this guide looks like War and Peace. Inevitably this results in many off the beaten track places being left out, the section on NE India for instance is a bit rubbish. Some extra explanations would be nice (the blurb on the Taj Mahal is tiny) But on the whole, this is a good guide.

Overall, a good crack at a hard job, but would not suit short term travellers.