Product Description

the legendary best-selling, longest-running guide to Southeast Asia's most popular destination the only guide to Thailand written for travelers on any budget suggested itineraries include classic routes, tailored trips, off-road excursions and travel with children opinionated and up-to-the-minute coverage of Bangkok's hottest bars, restaurants and shops written by a Bangkok expert Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation to have never been colonised Thaksin Shinawatra became the first Thai Prime Minister to be re-elected when his Thai Rak Thai party was victorious in February 2005. Before taking up politics, he was a police officer, and later a billionaire telecommunications tycoon a Rocket Festival is held in May in the country's north-east, using a volatile mixture of bamboo and gunpowder to convince the sky to send rain for the new rice season

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195000 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 808 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Many backpackers refer to the various Lonely Planet guides as South East Asia bibles, and indeed treat them as such. Taking just a glimpse at Lonely Planet: Thailand, it's not difficult to understand why. Crammed into over 1000 pages is everything you could want to know about pretty much every region of Thailand. From the southern provinces bordering on Malaysia, to the main coastal destinations such as Phuket and Koh Samui, from the intense heat of Bangkok to the amazing architecture around Ayutthaya and the contrasting tranquillity of the north, the people at Lonely Planet give you as much practical information on places to stay, eat and visit as possible. Updated regularly, the guides try to keep abreast of the rapid development in Thailand and give you the latest, vital information on how much you can expect to pay--particularly useful for that first trip in a Songthaew or Tuk-tuk.

As always there is detailed information about the culture and history of Thailand. However, for many the focus is on the practicalities of finding accommodation and getting where you're going (once you have used the handy maps to figure out where you are). Particularly useful are the suggested itineraries which give an idea of what you can fit in whether you are staying for a couple of weeks or several months. For those wanting to concentrate their stay on the main attractions of Bangkok and Thailand's coastal regions, Lonely Planet: Thailand's Islands and Beaches is perhaps a better bet. However, if you fancy being a little more adventurous and seeing more of Thailand, Lonely Planet: Thailand is certainly a good place to start. --Caroline Butler

The Times
For reliable and authoritative travel information reach for your Lonely Planet guide.

Outside
As usual the guidebook standard is set by Lonely Planet.

Customer Reviews

Great Book! Vital for the Traveller!
The book is great in terms of getting about, interesting things to see and places to go....... Never use the book to heavily plan a trip - it won't happen. In Thailand, as in all SE Asia, transport is unreliable and departure times, as with prices, regularly change... but relax and you'll get there eventually. It is a must for the traveller and is a lot better than any of the competition (in my experience)

Great guidebook to the wonderful Kingdom
I have been living, studying and travelling in Thailand on and off for the last 3 years. This guidebook has been my companion on all my travels, and I have used it as a support to explore new places and experiences in Thailand. The new edition is improved in many ways: more updated information (including prices), info about more places and not at least more color photos. The guidebook contains the most important information a traveller and a permanent foreign resident (or Thai for that matter) in Thailand may need - I especially enjoy the good Bangkok where to eat section. Enjoy the guidebook - and remember to put it a way once in a while to explore Thailand without the limits of the Lonely Planet guide.

Useful but flawed
I usually go with Lonely Planet rather than the Rough Guide since I tend to feel it has the edge on accuracy. But the Thailand guide is a little disappointing. The Bangkok and Chiang Mai chapters are fine and full of useful and correct information. But chapters covering the smaller provincial towns - Phrae, Nan, Lampang - are less reliable. Particularly, the maps just don't look like the towns, sometimes I've ended up walking for the best part of an hour to cover a distance that looked like a kilometre according to the scale on the map. Also, lots of important streets are merely drawn, not named on the maps. The combination of these two failings means you can get lost very easily.

I'm not going to complain, like a previous reviewer, that the book assumes you can speak and read Thai. The authors always warn you if a particular restaurant has no English menu or sign, for instance, so if you can't read the language, you know to choose another restaurant. I do think, though, that the authors should take into account that prices tend to be much higher for lots of commodities - taxis and tuk-tuks, above all - if you happen to be a non-Thai-speaking foreigner. I've set out a couple of times on a journey which Lonely Planet has assured me will cost 30 baht by public sawngthaew (pick-up truck), only to arrive at the bus stop as the only customer and find drivers insisting that I charter the vehicle for 500 baht. You would need good spoken Thai and good haggling skills to avoid these sort of situations. Of course if you travel to a country where you don't know the language things are bound to be difficult at times, but I think Lonely Planet should take those difficulties into account.

Of course the chapters on Southern Thailand will now have to be updated in the light of the recent tsunami tragedy, not to mention continuing unrest in the Muslim-majority provinces in the far south. But no guide book can keep pace with events such as those.