|
|
|
Bangkok (Lonely Planet) by Joe Cummings, China Williams
Book Type: Paperback
Published: 01 September 2004
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
RRP:£11.99
Best Discount: £1.00 (8%)
Cheapest price: £10.99
Prices last checked: 17/05/2008 19:01:32
|
|
|
Price comparison results for Joe Cummings, China Williams - Bangkok (Lonely Planet) are listed below. The cheapest price including postage is listed first, this assumes
that the purchase does not qualify for free delivery. Many of the retailers offer free delivery above a certain total order value.
If you are thinking of purchasing more books than just Joe Cummings, China Williams - Bangkok (Lonely Planet) it may be that the top (cheapest) price is not necessarily the best.
Others may be cheaper, you are advised to check the latest postage free prices by clicking the relavant links .
|
|
|
|
Review:
Whilst LP guides are generally of a high standard compared to most guide books I think it is fair to say that the quality of information varies considerably between different LP guides. It is a real shame as Bangkok is such a fascinating city but in my view the LP Bangkok guide falls towards the lower end of the scale. Essentially the book seems to consist of taking the Bangkok section and the general info parts of the LP Thailand Guide book, making the maps more colourful and then wrapping them in a 'Bangkok guide' cover - it really doesn't seem to add anything more than the country guide would give you. Compare this for example with the LP guide to London which is much more detailed than the London section of the LP Britain guide. It is a very comprehensive guide to London rather than something suitable if you're just stay for a few days - surely this is what the Bangkok guide should be like? There are a couple of other areas where the BKK guide lets itself down. Firstly inaccuracies are not uncommon (after 3 days of using it I could point out many of them - Lumphini Park metro station is not where the LP map says it is, the Hilton Hotel is no longer there, etc. and this is for a newly published edition - one wonders why LP can't do the checking properly). The second is the new format that LP seem to have opted for on their newly published guidebooks (admittedly a point that applies beyond the BKK guide) which seems to try to move the guides more towards the mid-range market by adopting a style more like the excellent Time Out City Guides. The problems is the BKK guide doesn't do this as well as the Time Out BKK guide and at the same time loses a lot of its user-friendliness and order that the previous edition had. Finally LP in general could do to improve their restaurant expertise if they are aiming to more up-market.This is all a shame because Joe Cummings is definately a real Thai guru and knows more about the place than I will surely ever know - with Joe's knowledge and Bangkok's amazing intensity and variety this book could be so much better.LP could and should make this guide more detailed, more accurate and revert to their old style. Until then I would recommend getting the Thailand country guide and then, if you are staying in BKK for more than a week, getting the Time Out Guide to Bangkok to give more in depth city info.
|
|
|
|
|
