Lonely Planet Reviews 330

I was such a big fan of Lonely Planet guide books for years. I have bought one for my latest trip in Montenegro but I don't recognize the spirit anymore.
While I welcome the new way it or organized, the content equals to nothing. There is no practical information, especially on how to get there. Absolutely no word on bus possibilities, only indications of how long it takes by car. There are still people who travel by bus like in the old days!! Basically I had to do all the work myself.
Useless guide, better check things in internet, it will be cheaper.

The new maps are printed so indistinctly that they are hard to see and read. In past editions, I would scan the maps, print them out at a larger scale and use them while traveling. Scans of the new maps are almost blank.
Hotel and restaurant descriptions, that used to be current and complete, are now abysmal.

Awful. Do not waste your money. No details of restaurants or hotels, no addresses, no maps, content extremely confused. Impossible to find help for an itinerary. I have been using LP for 30 years and this is not what it used to be . Will never buy again.

I planned a trip to Indicine ( Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand Malesia) and therefore purchased all of the guides. They sent me a VIENNA guide instead of a VIETNAM.
I wrote twice but no answer yet from the company which, by the way, doesn’t have a complaint page on their site, only an email link were to complain and receive an automatic bot mail.
I will never buy from them again.

I have just bought the LP Argentina guide and could not believe the decline in content since the China guide of 1986. Too many colour photos, most of which I could have downloaded from the Web. Where to stay in Mendoza? Forget it. In fact, unless you are a wine buff with an unquenchable thirst - forget Mendoza entirely. Comodoro Rivadavia, the largest city in Chubut, doesn't get a mention and you'll be hard pressed to find the overland route to Tierra del Fuego. Who is this travel guide actually aimed at? I'll never purchase another one.

More than 20 years buying Lonely Planet guidebooks...I bought the last edition of Ecuador, I was shocked by the new format, no useful information, it has completely lost the essence. I was so surprised that I looked for reviews and found exactly what I thought: old readers' reactions are the same, what a shame. I will return it tomorrow and get an old edition from the library.

I just recieved the latest edition for Morocco and its appauling. The new layout looks like it was created by someone sitting in a cafe on their laptop while sipping a cafe latte or more than likely AI. As soon as you pick this new edition up, the front cover gives its quality away; the cover photo is so clearly an AI image and a bad one at that. It was certianly not put together by someone who has got their boots dusty while waiting for a bus in the Atlas mountains. I`ve asked for a refund and will use my 2017 edition, which contains much more detail. I do not want a book that gives me a rough overview and I have to do the rest by using my phone while on the hoof. At £17 I expect good reliable information by people who have been there. Get back to basics Lonely Planet!

I bought my first LP about 30 years ago and have a complete shelf that catologues our travel all these years. In 2019 (Mexico) I noticed that the info was more often out of date. I bought the new Colombia guide (2023) and it was awful. There’s almost no practical information anymore. Am gutted and will not buy another ond with this layout. Being an older traveller I’m not sure what to do in the future. TripAdvisor can be easily biased and where to begin in the sea of blogs?…..

Either Lonely Planet is now written by AI, it’s it’s dumbed down to be unrecognisable. The negative reviews are true. Such a shame. I couldn’t find reviews, just fluff.

My wife and I just completed a 6 day 5 night Safari in Tanzania. I found the company in the most recent Lonely Planet. We booked our safari with Safari Wakanda. Our group of nine traveled in two Land Cruisers. The guides; Andrew and Anderson, were incredible! They answered all our questions and took care of our every need. I arranged for a mid-range safari. The accommodations were phenomenal! Way better than expected. I highly recommend Lonely Planet and Safari Wakanda. Well worth every dollar.

The new layout of the books is simply useless for backpackers. The essential information we used to get from guidebooks has simply disappeared.
After 20 years of being a loyal user of lonely planet, I'm going to have to find a new travel guide with practical information.
With this new layout, Lonely Planet never again!

At the bottom of thailand airways org says lonely plant recommends this site the company is a scam can you confirm you recommend this site. Thank you for contact me I will change review.

Horrible. New lay-out is useless. All practical information is gone. Better to keep the same lonely planet book from 10 years ago on the same destinations and get more info out of it.

Wanted to buy a LP guide for Athene, but since I read all the negative reviews…NO LP guide for me anymore. Sad!

I've bought Chile and Easter Island LP. I'm disappointed to find out that it was nothing compared to the previous ones that I bought. It lacks of tips and information about tours, transfers, place where to stay and eat,....
It's a unuseful expensive guidebook!
I would have given it back if only I
had not written some notes on it before starting reading.
I've already written to the "support, feedback..." as they say to do.
I will never get a LP in the future.

I have written this to Lonely Planet directly, but just have to repeat what everyone else is saying here too. The new LP books are a total, complete, utter disaster (am I making myself clear? ;) They have taken out all the useful information and left a kind of travel brochure. The more we tried to use the new editions the more frustrating and annoying the whole experience became. Unless LP change back, and quickly, I suspect their business is toast. I just cannot imagine anyone paying for this stuff anymore. It's all very sad for us, because LP made a real difference over the years. Now we will have to piece together the picture individually, scouring the internet for the needed information. Imagine all the wasted hours on the part of people repeating the same process! This was the value that LP added, and now they have decided they don't want to be at the centre of that network anymore. I cannot imagine what is left for them in terms of a business.

NB LP “replied” below, but it’s clear they never read my message. I said I had already passed this on directly to them right at the start, and yet they tell me how to do this. All very sad. How do these people imagine this is going to end from a commercial point of view?

We just bought guides to Argentina , Vietnam and Malaysia not realising there is a new format with no useful information. The Vietnam book has Angkor Wat in it but doesn’t say it is in Cambodia or even how to get there ! Gutted as we loved these books and found them useful for planning a trip and part of the excitement before going.

When I received this latest Thailand book 19. Edition 30. April 2024 from lonely Planet I was really annoyed an felt screwed over. But this new version is totally different from the previous versions. Now you will find in it only descriptions of the touristic places in Thailand with many new photos. Most of this information you can also find in the internet and other Thailand Travel books and I wonder if the authors of this new version really made a research trip to Thailand because in this new version all the important travel information which the previous versions showed is now missing. For example this new version does not show anymore the adresses of bus stations, hotels, restaurants etc. and how to travel from one place to the other. Therefore this new version is absolutely useless for backpackers who want to travel independently on their own in Thailand. Also the maps are very pale and difficult to read. Bus stations, hotels are not annymore marked in the maps. It seems to me that this version is aimed to the package tourists in Thailand and not anymore to the backpackers

I have used Lonely Planet extensively since the 1980s, but they have recently changed their editorial policy and no longer give the specific information about hotels, transport between towns etc that was so useful. Instead you get more pictures and a lot of waffle about experiences. I bought the new edition of Vietnam last year, but I had to ditch it in favour of an older edition. I have looked in bookshops at the recently published guides to other places and they are the same
Why have they done this? They have abandoned a winning formula. .

After Namibia, Japan is the second new edition Lonely Planet guide that I have bought and returned IMMEDIATELY. Nothing to do with the old and very detailed editions, a real waste of money. Very little information, many useless photos, too expensive. The older editions were just perfect, I wouldn't have changed them for the world, but after Covid many prices changed and many businesses closed so they are no longer up to date and reliable. It's really a shame that to get detailed and updated information I will have to switch to competitors.