Lonely Planet Thailand (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)

I grew up in Bkk from 1973-1983 and have been back to visit numerous times. This upcoming trip will be the "tourist" trip as I will be taking my new in-laws and fiance on a trip, so I thought I should at least know more about Thailand. The book has been a very good read from the start and I have learned more about the cultures from the book than what my own family tells me. I am reading this book daily and there's a lot to be taken in, great job on the material. Well written, good content, thorough and insightful. I am traveling in a week and will be reading this on the plane as well. I strongly recommend the book to anyone thinking of going to Thailand or planning a visit.

Without a doubt, Kindle owners traveling to Thailand should buy Lonely Planet Thailand Kindle Edition. Despite notable drawbacks (e.g., maps are difficult to read), the search function, bookmarks, hyperlinks to other sections, and most of all portability make it indispensable whether you are temple spotting, questing for the perfect curry, or relaxing on the beach. Remember how heavy your daypack always ends up by the time you get everything you may need during the day? The portability of the Kindle and Lonely Planet combination eliminates at least a few pounds compared with even the smallest country-wide guidebooks. This is a blessing you will count every evening on the trip. The primary flaw with this book on the Kindle is the difficulty with depicting the maps on the screen. Due to limitations of screen size on the Kindle 2 (or 1), the well-known and useful Lonely Planet maps are broken into smaller sections, typically quadrants. Finding a restaurant, for example, requires navigating to the fourth page to view the legend, then to the page containing that portion of the map. Although frustrating at first, you will quickly become used to it; and, free maps abound in Thailand. As anyone familiar with Lonely Planet guidebooks can tell you, this book has everything you need to know about Thailand. Worried about whether or not there is a departure tax to leave Thailand? Need a hostel in Koh Samui? How about a five star hotel? Wonder if you should begin a malaria regimen before your jungle trek? It is all in there. Before buying, I noticed a number of complaints about this book containing a large amount of politics. Fortunately, it is a guidebook, and you need only read interests you. Thailand has something for everyone; so does this book. I appreciated having this book with me, especially without the weight of the paperback, and enjoyed the frank opinions on sleeping, eating, and experiences in Thailand. Buy it and carry it along as you create your own paradise in Thailand.

This is the first Lonely Planet guide I have purchased in 20 years and I am not disappointed - these guys really deliver! The travel guide is somewhat geared to lower end travellers such as backpackers and the like, but contains a wealth of useful information for travellers in any price range, including things to do, places to visit, ways to get from A to B, rough price guides and so on. I highly recommend this travel guide for anyone planning a trip to the Land of Smiles, especially those visiting Thailand for the first time.

Lonely Planet guidebooks are excellent for their descriptive city maps, local transportation knowledge, outer regional information and local tips. The city maps are fantastic and provide on-the-ground guidance and safety. Train, bus and local transportation options are all noted and mapped. The guidebook has excellent day-trip suggestions and how to get to them all. The history section makes handy reading for long bus or train rides. Things always change, but having an LP guidebook with you will be a huge stress-reducer. Wouldn't leave home without it!

I loved this guide book of Thailand, accurate and informative.

I found the Lonely Planet books to be good and interesting guides to the countries they cover. Lots of down to earth info, although with the constant changes in some industries (PB Air, for example, shut down a month or so after this edition was published) it's hard to stay current. Additional on-line research is recommended to back up some of the information, and of course Lonely Planet has an excellent on-line presence as well. Good reference, something you can carry around with you - believe it or not, there are still lots of places where you can't reliably get to the 'net!

I was in Thailand for a month and this book was fantastic. North, Bangkok and south... although I never use printed guides for booking hotels anymore...they just can not keep up with all the changes in industrialized nations.

I read this book and planned my trip using their suggestions and tripadvisor's, the history part and culture part are real easy to read and helpfull, specially if you are going to place like Asia that have such a different culture, there was the case of a hotel that was revied really well by the lonely plannet guide but not so good on tripavisor, but we decided it to give it a try anyway, it was a great hotel. Another thing, this book has insights about the city and the way it operates, for example the book warned you about a scam that people come to you on the streets and tell you the big temples are closed for a buddist holiday (which is not true by the way) and take you on a tuk tuk to where ever store pays them to take you there, we where aproache and the people was really nice but I remembered this warning and stoped taking to the person and keep walking, later I meet another couple that didnt had this useful guide and fell on the trap and spend their whole day visiting souvenir shops in a weird neighbornhood, or eating crapy food. also you can be in the temples and understand what the figures are or mean, I looked and felt like a geek carring the guide around on my hand the whole trip, but I feld kind of good, to see that I was not the only one carrying the lonely planet guide and actually understanding what it was, instead of just putting a look with an interesting face while looking at the monuments. I also got a hold of a used cambodias lonely planet whide and helps you understant so well, also when locals notice that you know a little bit about their country, they make an extra effort to be nice and help you. so when we move to Malasia where I had not a chance to read anything about the country, it feld super weird not knowing anything about it, and made me wish I had the time to read it, I would just like to add that Im not a big reader, the thailand and cambodia guides where the first books I read like in more than a year.