Lonely Planet Southeast Asia on a shoestring (Travel Guide)
£1.20
Lonely Planet: The world’s leading travel guide publisher
Lonely Planet Southeast Asia on a Shoestring is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to skip, what hidden discoveries await you, and how to optimise your budget for an extended continental trip. Experience the magic of the temples of Angkor at dawn, experience Asia’s colonial past in the steamy port island of Penang, or hang ten on classic Bali surf breaks; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Southeast Asia and begin your journey now!
Inside Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring Travel Guide:
- Colour maps and images throughout
- Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests
- Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
- Essential info at your fingertips – hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices
- Budget-oriented recommendations with honest reviews – eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
- Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience – history, temples, cuisine, activities, landscapes
- More than 200 maps
- Covers Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam
The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled.
- Looking for just a few of the destinations included in this guide? Check out the relevant Lonely Planet destination guides, our most comprehensive guides that cover destinations’ top sights and offbeat experiences, or check out our photo-rich Discover series guides, which focus on destinations’ most popular attractions.
Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, China Williams, Greg Bloom, Celeste Brash, Simon Richmond, Iain Stewart, Ryan Ver Berkmoes and Richard Waters.
About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world’s leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.
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by Mr J.
Can’t deny although I have travelled extensively throughout SEast Asia, I simply can’t leave home without a lonely planet. Although I now use a number of online recommendations for where to go and stay, it still travels in my hand luggage. When you rock up in a brand new city and a taxi driver jumps on you and asks where you wanna go….I can just select the appropriate hostel / hotel and I’m all good. The only issue is many of the hostels / hotels tend to get good reviews and become so popular their prices go up and the quality drops significantly. Also I have found out the authors don’t actually stay in all the accommodations they stay in so can’t offer the complete picture. I have found that the title now ‘…..on a shoestring’ is a bit far fetched…many of the places reviewed are far too expensive to consider ‘shoestring’. But have used the Lonely Planets for years and will continue to do so.
by Shopaholic sisters
Took this on a four month trip with me. Though it added extra weight to my backpack I never thought of dumping this book because it was SO valuable. It had in depth guides for areas of special interest such as angkor wat and had great sections on countries covering history and culture. More than just a travel guide.
by LJo
Bought this for a trip around Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. As always very useful for things to do and see in each town, and full of useful pointers about where to eat and stay. I did find it a bit frustrating with its lack of detail at times ( especially compared to the country specific lonely planet books that other travellers had). There was very little information of trains and whilst there was some border crossing information it was often not detailed enough and in strange places. If your going to lots of countries and your not sure of your route within this is the book for you , otherwise get the book for the specific country you are going to or do your research on the internet before hand!.
by James Palmer
Great book. It never left my side until I left Southeast Asia, then I passed it on to another traveller. When people call it a travel bible I certainly know what they mean. I easily found bars, accommodation and restaurants in my district that were as described in the book. But I really found the information on history, local customs, transport, scams to avoid, money-saving tips, best travel routes, what not to miss and hidden gem really helpful. Add to that guides on what to do if you have 2/3/4 days in a city. The writers are honest and give an accurate account of each place, in my opinion. Every time I travel I always buy the Lonely Planet guides now. Very rarely do products live up to the hype. Highly recommended.
by Bryant
A few years ago I toured around the Middle East and the Lonely Planet was a great comfort. Several years on, WIFI has gone mainstream and the travel books need to convince people they’re still a useful companion.
This book isn’t aimed at your average traveller. It somehow manages to be pretencious, opinionated, and very subjective for something which is supposed to act as an informative guide book.
The biggest problem is the endless obsession of saying EVERYTHING is great. Don’t get me wrong, positivity is a good thing – but when you’re frequently deciding where to go next this becomes a huge issue. For example instead of admitting: “Phuket town is a bland place, serving as little more than a stopover point for most.” (an opinion the majority agree with from my experience), they write, “There’s good food in Phuket town!”
It quickly becomes apparent some of the authors have forgotten they’re writing a book to help the majority, and instead cram their ‘alternative’ perspectives all over the place. Why on earth is my travel guide telling me what my opinion on elephant treatment should be?! Are we young and ignorant travellers not able to form our own conclusion?
If one author takes her 1 year old to Thailand to successfully boost her ‘cuteness factor’, then how is this helpful to the 99.9% of us who DIDN’T do that? Take a kid with you and I’m sure just about every single restaurant will appear friendly. “Thailand gets richer and happier with every visit” – seriously? The country is great fun but many locals are quite clearly sick to death with the amount of tourists. Did you give a tuk tuk driver 1000B and then notice how happy and friendly he is?
Then there’s the parts which are just downright lazy. “Laos VOA available for most countries”, great thanks, how about a rough estimate of how much the visa actually costs? How about mentioning I’ll need to pay in dollars or else I’ll get slaughtered on the exchange rate? This is the information I need! If there’s not enough room for that, then take out the opinionated rants to make room. The structure is poor at times, next destination information was rarely where I’d expect to find it.
It’s an impressive amount of information for the size of the book, and there are still helpful parts here. The highlights for each country is a nice touch and useful for planning. The scam points are good but should be consistent. The section on The Phillipines is well written, honest, and avoids many pitfalls the others fall into:
“At first, the Philippines may likely disarm you more than charm you, but peel back the country’s skin and there are treasures to be found – aplenty.”
Excellently put, why can’t the rest of the book be up front yet also encouraging like that?
I think it might be time to get some younger writers who can give information to at least suit the majority. The sleeping sections are completely useless, the best hostels are rarely listed. Not every page needs to tell you to “soak up the culture”.
It’s still worth a purchase for a long trip, but it’s by absolutely no means necessary. Hopefully the Lonely Planet can get back to being a helpful guide in difficult times, and not a book where writers tell you how you can enjoy SEA, ‘like an experienced traveller’.
(note that many reviews have been written before travelling)
You’ll have a great time by the way, it’s brilliant.
by gabi
Arrived quickly, condition of book was really good, bought for my son who’s got itchy feet & planning a trip.
Definitely order from this shop again.
by Guilherme
Great guide for travelling in South East. Good of information on where to go, how to get there, what to do, see and eat. The only downsides for me are the lack of photos for attractions, which I understand are expensive to add to the paperback version but not on ebooks, and the limited information on weather patterns (there is only historical temperature/precipitation for one city per country).
by xstanfie
Great book! Provides a brief look at all of the countries in South East Asia and helpful tips for saving money – just what you need for a budget trip. I haven’t used it abroad yet but I have used other guides similar to this and I find them incredibly helpful – especially when you don’t have access to the internet and want to know whats around you.