Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.104648
EAN num: 9780864427526
ISBN number: 0864427522
Label: Lonely Planet Publications
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 976
Printing Date: 1999-11
Publishing house: Lonely Planet Publications
Sale Popularity Level: 1820678
Studio: Lonely Planet Publications
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This comprehensive guide is your passport to Canada's cosmopolitan cities and great outdoors. From the walled city of Quebec to grizzlies in the Rockies, this best-selling book has it all.
Includes: 109 detailed maps; accommodation options from secluded cabins to five-star hotels; information on hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, whitewater rafting and skiing; advice on travel throughout the remote and rugged Yukon, the Northwest Territories and the new Nunavut territory; practical Canadian English and Canadian French language guide; and colour section on Canada's flora, fauna and parks.
Amazon.com Review:
From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, if you're going there, chances are Lonely Planet has been there first. With a pithy and matter-of-fact writing style, these guides are guaranteed to calm the nerves of first-time world travelers, while still listing off-the-beaten-path finds sure to thrill even the most jaded globetrotters. Lonely Planet has been perfecting its guidebooks for nearly 30 years and as a result, has the experience and know-how similar to an older sibling's 'been there' advice. The original backpacker's bible, the LP series has recently widened its reach. While still giving insights for the low-budget traveler, the books now list a wide range of accommodations and itineraries for those with less time than money.
Whether you've got plans for stepping out in Montreal or kayaking Desolation Sound, this comprehensive guide will get you there in style. This guide offers places to stay and eat for all budgets, extensive coverage of outdoor activities (from sailing to skiing), Canadian English and Canadian French language sections, plus background on history, culture, and politics. Sidebar highlights include information on whales, totem poles, the Acadians, the Grand Banks, and the National Film Board of Canada. Check out the special flora, fauna, and national parks feature. --Kathryn True
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I think this book is like all the other books produced by lonely planet is made for tourists with no since of adventure. You can plan your entire trip in advance including your meals and in my opinion will make your trip boring.
I'm immigration to Canada soon and I thought this book will help to understand Canada and Canadian but I was really disappointed.
Rated by buyers 
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When I visited Quebec, the guide was a great help. Although most of the prices, hours, and descriptions of the sights and eateries were accurate, some were not, or outdated. A particular restaurant was highly rated in the review, but when I tried to visit the place, the restaurant was nowhere to be found with the given address. Otherwise, the book is good.
Rated by buyers -
I used the lonely planet Canada for travelling from the West Coast to the East Coast. In most places I found that it gave me all the information that I needed on hostels and places to eat.
The section on the Canadain Rockies was not so good, and an extra guide book is recommened.
On the negative side of this book is that some of the maps are incorrect and I found myself walking the wrong way.
I don't have anything to compare the book to, but it did the job for me.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is a lot of things, and none of them good. The authors really don't know the country very well, or have failed to visit many of the palces they recommend. I buy a guidebook to learn what's good and what's not. But this book doesn't give that. It just lists the same information anyone can find on the internet or in tourist brochures. I want to know if the rooms are big, if they're clean, where they are in relation to local attractions. None of this information is given.
I used this book to seach out a hotel near Vancouver Airport, which was my arrival point in Canada. The text says that the Holiday Inn is "beside Highway 99.", with no indication where along this 30 mile long road it is.
When the author does add a description, it does nothing to inform. Or it's incorrect. My travels took me to Lake Louise. There are lots of good hiking guides to this region, but I figured the outlines in this book would get me going. I hiked 2 trails the author suggested. The descriptions of both were so wildly inaccurate as to be dangerous. The author thinks there is a teahouse at Mirror Lake (never, I was told). He or she highly recommends hiking the "popular" trail between Moraine Lake and Lake Louise when in fact one doesn't even exist!
The Lonely Planet description of Mt. Assiniboine Park sounded good, so I followed their lead which said "a gravel road takes you close to the park through the ski resort of Sunshine Village." I followed my map to Sunshine Village to be told the gravel road has never ever been open to the public.
The only redeeming feature of this book is that when the author hasn't bothered to visit a place, he or she admits it in a subtle way: In Lake Louise, the extent of recommendations for places to dine is "Eat at your hotel." (lots of great places here for all budgets including the best bakery I found in a month on the road). In Nelson readers are encouraged to "ask at the visitor center" for somewhere to stay. These type of entries make me doubt whether they even bothered to travel to many places they write about, let alone do any actual research.
This book has turned me off a guidebook series I have used for years. Never again.
Rated by buyers -
The new edition of this book fails to deliver in every aspect. I've used Lonely Planet books in the past, and they've proved to be reliable and useful, but not this one. I live in Banff, and so the observations are from this region.
Firstly, the "new" edition is terribly out of date. I purchased it after seeing the publication date was October 2002. It's accepted and understandable that things change, but there is information that was wrong well over a year before the publication date. A hostel that burnt down in 2000 (Hilda Creek, page 701), and reference to Banff and Jasper as "townsites" (Banff was incorporated in 1991, Jasper in 2001) are examples.
The description of Banff is laughable. There is no possible way anyone could describe the town as a "small, alpine-style village that consists of essentially one main street" (page 686), as this book does. The following history section doesn't get better: "The Bow River forms a class-distinctive boundary that is still evident today." In the very first instance, the side of the river that LP tells us "caters to the wealthy crowd" comprises mainly of subsidized housing. And "Many people complain that the townsite is too crowded and argue that more hotels and streets should be built." Aside from the fact a 12 year old could have written the sentence, it's just simply not correct. In an effort to include an environmental slant, the authors have touched on current issues. Readers are informed that a convention center at Lake Louise is controversial because it's "in grizzly bear habitat-good goin' guys" (page 696). Bad goin' I say-it's controversial due to water issues, not bears.
The book is riddled with inaccuacies. Not information that is out of date, but straightforward mistakes. Page 688 talks of canoe rentals at Banff's Central Park. There has never been a canoe rental place here. How could a trained writer even imagine there was? Golden is "just outside the park" (page 692) No, it's over an hour's drive away along a treacherous road. There are literally dozens of similar mistakes in just the few pages on Banff. This is also reflected in the maps: Banff has no "Mamoth St." (page 687). As all Banff streets are named for animals, I guess they meant "mammoth" street, but there is no street of this name either. The mapmakers can't even correctly spell an incorrect name, or something along those lines anyway.
Most surprising for me, the good, solid travel information these books were once renowned for has been replaced by useless, fluffy text that serves no purpose at all. For example, the restaurants listed are not recommendations as such, but simply listings. And where there is a description it does little to inform. Four lines are used to explain the source of the name of an Irish pub (page 694) that has absolutely no relevance to Banff or the mountains, including that the original Guinness Brewery is still open and that it was "founded by 34 year old Arthur Guinness in 1759." The subsequent listing is for Bruno's, named for one of Banff's most famous and respected mountain men. This name isn't explained, just that the restaurant has a "wide-ranging menu." There is an excellent reason why renting a vehicle in Banff, as opposed to Calgary or Canmore, is a bad choice (no unlimited mileage is offered, even by the majors), yet, this important and useful information isn't included (page 696).
My original purpose of buying this book was for travel around my own country, not so much to rely on every word in print but to get a feeling as how Canada is portrayed by these books. The litany of inaccuracies and uselessness seems to continue beyond the Rockies section. On page 34 readers are told brown bears are "actually a grey bear but brown in color." I just wish I could ask the author how he came up with this unique theory.
I imagine picking a Lonely Planet book as the guide of choice is habit more than anything for many travelers. It's reflected in the attitude of those I meet on the road and the reviews I see here at Amazon. It seems somehow ironic that Lonely Planet has evolved from the likes of an Africa book I relied on for every word in the 80s, written by a guy whose biography had him living in a hut brewing mango wine somewhere I can't recall, to this worthless tome that relies on name rather than content to generate sales.
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