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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 915
EAN num: 9781741045680
ISBN number: 1741045681
Label: Lonely Planet
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 372
Printing Date: August 01, 2007
Publishing house: Lonely Planet
Sale Popularity Level: 69911
Studio: Lonely Planet
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Discover Laos
Weave your own path through the temple-lined streets of World Heritage-listed Luang Prabang, p. 134
Find out why Katang villagers sleep with their heads pointed towards an outside wall, p249
Explore the ancient Khmer's 'imitation of heaven' at mystical Wat Phu Champasak, p265
Join locals for a riverside Beerlao as the sun sets over the Mekong in Vientiane, p110
In This Guide:
Three authors, 1472 hours of on-the-road research, 61 maps
Our guide is dedicated to providing travelers with environmentally and culturally aware travel advice
Visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
What a difference a new edition makes. Lonely Planet's brand new guidebook, Laos 6th edition, released August 2007, is easily the best on the market. The traveller looking for comprehensive coverage in a guidebook need look no further. An extra 60 pages long, this title packs an impressive punch, with a good balance of exhaustive coverage of the key destinations along with sound information on the lesser known spots.
Quite simply, Australian co-authors Andrew Burke and Justine Vaisutis have put together what is the best English-language offline resource for travel in Laos. From a tourism perspective, Laos is a quickly developing nation, especially in the major tourist centres where new accommodation options multiply at a seemingly ever-increasing rate, yet they've done a fine job of boiling down a snapshot of the country into a guide that will be more than enough for the most demanding traveller.
Matters get off to a good start -- a good, easy-to-read colour map (even if some of the roads look a tad sketchy), suggested itineraries and a completely rewritten history section by Professor Martin Stuart-Fox, author of A History of Laos (1997). This is followed by a pretty stock-standard introductory section -- the people, government and culture are all covered, though the government -- arguably the most repressive and certainly the most secretive in Southeast Asia after Burma -- gets off the hook pretty lightly.
What does stand out in the introduction is the generous space given to Laos and its natural environment -- particularly its budding eco-tourism industry. As Burke says in an upcoming interview with Travelfish.org, "If there's anywhere in Asia where eco-tourism can be a success, then it's Laos". There's an outstanding summary of all the main trekking opportunities in the country's NPAs -- this alone makes the book worth buying (or at least a quick use of the library photocopier).
At the other end of the book, the "Directory" section, covering everything from getting a flight to what you should have in a medical kit is informative and rather well organised. As with other Lonely Planet titles, I think it's a bit too lengthy and hand-holding in nature.
Listings
The guidebook's listings are comprehensive, not exhaustive -- if you expect every place on Don Dhet to be listed, prepare to be disappointed. Perhaps half the available options in Vang Vieng are listed, similarly so in Luang Prabang, but what are listed are the best, and these can be taken as representative of others in the offing. Burke and Vaisutis do a fine job of brushing away the slimy rambutans and spoiled sticky rice to leave you with a feast of the best options to choose from.
The accommodation listings are generally easy to digest, with one exception -- Luang Prabang. There, the listings have been divided up geographically into "Near the Mekong", "Historic Temple District", "Thanon Pha Mahapatsaman", "Ban Wat That" and "Elsewhere". This is confusing in a number of ways -- "Near the Mekong" and "Historic Temple District" could easily be taken to be the same area -- neither is marked on any of the maps of Luang Prabang -- nor is "Ban Wat That". "Thanon Pha Mahapatsaman" is a short strip of around 200m of road that carries just three accommodation listings, and "Elsewhere" is just vague and meaningless. All this for just 37 listings -- Luang Prabang isn't that big a place!
Where this guide does come into its own is regarding things to do -- and this is particularly the case with the Southern Laos section. While it tends to be motorcycle-focused, there are lots of good tips and suggested day-trips to week-long adventures you can undertake. Less of this type of material is suggested in the north, where the focus is more orientated towards trekking and the tried and tested destinations, but you'll find ample material within the book to point in the right direction.
Transport
One of the big issues people face in Laos is the time it takes to get from A to B. Over time the road network has improved considerably but it still takes a while to get around, so it's refreshing to see that most of the bus and songthaew travel information includes an estimated trip time.
Border information is outstanding. Every main international border has a boxed section containing detailed information on how to get to and from the various border crossings and what's particularly good is there's information on onwards travel as well.
Text and design
As always, the densely-packed text has been put through the Lonely Planet humour wringer, so don't expect too many Laugh Out Loud moments, but the facts are all there and that's what really matters. As with all the new Lonely Planet titles, there's more fact boxes scattered throughout the book than I'd like, but at least in this case they're mostly interesting or of some practical use. ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
I agree 100% w/ Bryan below. (So, you could stop reading my review now) But when planning a trip to Laos, one needs to do allot of research on one's own. You can't leave it up to a guidebook. But why would you really want to anyway? Of all the guidebooks on the market, I'd still pick this one as my top choice. It's respectful of Laos, imparts a firm sense of culture, history and identity with the reader and then let's you figure some things out for yourself. Laos is a beautiful country... but you need to relax and keep in mind the motto" LAO PDR...please dont rush".... same thing with any guidebook, relax, enjoy the read and let the journey take you where you need to be.
Rated by buyers 
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This book made traveling through Laos a fantastic experience. Though prices in the book can't keep up with increases, most of the information was very timely and accurate. Very useful as a reference guide and helped make our trip go smoothly.
Rated by buyers -
When I very first read the reviews at amazon, I thought I just ordered a worthless piece of paper. In fact that guide was as useful as I used lonely planet in other countries. It gave me maps of where I was, general knowledge of many regions of Laos and much more, exactly what a guide book is intended to do.
I agree though that some of the information in the book is no longer right, but it is as always in a country opening up to tourism, constantly evolving. Anyway, if you live by the book, you will be deceived so use it as a reference when needed and try to go beyond the book (same for every lp).
Rated by buyers 
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I bought this edition for a bicycle trip across northern Laos, but was very disappointed with the very old and inaccurate information on Hua Phan Province in the northeast of the country. It's a remote region, and probably on few travelers' itineraries, but it was on mine. I felt let down that the authors didn't provide up-to-date coverage. Neither author even visited the province! That's not good enough.
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