Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 916.604
EAN num: 9781740592499
ISBN number: 1740592492
Label: Lonely Planet Publications
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 896
Printing Date: 2002-10
Publishing house: Lonely Planet Publications
Sale Popularity Level: 553343
Studio: Lonely Planet Publications
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Rewarding and rugged, West Africa's 17 countries have much to offer the adventurous traveler. Laze on golden-sand beaches, trek up cool Mt Cameroon or see Saharan caravans set off from Timbuktu — this updated guide leads you through all of this alluring region.
Covers: Bein, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Ashanti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. - More than 170 maps, including a colour map of the region.
- Full-colour Arts & Craftwork special section
- Dedicated sections on West Africa’s music and peoples
- Stay safe and healthy – the lowdown on hotspots and health issues
- Eat your fill, rest your head – places to eat and stay, to suit all budgets
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
In general the guide is fine, however for some of the smaller countries (like Sierra Leone), there is too little information.
Rated by buyers 
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I used this guide in Ghana and Togo. It was quite helpful, but often felt incomplete. It gives great information about lodging and food, but when it comes to transit issues it is somewhat ambiguous, and often leaves big gaps for you to figure out on the fly. For travel in Ghana, the Bradt guide is far superior.
Rated by buyers 
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I love Lonely Planet books. I use them extensively when traveling or planning to travel. They help bring a lot of fun to travel.
Rated by buyers -
This is an adequate guide, but was disappointing in a few areas. Firstly, it is not geared to someone making a comprehensive West Africa trip but rather reads like a collection of individual country guides. It's OK if you are going to just fly in a hang out in a single country, but planning cross border itineraries is a chore. There could be better integration for the area.
Secondly, using the maps and references to them is a bit taxing. Place names that would likely be obsure to the reader are presented in the text without specifying country or area; the only way to figure out where or how is to scan maps randomly for some idea of specifically where they are talking about. Place names are often referred to with different spellings, or more colloquially, in the text than on the maps, making finding them once again a tiring guessing game. There is a lack of consistency. Beyond that, the maps are small and lacking in detail. In other words, you can sort it all out, but this guide makes you work harder than you should have to. You get the feeling that it needed to be proofed once more.
I agree with the accusations of ethnocentrism mentioned previously, but I've grown used to it in LP guides, and in a way appreciate seeing the author's predjudices up front.
Use this guide and you'll have a fine trip, I think, but you'll spend too many hours wrestling logistic details from the text when you could be perusing the fun stuff.
I use LP, Rough Guide, and Moon guides alternately when I travel. Actually, I usually buy all three, study them all before departure, and take the one I think is most useful. I have not found any one brand to be consistently better or worse, it varies by area and author. In this case I think the Rough Guide is much better. It very neatly addresses all my reservations above, and with a better layout.
Rated by buyers -
This book is practically the bible for W. Africa travel. I lived and worked in W. Africa for 3 years (2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer) and I never went anywhere without consulting LP. The information is as accurate as anything out there. It offers you suggested itineraries and "off the beaten path" suggestions as well as the traditionally touristy destinations. Many parts are less objective than other parts and the writers tend to harp on corruption. But W. Africa is a pretty corrupt place in general. If you don't like the editorial sections, skip 'em, the info you need is still there.
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