Reviews (1)

Kev
The guide was apparently aimed more at the less affluent tourist market than at what I required. I am sure it would be five stars from back packers - but it did not really fully cover my needs as a more older tourist. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Europe - Gt. Britain/Wales    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. New South Wales    6. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (1)

LP is always very useful
I have never liked how LP guides are arranged but have found them to consistantly have the best information [not perfect but better than other guides.]I wish they had not included Tonga as I am not going there and always travel as light at possible.The binding is not condusive to removing unwanted pages but I will remove the Tonga section anyway.I say, 'buy it!' but don't get bent out of shape should some info not prove to be correct. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia & Oceania - South Pacific    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel Guides    6. Samoa    7. Tonga    8. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (5)

Disagee with other reviewers
Both my wife and I found this book to be very inferior to other guide books on Australia (eg Rough Guide is far superior in our opinon).The Moon Handbook gives just basic information on tourist sites which is okay, but it doesn't go into anything out of the ordinary.I bought the book because of the positive reviews and the recent edition (late 2005) - both of which were the wrong reasons to buy.The book is not worth lugging around Australia.
Extremely helpful
I bought a number of guides to Australia and studied each before leaving. They were all helpful in planning my trip, but Australia Handbook stood out for its coverage of the country in general as well as all the usual hotel and restaurant recommendations. As well as balancing this coverage, I found the book to be up to date and, with everywhere I traveled, anyway, coverage was thorough. Many guidebooks I have used in the past concentrate on the big cities, but this one led me further afield to the kind of places only locals would usually know about. By the end of my trip I was relying almost entirely on it for places to stay and eat, and couldn't find a fault in the choices provided. A great book to a great country
We purchased this book before leaving for a six-week trip Downunder. It contained all the information we needed for pretrip planning as well as wealth of information on the country itself. Once in Australia I found it an indispensible aid for choosing what we wanted to see in the limited time we had. The accommodations and restaurants recommended were also spot on, and it was obvious to us as soon as we started traveling that the book is extremely well-researched. Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Australia    5. Travel & holiday guides    6. Travel / Australia & Oceania   

Reviews (3)

worthless map
This map is an absolute waste of money.I didn't open it once
better than the maps in my tourbooks
I am using this map a lot- my friends say that I overthink things but I have 12 days on the ground to cram all that I can into- Not to mention covering LOTS of ground to cover.This map has been vital to planning my trip. I have not yet had the experience to tell you if it was accurate or not, but soon I will be able to tell you exactly how many miles are in an inch of this map.....and have photos of every one of them!

Useless Map
This map is useless if you plan on driving the North and South Islands.You are better off picking up free maps when you get there. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Maps    3. Maps & Road Atlases    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. New Zealand    7. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Reviews (3)

Sufficient
This is an OK guidebook for information about culture and hotels.I found that it covered all the basics.It covers all of the island nations in the Micronesia area.The section on Palau and Yap were particularly useful to me.However, I thought that there wasn't enough information about scuba diving.Most of the people visiting this region are interested in scuba diving.There isn't enough information on dive shops or dive sites.In fact, there aren't any maps of dive sites at all.If you're going to go diving, I would try another guidebook.If you're just going to go sightseeing, this is just fine.Also another thing I would like to see in the next edition is a few more photos.Sometimes photos can help you decide whether to go to a place or not.With more photos, I think this guidebook would attract more people to these lovely islands.

Only marginally outdated... still very useful.
I have been to Micronesia twice.The first time I lived there for a couple of years, and the second time I went as a tourist.I purchased this book before returning the second time. It had been seven years since I hadbeen in Micronesia, and some of it had changed drastically while some partshadn't changed at all.This book was a great guide, and helped me to findsome of the better spots that I had somehow managed to miss while I livedthere.Here is how the book stacked up.THE GOOD: 1) This book covers allof Micronesia, and that is no small task.It has information about allparts, ranging from Palau to the Marshall Islands.2) This book gives alot of information about each island.It explains the history, tells youwhat you should take, tells you about hotels and restaurants (from the fivestar establishments to the low end ones), tells you about how to travel toeach island as well as how to travel around while on the island and manyother bits of useful information to make your stay more enjoyable.3) Themaps are good.They aren't super detailed, but are nice maps of theislands and the villages on them.Quite good enough for any sight seeingor exploring that you might want to do.4) This book tells you about thepopular and good diving spots, hiking spots and historical points.So eventhough some of the book may be outdated (the nicest hotels in Guam) thereare some things that will probably never change (how to hike to a nicehidden waterfall on Pohnpei.)THE BAD: Parts of Micronesia are changingquickly, and this book fails to capture those changes.For example, thelist of popular places to stay, eat and shop on Guam wasn't very helpfulsince the island had changed so much in the past five years (since the bookwas published).To counteract this information lag, I just picked uptourist publications while I was on Guam, and that updated me enough tofill in all the gaps. OVERALL: It is like a computer that is a couple ofyears old: sure it is outdated some, but it still works nicely, and it ismuch better than having nothing at all!

The only name in Travel Guides
As a merchant marine, "travel" comes with the job.I have long been a collector of maps and travelguides, always searching for items that are themost user friendly & seeingly written for mybudget, not one of the Rockerfeller's.I will tipmy hat to Lonely Planet here. They accomplish theimpossible with every book.Never did I expectto open a single guide book, not to mention aseries of them & find myself so mesmerized by whatwas written.Their guides are not the commonlyfound or should I say "forced" "stay at the $$$$hotel, eat at the $$$$ restaurant"... They giveyou such a wide, realistic range of places to go,visit, stay & enjoy, that they change you from theprospective dreamer ho-hummingly flipping pages inabook tothe traveler that sees his/her goals come to pass. After all, isn't that what we really want out oftravel?As for this particular guidebook... I have been in Guam 4 months on and 4months off since February of 1996, visiting Saipanas part of work & Rota & Tinian on my own time...I have used & abused this book (Cover stillintact) & I have had many co-workers borrow it,with everyone coming away a satisfied reader.So,whether it be Guam, Saipan or any part ofMicronesia, this is one guide book that I stronglyrecommend & if you are doing an around the worldtrip with Japan as your next stop...Do the rightthing... Get the Japan Guide book, but also shellout a few extra dollars and purchase the JapaneseAudio Pack. It is hands down the easiest (& one ofthe most economical) basic language teachers outthere & it even comes with a Phrase Book!Mycurrent Lonely Planet Guide library includes:Micronesia, Japan (Book & Audio pack), Korea,Singapore-Brunei-Malaysia, Tonga, Southwest USA(Arizona-New Mexico-Utah), & Maldives & Islands OfThe East Indian Ocean.I look to expand as I amplaning a trip to Argentina's Andes in 2000.Asatisfied ! customer I shall remain... I hope you,the reader of my review, read this & come to realize what wonderful publications Lonely Planetoffers us. If you do, step back an useAMAZON.COM for all your travel needs. You will beglad you listened. (You know, I always thoughtthese reviews were written by paid personelsomewhere, TRUST me this isn't the case at allRead more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia & Oceania - South Pacific    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign   

Reviews (1)

New Zealand guide
I bought this book since it seemed a comfortable size for traveling as compared with Lonely Planet. I think it had very little info however, and found that the free guides given by New Zealand Tourism were equally if not more useful. Wouldn't recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia & Oceania - New Zealand    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel Guides    6. Travel / Australia & Oceania   

Reviews (1)

The Most Spectacular Wreck Diving in the World
I purchased this book as part of my preparation for a diving trip to Chuuk Lagoon. It contains many excellent colour photographs of wrecks, coral, artifacts and local inhabitants. I found the brief history that accompanies each of the wrecks featured especially interesting. Likewise the diagrams of some of the wrecks, along with their various inclinations on the lagoon floor is fascinating.Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia & Oceania - South Pacific    3. Scuba & Snorkeling    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Micronesia    7. Sub-aqua swimming    8. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (1)

Excellent Overview of Little-Visited Sites
This book is an excellent and still pretty up-to-date book on PNG's many and varied dive sites.Good way to plan a dive trip, by seeing which site descriptions most appeal to you.PNG's dive sites are very variable; fabulous visibility one day can be down to murky on the next.Little explored country in terms of diving, new sites are being identified all the time. Hopefully they'll update the book in a few years to include the many sites not known at the time it was first published.All in all, a very helpful and thorough book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia & Oceania - South Pacific    3. Guidebooks    4. Papua New Guinea    5. Scuba & Snorkeling    6. Scuba diving    7. Skin diving    8. Sports    9. Travel    10. Travel - Foreign    11. Sub-aqua swimming    12. Travel & holiday guides   

Features

• Folded Map

Reviews (2)

A decent companion when traveling
It was a great extra to get sites from the lord of the rings marked.A little hard to follow while driving because of the size of map and so many locations mapped out, a little overwhelming.Not all city areas are shown in detail which makes it difficult to find hotels when smaller road names are not listed.

Globetrotter New Zealand Travel Map
Desiring a travel map for the purpose of driving, I found this map inadequate.It was difficult to read because the towns were printed in very small print with little coordination of print size to size of town.Generally the city map inserts were good.The map legend or reference referred only to the city inserts so there was no description of roads, train routes, tunnels, hiking tracks etc.I prefer the Kiwi Pathfinder map series or the Wises maps. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Maps    3. Maps & Road Atlases    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. New Zealand    7. Travel / General    8. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Reviews (2)

The best all-around book I have found.
I researched Australia for over a year prior to my April 2002 visit there, and I read as many guides and books as I could find. While in Australia I purchased a local behemoth encycledia of the country, thinking that was as good as it gets. A wonderful book show me a beautiful Australia.
A wonderful book show me a beautiful Australia.Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Australia & Oceania - General    3. Travel    4. Travel & holiday guides    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Travel Guides   

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - Australia    2. Australia & Oceania - General    3. Reference - Guides (General)    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Travel Guides    7. Queensland    8. Travel & holiday guides    9. Travel / Australia & Oceania   

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. Australia    6. Travel & holiday guides    7. Travel / Australia & Oceania   

Reviews (1)

Baedecker's Australia
I didn't find this guide helpful on a recent 3 week trip to Sydney, Melbourne and the coast- very few recommendations for accomodations, and even missplelled place names. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - Australia    2. Australia & Oceania - General    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel / Australia & Oceania   

Subjects:  1. Atlases - General    2. Reference    3. New Zealand    4. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Reviews (1)

The Fine Five
The book is great: just what I was looking for. The direct text is what the overseas visitor or migrant need to be presented about this amazing country ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Australia & New Zealand - Australia    3. Australia & Oceania - Australia    4. Australia & Oceania - General    5. Etiquette    6. Guidebooks    7. National characteristics, Aust    8. National characteristics, Australian    9. Social life and customs    10. Travel    11. Travel - Foreign   

Reviews (6)

A MUST read if you are heading for the Cooks!
We just got back from a two week exploration of the Cooks and found this book VERY helpful. The Cooks will quickly convince you that if you've only been to Hawaii, you've only gone half way to Heaven! lonely planet, raro and cook islands
If you are headed out to the Cook Islands (absolutely fabulous, beautiful place to visit), you MUST bring this book with you.I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Not bad, unfortunately out of date
Having recently returned from the Cook Islands, I cannot highly recommend this book. While the history and culture sections are interesting, the lodging and shopping/restaurants sections leave a lot to be desired. Most of the businesses mentioned have either gone out of business or changed hands. This is especially true on Aitutaki, where only one of the businesses recommended was still in its present form! As another reader recommended, the book does not sufficiently cover home rentals which are a great way to stay on these islands for a reasonable amount (and most can be viewed and reserved on the internet!). David Stanley's Moon Handbooks South Pacific guide is a much better choice--it is more up to date and covers all the major South Pacific islands for almost the same amount of money. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. General    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Cook Islands    6. Raratonga    7. Travel & holiday guides   

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Australia & Oceania - New Zealand    3. Hiking    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Travel Guides    7. Australasia, Oceania & Other Land Areas    8. New Zealand    9. Travel & holiday guides    10. Travel / Australia & Oceania    11. Walking, hiking, trekking   

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - Australia    2. General    3. Scuba & Snorkeling    4. Sports    5. Sports & Recreation    6. Travel - Foreign    7. Australia    8. Sports & Recreation / General    9. Sub-aqua swimming    10. Surfing, windsurfing, water skiing   

Reviews (1)

Going Someplace exciting?
I picked up this book because I'm planning a long trip to West Africa and need a good travel guide. I found Jon Haggins' book to be VERY informative on preparations to West Africa and other places, but not on the actual destinations. Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. African Americans    3. Caribbean Area    4. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    5. Fiji    6. Guidebooks    7. Reference - Guides (General)    8. South America    9. Special Interest - Adventure    10. Travel    11. Travel - General   

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania    2. Children: Babies & Toddlers    3. Exploration    4. General    5. Life on other planets    6. Mars (Planet)    7. Science    8. Space Exploration