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.Peru (Country Guide)

by: Sara Benson, Paul Hellander, Rafael Wlodarski

April 23, 2007
my wife and i spent 4 days in cusco and could not find a single restaurant that lonely planet recommended. my wife is fluent in spanish and we spoke with locals and touristico police and NOBODY had even heard of the restaurants. very frustrating.

and cusco sucks, don't waste time there. arequipa is a million times better.
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Used Price: $12.72

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.Greece (Country Guide)

by: Paul Hellander

March 01, 2008
I read this from cover to cover but used a competitors guide while in Greece instead because I thought it might be better based on my past experiences using both brands. Also, LP guides tend to be a bit more roughing it in recommendations (I am too old for that) but, that was not an issue.
I kind of wish I had brought this one or the National Geographic Greece guide which would have been fine and a bit thiner.
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Used Price: $11.50

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.Greek Islands (Regional Guide)

by: Paul Hellander

March 01, 2008
The media has recently reported that many travel books are now written by people who don't actually travel to the places they review. While using this book in Greece I had the nagging suspicion I must have bought one of those books.

For example, the book reviews several beaches on Patmos but doesn't mention a single hotel around Grikos Beach, even though there are at least half a dozen places to stay. Also, I'd expect a book to do more than just list the beaches on an island--but to let us know which ones are crowded, which are nearly inaccessible, and which beaches are hidden "gems". The books gives no such information, leaving you to waste time finding it all out yourself.

Also, the book doesn't indicate which beaches ... Read More:
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Used Price: $8.99

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.Lonely Planet Peru (Lonely Planet. (Spanish Guides))

by: Sara Benson, Paul Hellander

October 24, 2007
The media has recently reported that many travel books are now written by people who don't actually travel to the places they review. While using this book in Greece I had the nagging suspicion I must have bought one of those books.

For example, the book reviews several beaches on Patmos but doesn't mention a single hotel around Grikos Beach, even though there are at least half a dozen places to stay. Also, I'd expect a book to do more than just list the beaches on an island--but to let us know which ones are crowded, which are nearly inaccessible, and which beaches are hidden "gems". The books gives no such information, leaving you to waste time finding it all out yourself.

Also, the book doesn't indicate which beaches ... Read More:
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Used Price: $24.63

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.Lonely Planet Guide : Israel & the Palestinian Territories

by: Andrew Humphreys, Paul Hellander, Neil Tilbury

1999-11
There are so many guides to Israel.

This is one you can do without.

The author Matt Rees blames Israel for Arab terror without describing Arab hatred of Jews and Israel. He equates Israel with Arab terrorists like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, fails to mention Jews murdered in Arab Riots of '29 and '36. He denies the holiness of the Temple Mount to Jews and only mentions the mosque built on top of it to co-op Jewish culture. I could go on with other examples but they are rife and there is not enough space to write about all his partisan opinions. His editorializing is apparent throughout the book and gets tiring. Israel is a very exciting place that is at the core of Jewish life. Rees' arabist opinions have no place in a guide book.

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Used Price: $1.95

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.Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring

by: Conner Gory, Fiona Adams, Sandra Bao, Virginie Boone, Krzysztof Dydynski, Paul Hellander, Carolyn Hubbard, John Noble, Danny Palmerlee, Rob Rachowiecki

2002-01
I am writing this review after visiting Peru, and using this book as a guide.

The book is very thick, but actually contains very little useful information. Most pages are simply full with senselessly long lists of restaurants, hotels, and other contact information. Such things are better found on the internet, or by simply walking around the city. Moreover, a lot of that information was already out of date a little more than 1 year after publication. So, about two thirds of the book is immediately utterly useless weight.

Instead, a good guide book,
1) would have a lot of pictures. There are none in this book!
2) would have a lot of maps. A few are available in this book, but are not sufficiently detailed, not well-prepared, not well ... Read More:
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Used Price: $5.50

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.Lonely Planet Cyprus

by: Paul Hellander

2003-06
I expected a "Lonely Planet" guide to help me explore off the beaten track, but I found this book too bland and long-winded to use. Some of the information is useful, but some is out of date. The "Eye Witness Top Ten Cyprus" suited me better to help me explore the beauty and appeal of Cyprus.
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Used Price: $7.98

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.Lonely Planet Greece: A Survival Kit (2nd ed.)

by: David Willett, Rosemary Hall, Paul Hellander, Kerry Kenihan

1996-03
I expected a "Lonely Planet" guide to help me explore off the beaten track, but I found this book too bland and long-winded to use. Some of the information is useful, but some is out of date. The "Eye Witness Top Ten Cyprus" suited me better to help me explore the beauty and appeal of Cyprus.
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.Lonely Planet Crete

by: Paul Hellander, Jeanne Oliver

2002-02
The LP guide to Crete seems no worse than any of the other printed guides. They all, by nature, suffer the problem of possibly being out of date even before they go to press. Businesses on the island change very quickly and when a new edition is due to be released some information will have gone quite stale. LP seems to suffer no more than any of the others and the style is typically readable. The usual introductory sections on basics, history, mythology etc are brief but cover a lot of bases in a short space. One major gripe is that it could easily, in itself, warrant a LP volume as thick as that for the mainland. Some popular and interesting areas getting tens of thousands of visitors a year only get an insufficient couple of pages each. Overall though the 1st and 2nd editions ... Read More:
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Used Price: $7.21

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.Lonely Planet Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei (Lonely Planet Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei, 7th ed)

by: Chris Rowthorn, Clem Lindenmayer, Paul Hellander, David Andrew

1999-04
Lile most Lonely Planet guidebooks, this travel guide won't come as a disappointment to any of its readers. The unmistakable excellent standards we can expect from LP, combined with the fact that this particular guidebook is in its 8th edition already, makes of this book a masterpiece no traveller to the region should leave behind. The information about hotels and restaurants, things to see and do, etc, is dense, well-written, excellently ordered, and up-to-date. Likewise, the maps, the various tips on do's and dont's, are invaluable. As always, the sections on history, politics, culture etc, are excellently written and well condensed, ensuring pleasant reading for the traveller and the prospective traveller alike. Without exaggerating nor diminishing the fascination of this wonderful ... Read More:
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Used Price: $0.59