Thailand (Country Guide)

As always, the book contains a wealth of practical information. I've used lonelyplanet guides to plan my travels to New-Zealand, South-Africa and Kenya in the past.

Basically, my main complaint is that they took out the good stuff from the old edition and replace them with irrelevant stuff.

One example would be in the last edition, they had a section with color pictures of different types of food served in Thailand, something I find interesting to note when traveling to a foreign country. They replaced this section with a section with picture of people riding on elephants and scenery that don't really tell you much.

The reason why I did not give them too bad of a rating is that the information is pretty much the same between the two editions. In this edition, there is less information on border crossings, but that is due to increase safety concerns (so I can understand why they did that). I would still recommend the last edition. Besides being cheaper, you actually learn a little bit more.

This is the worst guidebook I've had the misfortune to buy; if I had the time, I would have returned it. Unless you have perfect vision the entire book is printed in a tiny font on very thin paper, making it hard on the eyes. The reviews are incredibly biased, totally slanted towards travelers who want to eat street food, stay in backpacker or budget accommodations... It does not take disabilities, age or food allergies into consideration & assumes, in a rather mean-spirited manner, that if you don't want to stay in a low budget place or eat, very spicy street food, that something is wrong with you. Being a disabled traveler who is unable to stay in low budget accommodations because they aren't accessible, I was stunned by the lack of information on moderately priced hotels (let alone pricey ones). If you want to try the haute cuisine of Bangkok, stay in moderate or upscale hotels, instead of backpacking, buy Fodor's guide, as there's no information here, just judgments on your inability to 'slum it'. TERRIBLE.

Lots of information. The websites are in general up to date. There is a lot to see in Thailand so this book covers a lot of the popular areas.

I have bought many guidebooks over the years and would say that lonely planet has the best. No, it is not one of those guidebooks filled with pretty, glossy photos but a clear, concise guidebook with pertinent information designed for all travelers whether you are a budget traveler or a jetsetter. Very user friendly, always updated. If you are only going to use one travel guide, cut to the chase and pick up lonely planet.