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Title: Lonely Planet Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania
ISBN: 1741042879
Author:
Nicola Williams
Publicate Date: 2006-06-01
Publish: 2006-06-01
List Price: $25.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $11.94
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $11.99
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.15
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| Customer Review: |
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1: If you're buying 1 Baltics travel book, don't buy this one
I generally love Lonely Planet books, so was a bit disappointed with this one. It's good as a quick reference guide, but nothing much more. It doesn't have very much background or history about some of the area's most important places. If you're going to buy only one book before traveling to the Baltics, choose the Rough Guide instead - we ended up using it almost exclusively towards then end of our trip. Also, the hotels/accommodations selection in this edition is very poor.
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2: Excellence
The book I purchased was delivered to my house in great condition. It was if I had just bought the book at a book store.
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3: First Time Traveler to Lithuania September 2005
I found the Lonely Planet Estonia Latvia & Lithuania book very helpful on my first trip to Lithuania. Six women traveling, we felt very safe, the maps were well written and made our daily planning easy. Time distances on the bus were accurate. Information on customs made us feel more at ease. We looked for relatives because my grandmother left Lithuania 100 years ago and found them. A bus trip to the city she was from, visiting the Tourist Information Center(as was listed in the book), an English speaking person in the office and we asked for a phone book which listed two phone numbers with my grandmother's last name. Wow, thank you Lonely Planet.
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4: Useful, but needs some work
As usual, Lonely Planet guides give the most detailed information on the "nuts and bolts" of travel (bus and train instructions, locations and practicalities.) We found this particularly useful in a region where we did not share a common language with the people.
However, tourism to the Baltic region boomed in 2004 with these countries' entry into the EU, making the book's hotel listings completely inadequate. I don't fault the authors/editors for not anticipating the boom, but rather comment that, for example, with only 3000 hotel rooms in Vilnius a guidebook now needs to list a lot more hotles so visitors can hope to get one of those now-coveted rooms!
The other drawback of this book is common to most other Lonely Planet titles: the information on cities, buildings, monuments, etc., is very dry (lacks color) and is overly terse. For such information, I have come to enjoy Rough Guides which usually include enjoyable walking tours of the major tourist areas.
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5: Comprehensive and Concise
The authors managed to stuff everything you need to know in a relatively small book. I have been in the Baltics three times and know Latvia quite well, but this book will enrich my next trip (the relatives and locals can only do so much).
I recommed it.
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