No comments about Guide to Tanzania (Bradt Guides).

No comments about In Tasmania.

No comments about The People Next Door: Understanding Indonesia.

2 comments about Treasure Islands: Sailing the South Seas in the Wake of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson.

1. This book was a total joy, having been obsessd with the saga of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson myself. Pamela Stephenson(no relation) buys a yacht and follows the exact passage of the south seas voyage of the Stevensons, with a full crew and her teenage daughter Scarlett. A book to treasure (no pun intended) and one I will dip into again and again, whenever I need feminine inspspiration. Go Pamela!



2. Boring and self indulgent. Moneyed person has mid-life crisis. Buys things and has a holiday complete with servants.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Cycling New Zealand (Lonely Planet Cycling Guides).

1. The book is really good and well worth the money.New Zealand is a wonder to cycle thru, like Yosmite Valley on a nation scale. But be fore warned! Amazingly, the New Zealand roads are anti-cycle,and you put yourself there at your own risk. 99% of the roads are single lane on each side, they are very skinny lanes. Designed for small cars. Full sized transport semis use these roads with a clearance of inches on each side of their lane. .The roads twist and wind like mountain roads do. There are very few straight stretches of road as you may see in the US. There are no bike lanes,few passing lanes, and no emergency lanes,you are in the path with traffic. Kiwis know their roads and consistently drive fast, 100-120kmph. The problem you are going to have over and over is cycling thru all this beauty in the same lane as cars and trucks...they barrel around a blind curve at 65mph only to find you in front of their windshield going 15mph and no safety margin for anyone. On my recent trip there, I can't tell you how many times I saw this scenario played out and how many near misses I witnessed. Local drivers, particularly commercial tdrivers have real contempt for cyclists. Get the book and dream, but I think I'd look into renting a convertible and live to cycle another day.



2. First off, you should by the Pedaller's Paradise instead of Lonely Planet. It can be found for about 12 NZD in New Zealand (but is also available through Amazon for a bit more if you can't wait).
   
   Dangerous - The profiles (ie. graphical descriptions of hills) shown in the Lonely Planet Guide are drastically over-simplified. On a good day, this is only just very annoying. On a bad day, it could mean being out in the cold wondering just how many more hills are before the next stop. It is obvious that the writers did not use bicycles to research the routes. Nor did they use GPS or any other precise means of measuring elevation. They were very lazy about how they threw this guide together, and it will get you into trouble. Avoid it!
   
   Buy the Pedallar's Paradise instead - it is a fraction the size, half the cost, and packed with useful information.



3. Just finished a 9-day tour of New Zealand's Northland, using the route recommended by this LP guidebook.
   
   Like the rest of the LP series, this book has a wealth of useful information on both the trips and how to prepare for them.
   
   The best part of the book is the information design:
   
   - Narratives are brief, important items are called out or bolded, and sections are kept small, making things easy to find in a hurry. Contrast this with other guidebooks that present you with a wall of text to hunt through for a phone number.
   
   - Maps are very clear, showing the route, landmarks along the way, optional side trips, and nothing else to clutter the view. Cue sheets make it easy to find the next waypoint or climb. Much better than the handdrawn sketches in Bruce Ringer's book.
   
   - The elevation charts, while not as accurate as those in Pedaller's Paradise, seemed good enough to me, and easier to understand at a glance.
   
   The book, though published in 2000, is still reasonably up to date. A few businesses and prices had changed, but nothing drastic.
   
   I bought both this book and Bruce Ringer's New Zealand By Bike, and after reading both cover to cover, I took the LP book by itself and found it indispensible during the trip.



4. I bet if the people who rated this book highly were polled as to what year they utilized its guidance there would be a direct correlation to how close they were to the release of this only edition...hint hint Lonely Planet editors...UPDATE THIS BOOK!
   
   I don't know where to begin but who in the world rides loops when they are bicycle touring. While I admit that the Southern Alps loop was pretty cool I couldn't overlook the out of date information and sometimes inaccurate terrain profiles in this book. I quicky learned not to rely too heavily on this book and transitioned over to the, much lighter, Pedaller's Paradise. That wafer thin book of goodness in conjunction with the NZ AA maps (which are free to anyone who has an Autoclub memmbership) were much more informative and enjoyable. I am not sure if Amazon carries that book but you can easily search for "pedaller's paradise."
   
   Lastly, I took a Lonely Planet New Zealand guide book as well and found that not worth its brick-like weight in my pannier. I found the New Zealand Tourist Information centers and the people who staff them much more informative and much more fun to engage. The first thing I usually did when rolling into towns was to b-line directly for the Tourist Information.
   
   One more thing...if you like to mountain bike as well pick up the Kennett Brother's book, Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides, by searching for "kennett bros classic."



5. I've bicycle toured solo in Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and New Zealand. I've yet to see a cycling guide to a country that is worth taking along, and this book is worse than most, because of the "loop" configuration of the rides, and the confusing maps (look hard to see which way is north!). In my travel journal, I made a reference to the "nearly useless" LP Cycling Guide.
   
   My recommendation for any country is to take a look at the general information overview in any cycling guide, make notes of any peculiarities of that country (ie, NZ requires all cyclists to wear a helmet. You cannot leave the airport on your bike until you've purchased a helmet at the airport shop), then buy the GENERAL (not cycling-specific) tourist guide that suits your style. I used the Rough Guide New Zealand (best maps and budget accommodation info; I don't camp), after rejecting the Lonely Planet guide. In Europe the best has consistently been Let's Go, with Rick Steves' being an excellent series for inside information (even though his hand-drawn maps are mediocre, his inside info is excellent.)
   
   Buy maps when you get there. You'll find great maps ("Kiwi Maps"(?) spiral-bound booklet) in service stations in the countries you go to. When you can look them over in the country they were made for, you'll find they're cheaper, and you can then assess exactly what suits you. You can generally go to Tourist Information in the airport for good information on where to go first, then buy a map when you're situated.
   
   I had high hopes for this guide when I lugged it along, but after a couple of outdated references to gravel roads (that didn't materialize), and weird warnings about dangerous roads (that weren't) I gave up on it early on. Kiwis are the friendliest ("toot-toot") drivers I've come across, the roads are better than most in the U.S., and get up and go--it's a dream for scenery, and if you've never travelled abroad, there is NO culture shock (It's got a strong Colorado vibe)!

No comments about Micronesia Handbook: Guide to the Caroline, Gilbert, Mariana, and Marshall Islands (Moon Handbooks).

1 comments about Fodor's In Focus Fiji, 1st Edition (In Focus).

1. Fodor's In Focus book on Fiji is incomplete. It is missing hotel and sight-seeing information for entire regions of the country such as Rakiraki and Nananu-Ira.
   
   For the regions that are included, the Fodor book fails to mention many nice hotels. For example, only two hotels are listed for Lautoka, compared to nine hotels listed in a recent Moon handbook and and six in Lonely Planet.
   
   When I search for information this book might offer that is not also included in the Moon and Lonely Plant travel books on Fiji, I find almost nothing. It appears that little, if any, independent on-the-ground research was done for this book.

5 comments about Solomon Time: An Unlikely Quest in the South Pacific.

1. This book tells the rather self-deprecatory tale of an English school teacher who becomes a volunteer in the Solomon Islands. A chance meeting with an ex-colonial identified as "the commander" sends Will Randall to Rendova Island in the Western Solomons with the vague intention of helping the local villagers create some sort of income-generating project. Randall's first weeks are spent acclimatizing to the slow pace of Solomons life, until a divemaster in nearby Munda suggests he help the villagers set up a chicken farm to supply meat to the local guest houses. Despite the ethnic conflicts raging in the capital Honiara, Will Randall manages with difficulty to locate the correct breeding hens, and Chicken Willy is soon dispensing fried fast food to one and all at Munda Market. Solomon Time is a case study of the naive Westerner in a tropical location who arrives to do good and stays to go native. It's appropriate reading for anyone considering doing something similar.



2. I was highly impressed with this terrifically real, but straightforward recital of events in really unusual circumstances. For example, the author did not editorialize on whether the village people working throughout the night to process their chickens, so they could obtain more material goods, was a good or bad thing. Likewise with the picture of them working in (I presume) a hot, smoky kitchen in Chicken Willys.

   As a typical capitalist American, I of course would have set up the same, but I also want to ask the author: Are these good people better off as they were, or after taking up the reins of commerce?

   This new author has real talent.




3. As an american i found the book to be very intresting not only for the relaxing journey though the south pacific but also for Randall's british ways, Reading solomon time made me think of Will as Hugh Grant. The conversations with the islanders were very good , the desciptions of the island scenery and people was great and i feel like i came away knowing a remote village in a far flung corner of the map, which is always an indication of a good book.



4. I fell in love with the Solomons during two visits in the mid-1980s. Will Randall has captured the spirit of the islands very well.... the casualness of the process, the friendships of the locals, the dubious expats who drift in and out.
   
   You will enjoy his British wit and laugh at his adventures and fellow islanders. A great holiday read, especially if in the tropics.



5. This book has some hilarious moments. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to learn more about the South Pacific
   
   Sean O'Reilly
   Editor-at-large
   Travelers' Tales
   
   Editor of 30 Days in the South Pacific

No comments about Outback Cooking: Recipes and Stories from the Campfire.

No comments about Getting into Australia.