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Thailand (Country Guide) | 
 enlarge | Authors: China Williams, Aaron Anderson, Brett Atkinson, Tim Bewer, Becca Blond, Virginia Jealous, Lisa Steer
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Category: Book
List Price: $26.99
Buy New: $17.81
You Save: $9.18 (34%)
New (51) Used (8) from $16.50
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 5164
Media: Paperback
Edition: 12
Pages: 820
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1741043077
Dewey Decimal Number: 915
EAN: 9781741043075
ASIN: 1741043077
Publication Date: August 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Discover Thailand
Uncover Bangkok's best street stalls or enjoy a skyscraping gourmet dinner.
Climb aboard a long-tail boat and island hop to your own isolated beach paradise.
Get soaked at Songkran, the Thai celebration that becomes the world's biggest water fight.
Trek off the beaten path in remote Isan to watch a rare solar alignment at an ancient Angkor temple.
In This Guide
Ten authors, 259 days of in-country research and 150 maps.
Trek, dive or monkey-watch with our detailed coverage of national parks and natural wonders.
Visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler suggestions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 The best all-country Thailand guidebook September 24, 2007
M. Baum (Sometimes West, Sometimes East)
34 out of 37 found this review helpful
Beating up on whatever LP guidebook applies to wherever you find yourself is a favorite pass-time of the road-weary or the jaded ex-pat. You instantly become a cool-guy for bashing the guidebooks. Yawn. Then you try to offer (or sell) you own advice! Let's back up for a second and review this guidebook for what it is: a guidebook.
About me, I'm a perpetual farang (Thai for westerner). I've used at least 4 of LP's Thailand books, a handful of competitor's Thailand books, and at least a dozen regional guides and city guides that overlap with this most rececent LP Thailand. I've been making trips to Thailand for more than a decade. I've worked there, taught there, and been a student there. I love Bangkok. I love it when a guidebook can tell me something new about BKK or Thailand. And ust when I think I knew it all, this one manages to show me a thing or two!
This LP Thailand is moving in the right direction. From the first few pages you can tell that LP has cut and cleared some dead wood from the old editions and has freshened things up significantly. The voice is new and lively, not like some loudspeaker at a bus terminal calling out bays and destinations. Production value is up. Content is fresh but still reliable. Hello LP: The key to being a good guidebook is to avoid what's ultra-new and trendy and instead give the reader dependability. When I want to know about the hot new club or the latest border-crossing info I go to the web or I talk to other travellers. Those things change weekly. It seems like LP has figured this out with this volume. When others say that it's missing from this book I wonder if they really know what they're asking for.
Looking back, the older LP Thailand books listed a bunch of places to stay in the main tourist spots like Khao Sarn. I always thought that was a silly waste of space. By and large those backpacker boxes are all the same. And as soon as one of them gets in the LP, the price goes up and they stop changing the sheets. It's that simple. Ever go to one of the listed spots and look around (look up from your LP book) and see everyone else there with their LP book? Please folks: do yourself a favor and use this book as a guide --it's not the phonebook. There are hundreds of excellent places to stay in BKK and in Thailand that aren't listed in this book or in any other book. Use this book to get a feel for types of accomodation being offered and corresponding prices. Then make your own choices. This book will help you make choices; it won't choose for you.
I applaud LP for thinning some of its listings and focusing more on important attractions and providing valuable and interesting cultural insights. Going forward, with message boards and emails flying around the world in a blink, listing-type info (just bare facts about place and price) really isn't what I need from a guidebook. LP seems to be keen to this idea and appears to be working hard at giving me more than that.
Finally, let me say that this latest LP Thailand is really fun to read. It makes me want to go there right now! Some guidebooks read like a laundry list. Not this one. Read the book before you go...use it while you're there. Then give it to someone who's coming in as you head for the airport to go home --that's if you can find someone who doesn't already have it.
And when someone bashes a guidebook or suggests you do something in particular, always ask yourself: "what's this guy trying to sell me?"
Chok dee. (Good luck.)
 Lonely Planet Thailand 12: Stick with the old edition September 15, 2007
Stuart McDonald (Jakarta, Indonesia)
23 out of 32 found this review helpful
You've just finished your final morning of two weeks basking on the Perhentian Islands in northeast peninsular Malaysia, and you're ready for Thailand. You'll get to the border late afternoon, giving yourself enough time to cross at Sungai Kolok and get to the first provincial capital of Narathiwat before nightfall. You've heard the BBC, CNN and your Mum talk about the troubles in Thailand's far south, but you're confident that as long as you travel in daylight and sleep in the major centres you'll be fine. After all, you've got the latest edition (August 2007) of Lonely Planet's Thailand guidebook stuffed in your pack -- what could go wrong?
Well, unfortunately a lot.
Despite having a swack of extra pages, overall Lonely Planet's 12th edition of its Thailand title succeeds only in delivering less than previous editions. While some sections, notably Chiang Mai province, have improved, other coverage drags down what should have been a far better title.
For starters, coverage of Thailand's strife-torn far south has been largely gutted. Maps of the provincial capitals have all been deleted and accommodation listings drastically cut, border-crossings are either vaguely treated or simply not mentioned. So there you are, in the very situation when you really need a guidebook -- crossing a border into an area known to have security concerns -- and the book is close to worthless. The coverage of this unstable region is far superior in Lonely Planet's previous edition, so if you're heading that way, be sure to pop into the library and photocopy the relevant sections, or refer to www.travelfish.org for maps and more detailed information. Of course it could be worse -- the recently released (June 2007) Footprint title, doesn't cover the region at all -- not even Songkhla province.
Compare this to Thailand 12's west coast border-crossing coverage: there's timetable information, costs and trip durations -- even notes on how many people a chartered boat will hold. Comparing these two sections, it's very difficult to take Lonely Planet's claim that "when we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time" at face value.
Listings
Lonely Planet has a number of overlapping books, including "Bangkok" and "Thailand's Islands and Beaches". Both of these, will probably, I'd hope, have more comprehensive coverage than the respective sections in this new edition.
Bangkok's Khao San area has just six budget guesthouses -- all of which were in the previous edition. Other examples: Mae Nam beach, Ko Samui (three listings), Ban Tai and Ban Khai, Ko Pha Ngan (one listing). On the other hand, Chiang Mai (which unlike Bangkok and Southern Thailand doesn't have it's own title) has two dozen budget listings (admittedly for the entire city rather than just one area).
While you could argue that somewhere like Khao San Rd is self-explanatory, I think a few more recommendations -- especially from among the bevy of places that have opened since the last edition -- would have been good. Bangkok does do better on its flashpacker and mid-range scene and a new section for Ko Rattanakosin, including little-known gems like Ibrik, Chakrabongse Villas and Arun Residence stands out.
Likewise when you're talking about beach bungalows you could argue "they're all the same" but the fact is they're not, and you may find yourself more than a little disappointed being supplied with a single listing for Ban Tai and Ban Kai on Ko Pha Ngan -- an area with well over 50 places to choose from. Entire beaches, including one of the best on the island, entirely escape mention. On Thailand's west coast, Ko Phi Phi's coverage pointedly avoids mentioning any of the budget haunts on the east coast of the island and instead steers budgeteers to Ton Sai village and it's immediate surrounds -- arguably the least attractive part of the entire island and certainly not the place to go if you're looking for a quality budget bungalow. Many of Phi Phi's luxury places though -- including Zeavola (16,000 - 37,000B a night) -- do get a mention, which leads to my next point.
There is a detectable shift in the focus of the book, at least regarding accommodation, with more space seemingly given over to flashpacker and mid-range places. Seeing over half a page dedicated to "Samui's top five top-end resorts" may have the old backpacker stalwarts rolling over in their hammocks, but it's a valid reflection of a tourist scene that is attracting travellers, backpackers, flashpackers and top-end-resort layabouts -- unfortunately this title will struggle to satisfy them all.
It's not all bad though.
The coverage of Chiang Mai is about as comprehensive as a guide can be.
The accommodation listings are thorough and numerous. Likewise the food, entertainment and shopping sections are all done well. Filling out the package nicely are cut-out sections for pummeling and pampering, quirky sights and markets -- should keep the flashpackers and shoppers happy.
The northeast section is also very good. Big-ticket destinations here are covered just as well as the more obscure, lesser known haunts, there's plenty of maps and some encouraging pointers to homestays dotted through the region. A long, informative, boxed text detailing the Phi Ta Khon festival is included. If you're planning significant time in Isan with this title, you'll be well served.
Maps
Thailand 12 carries 150 maps -- including 17 pages dedicated to Bangkok.
Aside from the above mentioned shortcomings in the far south, the majority of spots you're likely to need a map for are covered. The colour, countrywide map is easy to read though oddly doesn't mark the border crossings.
Photos
Thailand's a photogenic country and the selection of photos does a good job of selling the Kingdom. A 16-page full colour insert on "Thailand's Natural Wonders" succinctly covers Thailand's environmental state of affairs.
I was surprised though to see a photo of the Tiger Temple placed atop a list of environmental volunteering opportunities -- while I assume the placement is incidental, it's unfortunate given the ongoing controversy regarding the conservation "value" of breeding tigers in a stone quarry as the Tiger Temple does.
Conclusion
So if you're going to Thailand, are not going to the far south and don't plan to cross any borders, how is the book? Well it depends.
If this is your first time to the Kingdom and you don't consider yourself to be too demanding when it comes to guidebooks, then you'll find Thailand 12 to be just a satisfactory buy. Likewise, if you're happy just to be pointed in the right direction, you'll probably find it to be ok.
On the other hand, if you're a bit more demanding and you like to have a good range of accommodation recommendations to choose from, then you'd be well advised to either stick with the previous edition or consider an alternative guidebook.
I'd like to thank Lonely Planet for their complimentary copy of the Thailand 12th edition and co-ordinating author China Williams who generously spent time answering questions about the title via email.
This is the best book I've ever seen on Thailand. September 13, 2007
K. Doyle (Encinitas, CA USA)
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
If you plan to head to Thailand, just bring this book, some money, and some clothes and you'll be set. This book changed and saved my life. Thank you, China Williams! Words fail me when I think of all this book has been done for me, but I'm glad they never fail China and her crew. Imagine mixing Paul Theroux with the Upanishads and you have this latest edition of LP Thailand! Each page is infused with wisdom, wit, and humor.
Don't plan your Thailand trip without this book October 4, 2007
Jeffrey Flynn (Oakland, CA USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
For my first trip to Thailand 10 years ago, I purchased just about every guide book available. Only one book has stood the test of time - Lonely Planet Thailand. Over the years, I have picked up new editions as they have become available. From personal experience, I would argue that the quality of my trips has increased along with the quality each subsequent edition. As tourism, culture and economics in Thailand evolves, so too does Lonely Planet Thailand, keeping pace with changing social trends, places of interest, as well as places to avoid. All this, of course, in addition to the vast body of information critical to planning where to stay, what to eat and what to do while in-country. More than a strong recommendation, this book is a must-have for any traveller to Thailand.
Organized and informative October 10, 2007
H. Tapal (Chicago, IL United States)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Very useful for new tourists. Book is organized by location and subdivided by events, sights, restaurants, hotels and more. It has a detailed map and lots of pictures too. It gives a good honest summary about different locations, what's worth your time, and what to be careful about as well. Very useful- highly recommended.
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