Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring

Average customer rating:

Good overall, but very disappointing in places
good overview
Don't head for Africa without Africa on a Shoestring in your pack
Coming home soon!
It's just too much for one book

Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring
Kevin Anglin , Becca Blond , and Jean-Bernard Carillet
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Africa | Travel | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Lonely Planet Healthy Travel Africa (Lonely Planet Healthy Travel Guides Africa)
Lonely Planet Middle East
Lonely Planet East Africa
Lonely Planet West Africa
Lonely Planet Southern Africa

ASIN: 1740594622

Customer Reviews:

Good overall, but very disappointing in places.......2006-03-02

Lonely Planet is the leader in travel books. This isn't just my opinion, I've met many other travelers who won't go anywhere without the appropriate LP book. Africa on a Shoestring is a great guide, with information on places to stay and what to see, for travelers who don't want to spend a fortune and aren't afraid to get out and actually experience the local culture.

That being said, I'm really disappointed in parts of this book. As the market leader, LP should be able to keep its books properly updated. Yet many country sections start with: "We were unable to do on-the-ground research in (country_name), so some information in this chapter may not be reliable". While this is understandable in someplace like Liberia or Cote d'Ivoire where the national security situation is volatile, it's inexcusable for countries like Nigeria. Yes, there are some problem areas in Nigeria, and Lagos can indeed be chaotic. But Nigeria is not Lagos. And Nigeria is not the Niger Delta. I certainly hope that they manage to update some of these chapters for the next edition.

In the interest of full disclosure, here are the countries LP didn't bother to update for this edition: Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo-Brazzaville, CAR, Congo-Kinshasa, Burundi, Somalia, Angola. Libya is listed as potentially being partially unreliable.

If you're traveling to Africa, my advice is to get this book _and_ the Rough Guide to whatever region of Africa you're going to. If you're going somplace that LP's book doesn't cover, look for a specific book that covers it. My last bit of advice for Africa travelers is to roll with the punches. There aren't nearly as many folks going to Africa as there are to Europe, so the information on Africa isn't as cutting-edge new. That hotel you read about and planned on staying in tonight? It burned down six months ago. But there are always other options, so just relax and take it easy.

good overview.......2005-10-17

It took so much to get there and I found it very comforting having this book to entice me along. Yes it was pretty general but it left us open to meeting people and having more excuses to dig for directions. Many times we were invited into people's homes, the ones that spoke English and French. I always prefer roughing it to clean ironed sheets and air conditioned rooms. Anglin writes well and although there are some holes, there's no book out there that is better for seeing the raw Africa.

Don't head for Africa without Africa on a Shoestring in your pack.......2005-09-06

As someone who just returned from a solo tour(via local buses, trains and hitch-hiking) through Botswana, Zambia and Namibia with this book in my pack I feel I can review it more fairly than those who have simply looked it over while dreaming about a future trip.

While no single book can give an indepth look at every country, this one gives you all the information you need to travel through Africa on a budget. Best of all it is small enough to fit in your pack and well built enough to make it through the trip in one piece. I will be going back next year and this book will be coming along.

As you can guess, with only about twenty five pages per country, some info is glossed over or left out all together. Due to space constraints Lonely Planet left out some of the "where to go and what to see" advice but they made sure to include all the information relevant to transportation and lodging. If you need more indepth information you should buy one of the individual guides that cover each country you plan to visit along with Africa on a Shoestring.

My one gripe with this book is that it seems a bit too focused on the backpacker/camper type lodging. I personally prefere to travel like the locals and stay in guest-houses and cheap hotels and at times this book skips right over this information. The worst way to save three dollars a night is to pitch a tent on the ground instead of booking into a local guest house. When you stay at one of the urban campsites the only "culture" you are going to experience is provided by the young, loud, drunken tourists. Not my idea of fun.

If you are looking for a book that will make traveling in Africa trouble free you are going to be disspointed, that book does not exist and never will. In Africa almost nothing is easy and that includes travel. But that is part of the adventure.

If you want to see Africa without all the hassle then you need to talk to one of the travel agents who offer all inclusive tours for small groups in large overland trucks. You will get some nice photos but you won't really be traveling "in" Africa, you will be traveling "over" it, and you don't need any book for that.

Coming home soon!.......2005-08-19

As an African-IN-America, I am interested in Africana and I read what I can about the homeland. It is my dream to one day retire to Africa and travel to all the lands that nourished my ancestors- Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Timbuktu....and all the magical names of our great cities and kingdoms.

This book is good for the geography and as a general overview of the continent, but it seems more written for Anglo-Euro visitors. Still, it is filling me with ideas of the places I'll see and it is making me work all the harder to make my dream a reality.

Africa- I'm coming home!

It's just too much for one book.......2005-05-13

I applaud LP for taking on the challenge of a book that covers the entire continent, but it's just too much for one book. I bought it in order to piece together an itinerary, but it doesn't do a good job in linking the countries together. Under the "suggested itineraries" it really just says it will depend on your money and time (uh, thanks, no kidding) and then tells you where NOT to go (Congo, Sierra Leone, etc)
The newest version is at least clumps groups of countries together. Mine is just a year old and has the countries in alpha order.
I would suggest buying the smaller books (LP East Africa, etc) instead.

Average customer rating:

Excellent introduction
A great asset for African travel.
The Area is Simply Too Large
LESS THAN A SHOELACE?
not recommended

Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring
Hugh Finlay
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Africa | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Lonely Planet | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

Budget Travel | Specialty Travel | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Lonely Planet Healthy Travel Africa (Lonely Planet Healthy Travel Guides Africa)

ASIN: 0864426631

Amazon.com

Lonely Planet's ninth edition of Africa on a Shoestring (written by no less than 14 intrepid souls) begins with an extensive nuts-and-bolts chapter: visa requirements, vaccination information, how to score the cheapest airfares (couriers, charters, consolidators), suggested itineraries, medical checklists, safety precautions, etc. The countries themselves (48 in all) are listed alphabetically (Algeria to Zimbabwe), with major ones (Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa) getting the most space--lesser-known ones such as Angola and Liberia register fewer than 10 pages. As its name suggests, the book is chock-a-block with dirt-cheap suggestions on where to stay (from campsites to hotels), eat (street stalls to restaurants), as well as places to view wildlife (Masai Mara, Serengeti), tour ancient Casbahs (Morocco, Tunisia), or unwind on a tropical beach (the islands of Mozambique, Egypt's Red Sea resorts). The appendix is loaded with practical stuff like basic phrases in numerous languages (including Arabic and Swahili) and a glossary of common terms (medina, baksheesh, dhow). After reading Africa on a Shoestring, you'll definitely want to pack your knapsack and go. --Jill Fergus

Book Description

Let this guide to 48 countries introduce you to the many rhythms of Africa. Mellow out to the sound of waves on a Mozambican beach, swing to the sounds of Sahel pop music in Senegal, marvel at the noise of the mighty wildebeest migration in the Serengeti, wake to an Egyptian imam's call to prayer or soak up the silence of the mysterious Sahara.

Covers: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo (Zaîre), Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tomé & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. <ul>

199 fully updated maps, including a full-colour map of Africa </li>

thousands of budget options for eating, sleeping or just chilling out </li>

itineraries and highlights for travel through this vast continent, including up-to-date visa and border information </li>

practical advice on getting around by bus, bush taxi, bicycle, boat & camel </li>

how to have a healthy and hassle-free trip </li></ul>

Customer Reviews:

Excellent introduction.......2005-10-20

As others note, the continent is too large to contain in one book for travel purposes. What this book does is give an EXCELLENT intro to history, culture, people, cities, regions,
and tourist attractions/locales/interests. Gives the mind a framework for Africa and potentially to guide decisions about vacation options. For actual travel, more specific literature is needed, but this book is an excellent opening to understanding and contemplating Africa. I was enthralled!

A great asset for African travel........2005-03-28

This book is great for those who are thinking about taking a trip to Africa or for those who have a general interest in the continent.
For those who would like to go to Arica(which I encourage people to do).This book will help you decide where you would like to go because of the many short chapters on each of the countries. After you decide where you want to go, I would recommend getting more up to date and detailed information because this book could use some more detail on individual countries.
I also liked this book for the brief histories on each of the countries. Much of this information is difficult to find and would require much time reading obscure books on the subject. These countries have facinating histories and the book does help to shed a little light on that subject.

The Area is Simply Too Large.......2004-06-23

I traveled through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, and Lesotho with this book. The book is excellent for major urban centers, but once you get beyond the city lights the text just stops and you are left on your own. If you plan on spending more than a week in a country, I recommend getting a regional guide at the very least and a country guide if you can get it (the Rough Guide in Kenya was superb).

LESS THAN A SHOELACE?.......2002-12-21

This book, "Africa on a Shoestring, 9th Ed" has a broad coverage; although its chapters are not as detailed as many tourists would expect them to be.
Again, this book would have been of better psychic value, had its authors showed confidence in the sections they dealt with. Its 'information' became a wet blanket for me. Many readers who intend to visit African countries are likey to be discouraged by its relentless pessimistic approach. Its outlook is more critical than 'touristical'. The general impression is this: "something good may not come out of Africa". That is shameful! The term "bush-taxi", which was used over and over again, in lieu of a more cordial 'local-taxi' sounds offensive.
I think that if written (or revised) without assumptive bias, this book would be of better quality and value to its users.

not recommended.......2001-05-15

I bought this book for my trip to Kenya Uganda and Tanzania. I thought that I might want to travel to Ethiopia or down to Zambia and Zimbabwe....this guide is much too condensed to be helpful, and most travelers I met hated this guide and would borrow or end up buying the LP East Africa guide. You would be much better off buying a regional guide rather then this monster. Just the weight of the book alone isn't worth carrying around with you. I actually ended up ripping this book to shreads and keeping only about ten pages of it then buying the more in depth East Africa Guide.

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