Lonely Planet Poland

Average customer rating:

Polish roots
Great for everything except shopping!
A comprehensive guide to Poland
Without this book Poland wouldn't have been so much fun!
Very good Poland travel book

Lonely Planet Poland
Tom Parkinson , Richard Watkins , and Neil Wilson
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 174059522X

Book Description

Stroll the white sand beaches of the Baltic coast, hike the trails of the spectacular Tatra Mountains and explore historic city centers from Karkow to Warsaw. Whether you're here for urban pleasures or in pursuit of nature, this inspiring guide will help you connect with Poland in all its guises.

• GET AROUND with detailed maps and itineraries from the Great Masurian Lakes in the north to the Alpine national parks in the south

• REST EASY in country cottages and Soviet workers' hotels - reviews to suit every taste and budget

• FIND ADVENTURE - we show you where to hike, ski, raft, ride, sail and much more

• HIT THE TOWN - our listings cover cozy cellar bars and cafes, traditional restaurants and Polish 'milk bars'

• TALK THE TALK - our practical language guide helps you chat to the locals - na zdrowie!

Customer Reviews:

Polish roots.......2007-05-13

My wife's maternal grandparents hail from Poland, so when planing a Eurpoean vacation for this summer, Poland it was. As independent travelers, we have always favored Lonely Planet travel books in the past. Once again Lonely Planet delivered the goods. Detailed descriptions of things to see & do, places to stay, and various methods of transportation. Additional internet rescources for finding more hotels than the ones reviewed. I would recommend this series of travel books to all from young backpackers to mature (myself) travelers.

Great for everything except shopping!.......2006-11-07

Lonely Planet has been known for covering EVERYTHING in it's books. Thie one really does have a big flaw. Sites are quite OK and hotels are good too - though sometimes choices may be strange. However shopping is done dreadfully - at least in Warsaw. If your happy with the souvenirs you bought using this book, then you are quite lucky. Many shops with fine hand craft, genuine Polish hand-made are unlisted. Also shops with Jewish memorabilia, getting more popular after turbulent history tend to be missing. And when you come to normal shopping its a complete disaster! You wanna hang out in a mall or buy clothes a lot cheaper then in western Europe? Sure... Tourists and Ex-pats do it. But for sure NOT using Lonely Planet. The ever popular Arkadia Mall (biggest in this part of Europe), a place where English, German, French, Spanish and other languages are often heard as often as Polish is missing. So is the not much smaller and also popular with expats Galeria Mokotów. And what mall do tehy list? The dull out-skirt Sadyba Best Mall with a few stores, the usual fast-food joints and a few crappy stores. And it's lonely planets best tip on shopping? Come on! Almost no one goes there, except primary school trips (it's only attraction is the IMAX cinema).

I am puzzled by teh Warsaw shopping chapter. You can't come to the city and not here of Arkadia or Galeria Mokotów. If you see them, you can't recommend the crappy Sadyba Best Mall. So either someone didn't reaserch shopping at all (and just went to SBM) or Lonely Planets standards are dropping and the choice was made in some different dark ways. I just hope the ownership was not an issue. SBM is the only American mall. Arkadia is European, Galeria Mokotów - Jewish and most others French... What other thing could have provoked such a choice?

A comprehensive guide to Poland.......2006-11-06

As a Pole living abroad (but frequently visiting) I have the dual perspective of "a local" but also that of a tourist. This book is easily the best source of background information on all sites and places in modern Poland, from the well-known tourist attractions to the small villages off the beaten track. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of historical, ethnographic and cultural information about many of those places.
Thanks to this book I managed to discover some interesting places in Poland that I should have known about, if not visited before. Once I got there, I found that relying on the information in the book (especially on "how to get there" or "where to stay") proved more reliable than the information available to the visitor "on the ground". My short trip to the Jura National Park, north of Cracow, was a perfect example of a trip I would not have done if it was not for this guidebook.
Thoroughly recommended to anybody planning to spend an extensive holiday in Poland, or for repeat trips; if your travel is limited to the main cities like Warsaw, Cracow or Gdansk you may find other guidebooks, specific to those locations, sufficient.

Without this book Poland wouldn't have been so much fun!.......2005-07-23

I'd wonder how much time and frustration it would take finding out all this in depth information about the country and it's attractions myself. Especially since we didn't know much about Poland in the first place. It was a true blessing having this book around, especially since many Poles at places you need it most often don't speak English or German. Only price information should need some adjustment (which might have something to do with EU membership related inflation?). I used the print which was updated in Jan 2005, but some prices already doubled!

Very good Poland travel book.......2004-11-12

I recently went to Poland for the first time and found this book to be an absoutely wonderful guide to Warsaw, Krakow, and the Auschwitz concentration camps. All too often guide books that cover an entire country lack the kind of detail a traveler needs, but this book did not suffer that problem at all. The section on Warsaw was actually better organized and contained more detailed factual information than the DK book dedicated solely to that city. This was the only book I needed to help me get around Krakow and Auschwitz as well. I can't speak for the hotel and restaurant recommendations in the book because I never used any of them, but as far as information about historical sites and points of interest this is an outstanding book.

Update: In planning for my second trip to Poland, I recently purchased the Rough Guide to Poland, and I have to say it is even better than the Lonely Planet book because it includes quite a lot more detail. If you only buy one book, get the Rough Guide. But if you buy two, the Lonely Planet book is also very good.

Lonely Planet Best of Krakow (Lonely Planet Encounter Series)

Average customer rating:

Lonely Planet Best of Krakow (Lonely Planet Encounter Series)
Richard Watkins
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1741048222

Lonely Planet Krakow (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)

Average customer rating:

Another User Unfriendly Lonely Planet Guide

Lonely Planet Krakow (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)
Krzysztof Dydynski
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Lonely Planet | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Lonely Planet Poland

ASIN: 0864426984

Book Description

Kraków, a city of proud traditions and rich history, is unveiled in this comprehensive guide by one of its own citizens. Explore labyrinthine salt mines, marvel at religious icons and relax in medieval cellar bars with this book as your indispensable companion. <ul>

13 detailed maps including full colour city maps </li>

essential information to get you around Kraków </li>

background to the symbolism and magic of the Wawel Castle </li>

maps and details of excursions to national parks </li>

notes on the Schindler's List movie trail </li></ul>

Customer Reviews:

Another User Unfriendly Lonely Planet Guide.......2000-04-04

Despite having numerous bad experiences using Lonely Planet guides in the past (India, Nepal, Colombia etc.), I was recently forced to buy the LP guide on Krakow. I had previously promised myself that I would never again waste my money on a L.P. guide. However, due to the absence of any other guides for Krakow, I was forced to break down and buy this "guide".

I believe that L.P.'s popularity is based on the fact that they have a virtual monopoly on guides for some obscure travel destinations and they have no incentive to improve. I doubt that many travellers rely on LP guides for travel in France, since so many better options are availible. However, if you are travelling to an exotic travel destination, you are stuck with LP.

In any event, the Krakow guide confirmed my negative view of L.P. guides. As usual, the history portion of the guide was very informative and made great reading during my train trip from Prague to Krakow.

However, upon arrival the flaws of the L.P. format became painfully apparent. The font was (as usual) tiny and required a magnifying glass to read. The information regarding sights was overdone for minor sights and woefully lacking for important ones.

For example the portion of the guide dealing with Wawel Castle (one of the top sights in Krakow) was completely unorganized and indecipherable. The cathedral had many things in it which looked interesting but were not commented on in the guidebook. After whetting my appetite to check out the famous Wawel Chokra, the guide did not give information as to locating the thing. Ultimatly, I tagged on to a tour group to get the information which should have been contained in the guide!

Another weak point are the lousy maps. They do not conform with reality and are utterly useless. The maps are located in the back of the book. As a result, in order to use the maps, the user has to flip back and forth between the maps and the sections regarding the location you are trying to track down. This is irritating when you are walking along trying to find something.

The main maps contain a polyglot of information which mixes hotels, restaurants and sights in no apparent order. Would it be too much to ask to have some kind of practical organization? Would it not make sense to put a map in each section with a simple key to the locales discussed? Say what you will about Frommer's, they do maps well! L.P. just gets you lost! I just don't see the adventure into complicating a trip with needless frustration caused by getting lost, especially in a simply laid out city such as Krakow.

In it's defense, the guide did give good recommendations regarding hotels and restaurants and was well done in the Auschwitz section.

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Lonely Planet Books

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