Lonely Planet South Africa 2000
Though the 2002 Lonely Planet South Africa; which I 'm too scared to read and won't buy out of principle; is supposed to be more up to date, they place established businesses in wrong cities. This was done on purpose with management/directors interfering with writer content. So I will stick with this write up!
This book is a total disaster. Apparently Mr. Jeff Williams that writes the LP SA only spend 3 weeks during the last 43 months in SA !!!! The new SA 2000 book is so out of date it is unreal. Of the first 6 hostels mentioned in Jo'burg 5 of them have been closed for more than 3 years before going to print. A restaurant/club down the road from us that gets recommended has been closed for more than 4 years before going to print!!!
Local people in the
industry are totally disappointed. Although safety
aspects are mentioned they are played down and advice given is constantly
bad and more important of course - it's NOT
GIVEN properly. The importance in this is
that ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time might cost you more
than just your passport and your gear - this is Africa!
This pathetic effort
gets slated on Amazon.com as a political manifesto. On LP's thorntree page
it gets carrots continuously. Travellers I have met slate it as well and
ask regularly if the writer has ever travelled as a backpacker. I can confirm
for this book he did not.
95% of travellers currently travel with a LP to SA, and our research has showed us that at least 90% of them are unhappy with this chosen guidebook. We thus believe that not only will travellers travel less with the LP SA; but we have been told by regular travelllers that they will not buy any LP again. If you have travelled with this book or any other publication and you are unhappy the thing to do is to go back to the shop you bought it at. Inform management as well as the sales staff.
By the way, in the case Lonely Planet Publications vs Jaco Rautenbach; I received a court order against me prohibiting me from registering sites like www.lonelyplanetsucks.com ..... now this doesn't mean you can't do it!
We recommend the
South African Handbook(Footprint) 2001
Niall G wrote:
Hey thereI am just after reading your website (not quite sure how I ended up there) and I must say I had a great laugh at your attack on Lonely Planet. I must admit that I do use their travel guides, although I find some of the details misleading.