Lonely Planet Reviews

The redesigned Caribbean Islands guide doesn't offer much help if you're traveling on a tight budget. There's basically nothing about budget lodging options. The practical warnings and pitfalls section is completely gone, which is especially problematic given that Haiti is featured as somewhere you'll definitely fall in love with. It reads like every other generic travel guide out there - the kind you don't really need when you can just search online. Really disappointed.

These guides provide solid travel information and plenty of inspiration, though some of the online material seems like it hasn't been refreshed in a while.

Bought a planning map of Canada for a motorcycle adventure this summer and came away really let down. The text is painfully small and hard to read. Road markings aren't clear, and it mainly shows just the big highways. Very limited detail overall. Plus there's no information about the American states bordering Canada. Total waste of cash. The expense to send it back would actually exceed what I paid for it. Don't bother buying this map.

I ordered two books in November for the holidays, and I'm still waiting on one. I've followed up multiple times, but their email responses don't make any sense. No book has arrived, and I haven't gotten a refund either.

I used to travel with one book in my backpack and another next to my camera, but the 2024 Philippines guide has totally changed direction. It doesn't cater to budget travelers anymore. They've removed the getting around section with bus routes and pricing, ditched the city maps and overall regional maps, and the new 'we love these stays' section features only pricey places with no cost breakdowns that used to help you negotiate fairly. Lonely Planet clearly shifted away from their core audience and original business approach.

I've been buying Lonely Planet books for over 20 years, so when I got the newest Ecuador edition, I was really let down. The redesign shocked me. It's missing all the practical content and has completely lost what made Lonely Planet special. I was so bothered that I looked up what other readers were saying, and found tons of people expressing my exact same concerns. Such a letdown. I'm returning it and checking out an older version from the library instead.

Just awful. The new design is pointless. All the practical stuff that actually matters has vanished. You'd honestly get more useful information out of a Lonely Planet book from a decade ago about the same place.

I've contacted Lonely Planet directly about this, but I need to say it here too since so many others are mentioning the same problems. The new LP books are absolutely terrible (seriously, I can't stress this enough). They stripped out all the practical, valuable content and replaced it with what amounts to a glossy travel magazine. Using the newer versions has been nothing but frustrating and disappointing. If LP doesn't reverse course soon, I think they're headed for real trouble. I honestly can't see people willing to pay for these anymore. It's genuinely upsetting because LP made a real impact over the years. Now travelers have to piece things together themselves, hunting through the internet for the information LP used to provide in one place. Think about all the duplicate effort people are now wasting doing research LP once consolidated. That was their real value, and they've chosen to step away from it entirely. I don't see how they have a business left. The response from LP below doesn't help either - they clearly didn't even read what I wrote. I specifically said I'd already sent this feedback directly to them at the beginning, yet they tell me how to do that. Disappointing all around.

I picked up the new Lonely Planet editions for both Namibia and Japan, and I returned both of them right away. These are nothing like the older, comprehensive editions that I loved using. Total disappointment and a waste of money. The content is thin, there are too many pointless photos, and the price is way too high. The previous versions had all the detail I needed, and I wouldn't have wanted them any other way. Since the pandemic changed prices and many places shut down permanently, those old books aren't reliable anymore either. It really bothers me that I'll have to go with other publishers if I want thorough and current information.

I was having trouble accessing an older Lonely Planet digital book I purchased back in late 2015. I sent an email to customer support without expecting much, but they went way above and beyond. Within thirty minutes they'd sent me fresh digital copies - actually upgraded 2018 versions - of all three books from my original purchase. That's the kind of customer service that really stands out. Major thanks to the team member who took care of my request.