Travel to Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands (Lonely Planet)

Format: Paperback
Author: Andrew Burke
ReleaseDate: 30 May, 2005
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Rating:

Wish there was more information about various locations
Nonetheless, I am not aware of a better source for information about places in PNG and so recommend that someone traveling to PNG buy this book. The book does not really give sufficient information about the villages which are, in fact, memorable experiences. There are a few other good books about the culture and art. .

A Very Poor Guide! :-(
For better or worse these fascinating countries don't exactly attract hordes of holidaymakers, so after leaving those books unupdated for many years, the publisher has now decided to dump them together in this new edition (272 pages). Once upon a time, Lonely Planet had a good guide to Papua New Guinea (371 pages), and an excellent one to the Solomon Islands (279 pages).
The result is basically a new, much slimmer guide to Papua New Guinea, with fewer than 30 pages on the Solomons (where it only actually covers half the country even nominally).
Not only has much of the detail been thrown out, the quality of information has also gone downhill sharply! :-(
The authors have very obviously never visited even major tourist destinations of PNG described in the book - as confirmed by owners of accomodations included in it, who told me they had merely received phonecalls from the author who didn't even visit most of the Sepik Region or the Highlands, for example!
Much of the "updating" seems to have been done by surfing the web, and as a result the book abounds in recommendations for expensive, upmarket places and tour-operators that do have websites, while completely ignoring cheaper, budget guesthouses which have no info on the net. Even excellent, small locally owned places that were in previous editions of the PNG guide are conspiciously missing! And as for what the authors consider "budget": their itinerary recommended for budget travellers includes staying at a 150 USD/night resort!

This book is a real shame to Lonely Planet.
If you are planning on resort-hopping on a short holiday, it will be sufficient, but if you want to explore these two countries in depth without spending a fortune, you are far better off trying to find copies of the now out-of-print old editions, which still contain far more useful information than this new guide.
Search Amazon using the ISBN numbers 0864424027 for the old PNG guide, and 0864424051 for the Solomon Islands one.

Great guide book
I have not been to Papua New Guinea yet, so I can not comment on the accuracy of the information, but there is a wealth thereof. As usual for the lonely planet guides, a well researched and detailed travel guide. I respect the author's achievement, as it is obviously much easier to research for a travel guide about a European country where most people speak English and credit cards are accepted than for a pre-industrial place like Papua New Guinea, still mostly unspoiled by westernization.

I have read this guide like a novel from the first to the last page, which speaks both for the work of the lonely planet team as well as for how fascinating Papua New Guinea is.

Information is given on standard travel issues, such as transportation and accommodation, as well as on special treats like areas with unusual wildlife, tribal culture and historical (WW II) significance. This book gives a good first overview over both the modern history and the native cultures of Papua New Guinea. It also warns the reader of the dangers of travel in this tropical country, such as disease, possible violent tribal warfare and high altitude. The maps are informative, the few color pictures (the small number seems to be a consequence of the price of the book) of people, beaches, birds and fish are beautiful.

Related products:
click image or link for details on these Papua New Guinea travel books.

	Papua New Guinea Map by ITMB (Travel Reference Map)
	Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea
	Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling: Papua New Guinea (Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling Guides)
	Lonely Planet Vanuatu & New Caledonia (Lonely Planet Vanuatu)