Travel to Canada

Lonely Planet Canada

Format: Paperback
Author: Andrea Schulte-Peevers
ReleaseDate: 30 April, 2005
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Rating:

A Great Travel Guide
Although most of the prices, hours, and descriptions of the sights and eateries were accurate, some were not, or outdated. When I visited Quebec, the guide was a great help. A particular restaurant was highly rated in the review, but when I tried to visit the place, the restaurant was nowhere to be found with the given address. Otherwise, the book is good.

Almost perfect
In most places I found that it gave me all the information that I needed on hostels and places to eat. I used the lonely planet Canada for travelling from the West Coast to the East Coast.

The section on the Canadain Rockies was not so good, and an extra guide book is recommened.

On the negative side of this book is that some of the maps are incorrect and I found myself walking the wrong way.

I don't have anything to compare the book to, but it did the job for me.

A Waste of Money
The authors really don't know the country very well, or have failed to visit many of the palces they recommend. This book is a lot of things, and none of them good. I buy a guidebook to learn what's good and what's not. But this book doesn't give that. It just lists the same information anyone can find on the internet or in tourist brochures. I want to know if the rooms are big, if they're clean, where they are in relation to local attractions. None of this information is given.

I used this book to seach out a hotel near Vancouver Airport, which was my arrival point in Canada. The text says that the Holiday Inn is "beside Highway 99. ", with no indication where along this 30 mile long road it is.

When the author does add a description, it does nothing to inform. Or it's incorrect. My travels took me to Lake Louise. There are lots of good hiking guides to this region, but I figured the outlines in this book would get me going. I hiked 2 trails the author suggested. The descriptions of both were so wildly inaccurate as to be dangerous. The author thinks there is a teahouse at Mirror Lake (never, I was told). He or she highly recommends hiking the "popular" trail between Moraine Lake and Lake Louise when in fact one doesn't even exist!

The Lonely Planet description of Mt. Assiniboine Park sounded good, so I followed their lead which said "a gravel road takes you close to the park through the ski resort of Sunshine Village. " I followed my map to Sunshine Village to be told the gravel road has never ever been open to the public.

The only redeeming feature of this book is that when the author hasn't bothered to visit a place, he or she admits it in a subtle way: In Lake Louise, the extent of recommendations for places to dine is "Eat at your hotel. " (lots of great places here for all budgets including the best bakery I found in a month on the road). In Nelson readers are encouraged to "ask at the visitor center" for somewhere to stay. These type of entries make me doubt whether they even bothered to travel to many places they write about, let alone do any actual research.

This book has turned me off a guidebook series I have used for years. Never again.

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