Travel to South America

Lonely Planet Bolivia

Format: Paperback
Author: Deanna Swaney
ReleaseDate: February, 2001
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Rating:

Just plain bad - with no redeeming features
This lady has earned herself a bad name through writing which is more appropriate for an anti-capitalist leaflet and total lack of objectivity. I will not be able to add much to what other reviewers have said, but welcome to another opus from Lonely Planet's worst writer, Deanna Swaney.

Outdated? Yes, even more so than the guide to Russia. Biased? Yes, pretty much on par with Iceland and Greenland guide. Inaccurate? You bet.

Recommendation: Don't touch this with a barge-pole, even if you are a die-hard LP fan.

Lonely Planet Bolivia, 4th edition
Lonely Planet has been famous and widely appreciated for its detailed insider information drawn from the "grassroots" - local people, as well as people who use the book. This latest edition of the Lonely Planet Bolivia book is decidedly retrograde compared to past editions. This book seems to be reversal from this tradition to a significant extent. For example, in the section on Bolivian Amazonia covering Madidi National Park, only one multi-national provider of guide and visitor services is mentioned. In fact there are several, some of which are very good, and even superior in some respects - depending on what you're looking for. Such resources for the region were covered in past editions but not in this one. It leads one to wonder what either the author or Lonely Planet was really trying to achieve when they published the 4th edition.

out of date, but helpful for maps
Most of the restaurants do not exist anymore in this book and the stores do not either. There are a few good maps to get you oriented with La Paz before you go to Bolivia.

Since there are not many travel books on Bolivia, this one is one fo the better ones, but it's a shame that there are not any better ones.

Although this book is a good introduction to Bolivia and La Paz, it's definentely not going to help you much when you get there.
Very outdated!.

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