Rating: 
Summary: Don't leave home without this guide!
Review: "It doesn't matter if you're staying in a maharaja's palace or a youth hostel; the sheer wealth and accuracy of this guide's practical sightseeing information make it an indispensable companion."
- Travel & Leisure From the tropical backwaters of Kerala, to the towering Himalayan peaks, India's diversity and size can be overwhelming. The new edition of Lonely Planet's India will help you make sense of the teeming bazaars, holy cities, Moghul forts and the vast array of jostling cultures and religions. If you want to see temples, there are temples in profusion with enough styles and types to confuse anybody. If it's history you want, India has plenty of abandoned cities, ruins and monuments. If you simply want to lie on the beach there, are enough of those to satisfy the most avid sun worshipper. Whatever your budget or interest, this guidebook will be an essential resource. Nuts & Bolts:
• over 200 detailed maps
• 32 page full-color section on India's religions
• listings of places to stay and eat for all budgets
• health update to help you travel safely
• information on transportation options
Rating: 
Summary: Don't visit India without it!
Review: A fantastic guidebook to the mysteries of India. The Lonely Planet has become known as the 'Bible' of independent travelers the world around and guidebooks like this one have set that reputation. My wife and I spent three months in India and our sole source of information was the LP - India. It has a great blend of information pertaining to accomodations, food, sites, maps and plenty of history and mind opening stories. The Lonely Planet India guidebooks and Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' are all you need when visiting India.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the money or the weight
Review: About 10% of this book is useful: where to change money in a city, where to find the postoffice, ways in and to the cities from the airports. That is where its usefulness ends. If you follow this guide, bear in mind that every English speaking tourist is doing likewise, so when the guide mentions a tucked away gem, you can be certain that every other tourist is already there, fuming at your entrance, and resenting each other's presence. Sometimes it helps to read this guide against the grain--I discovered some fabulous places by going against the recommendations of the guide. This guide is definitely not recommended. If it could be shrunk to 1/10th its size and the maps could all be corrected (The maps are truly abysmal in their inaccuracies), and the price reduced proportionately, it may be worth getting this. Otherwise, find a different guide book. This one has reached such an authorative status that to follow it means to herd along with every other Westerner all over India.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent resource
Review: Anyone planning a trip to India would be wise to take this book along. Start reading it a couple months before the trip (it's a thick book) and take it with you everywhere you go in India. I promise, any question you have, it will answer. Anytime I needed some information on language, customs, curiosities, cuisine, health issues, or even what time the local museum opens (I visited the Orissa State Museum in Bhubaneshwar), I found the info I needed. I like to refer back to it every now and then to dazzle my Indian friends with my knowledge of India and her culture (sometimes I even know more than they do!)
And I learned it all from this book. This is the 9th edition; in my opinion the 10th edition has a prettier picture on the cover. But the info in this one is reliable and insightful.
Rating: 
Summary: pinch of salt
Review: As mentioned earlier, this book can seem to easy to knock because of its veneration by the wide eyed and uncool. I recommend this book for travel information, ie buses, trains, etc., for the first time visitor. I disrecommend it for its recommendations of hotels and eateries. India is a land overflowing with places to stay and eat, and those mentioned in this book are full of aforementioned hordes of the 'uncool', and correpondingly overpriced.
I also disrecommend it because info on local points of interest leave a little
to be desired, the tone of the authors is often a little smug, and by buying this book you are funding the ruination of hard found havens by the unwashed hippy masses. But I suppose that's inevitable.
Rating:
Summary: Travel guide with humor
Review: Comprehensive travel guide that helps take the mystery and confusion out of traveling in India. I especially liked the dry british wit. Obviously written by tourists with a lot of experience. Not afraid to be truthful about attractions that may not be worth your time. The travel series I will use from now on!
Rating:
Summary: I wouldn't leave home without Lonely Planet!
Review: Don't have time for a "proper" review now,but as another Independent traveller,sitting looking at the Taj in the sunset,said,patting the LP in her lap,"we couldn't do it without this!"I make my own forays "off the beaten path"the 1st reviewer referred to-am going on my 3rd visit in March,to stay with Indian families I met on previos trips. I was disappointed to see there is still no coverage of Kashmir,as I was there in Oct '98,staying on a houseboat & going on a water trek up the Jellum river for 3 days,in solitary splendour,as I couldn't find anyone to go with me-I spend 6-8wks each time.The Buidings in the Shalimar Gdns were being restored preparatory to having the Sound & Light Show there again in the summer,as they were expecting more toutists to start coming back to Srinigar.I told everyone I met that it was perfectly O.K up there-Not on the road to Leh,of coursebut it was the end of the Season & too cold to go after Oct.,I'd think.I'm going to stay with the families of a Kashmiri cple I met in Jaisalmer in '96.I haven't had a chance to read the whole book yet,but noticed under the Drinks section Masala Chai not mentioned or Ginger tea.I too was very dissapointed with my 1st taste of Chai as I don't like sweet tea or coffee,& when I saw how it was made (very aptly discribed!)no wonder it tasted so dreadful!But then I was offered Masala Chai in Jaisalmer,which can be made with alittle or no sugar,I was a fan!Cinamon,cardamon & ? are added, & can be bought as a mixture to bring home.Just adding chopped ginger root to any tea is so simple & delicious.Then there is Kashmiri Chai.which has saffron added to the other spices! Anyway,suffice to say,there are plenty other choices.A gracious Indian lady ordered chai for me,sans sugar,from an open train window,which I'd previously not been able to do,& she tossed her clay cup down on the tracks,just as I'd read in LP -Very hygaenic,don't you think?shesaid.
Rating:
Summary: Try another
Review: Gladly I did not choose this guidebook for my recent vacation to India and what a pleasure it was to see all the backpackers faithfully reading the LP like a bible and doing everything it says along the well beaten path. I was pleased to be heading the other way as all the rest followed the LP cheap tourist track. The India Handbook was a fantastic alternative. Smaller, concise, and much more informative.
Rating: 
Summary: A useful masterpiece from Lonely Planet
Review: Great, useful, informative! I recommend it even if you already have other guide books on India. The only minor problem I had is that it does not describe dangers from animals and insects.
Rating:
Summary: The only one book you must take it with you to India
Review: I cant believe how previous reveiewer criticized this book by staing "wrong map, description...etc."!!! This is not true! Those wrong reviewers must be working for other travel guide publishers or must be the ones just laid off from LP. HAHAHA I have travelled India three times. I travelled there more than six months. I had three guidebooks with me since I was bagpacking alone. LP is the only one with exact map, right price, description..etc. LP is updated with newer editions alomst every year. SO almost everything in the book is up to dated unlike other guides. It is very informative and even fun to read. If this is not the book you need for travelling India, there must be nothing else!
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