Rating: 
Summary: Excellent in detail
Review: The book is amazinly detailed. However the rates of hotels in Himachal Pradesh (where I have just returned from) have changed drastically - the book being more than a year and a half old. Be ready for prices twice what is in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent generalInformation but specifics can be confusing.
Review: The information about the cities, states, regions and religions is excellent. I am still using this book as a reference guide two years later. The explanations of how the cities such as Bombay came into existence, how the culture has developed and how the locals go about their business are engaging.However, the maps are very disorientating to the point of being un-usable (I found). We tried to travel round Bombay using the guide and we kept getting lost. If you are travelling about a bit on a schedule and can't afford to get lost or very delayed then you should take a proper map of every where you will go and take a compass. The Lonely Planet descriptions of the entertainments like the Beaches in Bombay was spot on but their judgment of the hotels was difficult to gauge. Hotels that sounded good ended up being unworthy of a mention, in our opinion, where as right next door smart clean places were not included. The difficulty is that the Guide-Book doesn't make comparisons to anything you are already familiar with so it takes a while and a bit of expereience to know what they are talking about. When you buy this book check that all the pages are included. We only noticed when we were in India that about ten pages in the centre and a few here and there throughout were completely blank, which could have been disastrous. The Lonely Planet came into it's own when we came back to Bombay from Goa and had to find accomodation for one night before going to Hyderabad. We spent the journey to Bombay reading the guide and knew where we were going to go for a hotel. It was already getting dark when we got to Victoria station and opened the Lonely Planet again and began to telephone the hotels. We found a room within minutes.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete acquaintance with Varanasi and its special places..
Review: The insight into the tourist attractions in a place like Varanasi has been carefully illustrated. The authors seem to have taken a lot of pain to satisfy the tourist's spiritual and traveller's instinct.Special mention must be given to the "Yoga Clinic and Center for Meditation" where Guruji Shri Prakash Shankar Vyas blesses and graces the wandering, restless, inquisitive mind. I personally visited him and have been associated with him since then for the meditation taught by him stands a world apart from the rest of the institutional claims that we come across in various parts of the world. The most remarkable feature here is the belief of achieving your goal on your own and not through any so commonly pronounced magic. For all those who wish to know in this area this place is the temple of understanding and experimenting till one does not realize his aim. Edword.
Rating:
Summary: The one guidebook you should take to India with you.
Review: The lonely planet guidebook to India is the best one I have ever seen for India. The details and information that are in this book a very usefull. I use it even though I live in India. I read the book and find out new stuff about the city I live in.
Rating: 
Summary: not worth it!
Review: This book had me lost in Bharatpur, stranded in Rajasthan, and completely confused in Cochin. The maps are mediocre, and the bulk of it generally not very useful. The only useful parts the ones that tell you how to get into and out of major cities, and where you can change your money. Otherwise, do not follow this guidebook--not only will you be following the tracks of every tourist in India, but also because you will be as lost as every other tourist in India.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This book told me how to get out of the airport to the lay out of temples, local customs and behavior. A MUST for any traveller to India.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent accomplishment, heavy but well worth it
Review: This edition of "Lonely Planet India" is better than the previous one, which was very very good itself. Despite the immensity of India and the numberless topics and regions that therefore have to be covered, the authors have done an excellent job indeed. Some weaknesses are inevitable, and this is perhaps why this is not one of LP's masterpieces, but it is indeed inevitable for travel guidebooks to be the better, the smaller the region they cover - this is why this book should perhaps be complemented with the individual LP guides to different Indian regions. But in itself, this book does cover most of what a visitor will need or want to know. And in a place that is chaotic and tough for foreigners like India, this may indeed be an essential tool for the less experienced travellers. The coverage of places to stay and eat is absolutely excellent, not just for the major cities but also for minor towns and sites (the authors would indeed seem to have been on every single square foot of land in India !). The section on permits and other legal matters is of immense value to anyone, and well up-to-date. And of course, the sections and special chapters on history, culture, religion, are extremely well written, great for the traveller and the armchair reader alike. Even though the best discoveries are those a traveller will make herself / himself, this guidebook is surely a great tool and help in anyone's discovery of this wonderful land. All in all, a masterpiece despite its limitations. A weakness is of course that things being as they are in India, information is subject to change, and some may have become out-of-date by the time this book was printed. But this is of course inevitable, and it simply means that - as in any country - a traveller should not rely on only a guidebook, but make a considerable effort to grasp as much as possible of current circumstances on her / his own.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent accomplishment, heavy but well worth it
Review: This edition of "Lonely Planet India" is better than the previous one, which was very very good itself. Despite the immensity of India and the numberless topics and regions that therefore have to be covered, the authors have done an excellent job indeed. Some weaknesses are inevitable, and this is perhaps why this is not one of LP's masterpieces, but it is indeed inevitable for travel guidebooks to be the better, the smaller the region they cover - this is why this book should perhaps be complemented with the individual LP guides to different Indian regions. But in itself, this book does cover most of what a visitor will need or want to know. And in a place that is chaotic and tough for foreigners like India, this may indeed be an essential tool for the less experienced travellers. The coverage of places to stay and eat is absolutely excellent, not just for the major cities but also for minor towns and sites (the authors would indeed seem to have been on every single square foot of land in India !). The section on permits and other legal matters is of immense value to anyone, and well up-to-date. And of course, the sections and special chapters on history, culture, religion, are extremely well written, great for the traveller and the armchair reader alike. Even though the best discoveries are those a traveller will make herself / himself, this guidebook is surely a great tool and help in anyone's discovery of this wonderful land. All in all, a masterpiece despite its limitations. A weakness is of course that things being as they are in India, information is subject to change, and some may have become out-of-date by the time this book was printed. But this is of course inevitable, and it simply means that - as in any country - a traveller should not rely on only a guidebook, but make a considerable effort to grasp as much as possible of current circumstances on her / his own.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent accomplishment, heavy but well worth it
Review: This edition of "Lonely Planet India" is better than the previous one, which was very very good itself. Despite the immensity of India and the numberless topics and regions that therefore have to be covered, the authors have done an excellent job indeed. Some weaknesses are inevitable, and this is perhaps why this is not one of LP's masterpieces, but it is indeed inevitable for travel guidebooks to be the better, the smaller the region they cover - this is why this book should perhaps be complemented with the individual LP guides to different Indian regions. But in itself, this book does cover most of what a visitor will need or want to know. And in a place that is chaotic and tough for foreigners like India, this may indeed be an essential tool for the less experienced travellers. The coverage of places to stay and eat is absolutely excellent, not just for the major cities but also for minor towns and sites (the authors would indeed seem to have been on every single square foot of land in India !). The section on permits and other legal matters is of immense value to anyone, and well up-to-date. And of course, the sections and special chapters on history, culture, religion, are extremely well written, great for the traveller and the armchair reader alike. Even though the best discoveries are those a traveller will make herself / himself, this guidebook is surely a great tool and help in anyone's discovery of this wonderful land. All in all, a masterpiece despite its limitations. A weakness is of course that things being as they are in India, information is subject to change, and some may have become out-of-date by the time this book was printed. But this is of course inevitable, and it simply means that - as in any country - a traveller should not rely on only a guidebook, but make a considerable effort to grasp as much as possible of current circumstances on her / his own.
Rating:
Summary: If you use it you will get help from it.
Review: This is the second time to visit India.Both time I took the same Lonely Planet. Always I choose hotel from it and felt not bad. In some small city, hight rank hotel means good servie and the price was not so high as you image it. First all the price listed in the book is as same as in the hotel, so try to cut off nearly 30% off is the very important thing to do during the trip.
Also I visited Jaisalmer on May, but if you following the book you will never go there in such cray summer. In fact, the summer was high enough, but still interesting. No more tourist means you can enjoy alone, and only myself in the hotel you can get nearly 50% discountdown for low season. If you read you can find a lot of things from the book, but on the trip everything is changed, you never image the book can guide you everything. Try to ask person around you, and get the most reasonable price.
I will plan to go to india again, by the guide of Lonely Planet, but I think I need a new version.
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