Footprint Thailand Handbook, Fourth Edition

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Summary: Welcome to Footprint!
Review: Dear Fellow Traveller, Thank you for checking out the Thailand Handbook. Footprint are an independent British publisher based in Bath. We specialise in providing travellers with guide books that are second to none for accurate, up-to-date and relevant information. You will find that most of our guides are simply the most comprehensive available with in-depth commentary on history, culture and customs as well as practical travel information (such as where to stay, places to eat and getting from A to B). Our major titles are updated ANNUALLY to ensure you have the best info to hand. You might like to know that we also publish Handbooks to Vietnam Laos and Malaysia as well as an extremely useful general guide to travelling: The Traveller's Handbook. Finally, whichever guidebook you choose, we would like to wish you an exciting, illuminating and above all enjoyable trip! Best Wishes, Footprint.

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Summary: A solid travel book
Review: Forget Insight, Travel Bug and even Lonely Planet. They are all too heavy to carry on your destination. Leave them behind next to the armchair. Real travellers will want any book from this series: They are small, written on thin tissue paper, and print tightly spaced. The Thail book, which I am updating every two years has so much practical information, from hotels and fax numbers, to suggested itineraries, and maps. Indispensible to the travelling traveller.

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Summary: This is the most practical travel series.
Review: Forget Insight, Travel Bug and even Lonely Planet. They are all too heavy to carry on your destination. Leave them behind next to the armchair. Real travellers will want any book from this series: They are small, written on thin tissue paper, and print tightly spaced. The Thail book, which I am updating every two years has so much practical information, from hotels and fax numbers, to suggested itineraries, and maps. Indispensible to the travelling traveller.

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Summary: The most complete guide of its type.
Review: In the style of the Footprint Series the Thailand Handbook is an exhaustive source for even the most ambitious of travellers. It is the best source for practical information on hotels, transportation etc. It is not, however, as easy to use or as visually pleasing as many others. For those who want to have all the information with them on their trip, this will be the book that makes it into the luggage. Not for those who have trouble with fine print.

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Summary: Good guide, but lots of outdated info
Review: Overall, I'm very pleased with Footprint Guides, and this one has the usual excellent set of information & opinions. But,I was disappointed in the amount of stale information in this book. It's just been published, but half the restaurants we selected from it turned out to be out of business. I know restaurants come and go, but some of these had been out of business for years. Maybe we just had bad luck, but there was enough out-of-date info that I'm wondering if they cut some corners to get a new edition out so everyone (like me) would discard their previous edition and run out to get this one.

Rating:
Summary: Good guide, but lots of outdated info
Review: Overall, I'm very pleased with Footprint Guides, and this one has the usual excellent set of information & opinions. But,I was disappointed in the amount of stale information in this book. It's just been published, but half the restaurants we selected from it turned out to be out of business. I know restaurants come and go, but some of these had been out of business for years. Maybe we just had bad luck, but there was enough out-of-date info that I'm wondering if they cut some corners to get a new edition out so everyone (like me) would discard their previous edition and run out to get this one.

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Summary: A solid travel book
Review: When I left for Thailand, I was uncertain that this book would provide the information I needed to navigate Thailand. I quickly discovered this book had a wealth of information. The book led me to many relatively undiscovered towns, hotels, and restaurants, all of which provided a truly rich traveling experience. As for its practicality, the book is lightwieght, durable, using small fonts to pack data in. When in the company of those carrying Lonely Planet, I found others consistently closing their books in favor of the recommendations in my Footprint guide.

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Summary: Writing a guidebook's no picnic
Review: You probably don't think so, but writing a guidebook is hard work. The four hundred and fifty-fourth toilet looks very much like the four hundred and fifty-fifth. What can one say about a guesthouse which seems identical to the one just down the road? We try, as that car hire firm used to tell its customers, but doubtless sometimes get it wrong. One person's Ritz is another person's Gulag and, after all, writing a guidebook is an art, not a science. But we think (of course!) that we've got it about right. Lots of detailed comments on the practicalities; a touch of humour to entertain you on those 24-hour bus journeys from hell; and a great deal of background information (too much! the publishers keep telling us) so that you can understand the country, its people and culture.