Insight Guide Oman and the Uae (Insight City Guides)

Rating:
Summary: The portable coffee table
Review: The prospective traveler to Oman and the United Arab Emirates could hardly do better than to choose this title. Its main rival is surely going to be the Lonely Planet guide, which is certainly cheaper. But money isn't everything when it comes to value. This Insight Guide is more focused in the area it reviews (only 2 countries compared with LP's 6) and has the sort of graphics that usable soft-cover guides - as opposed to wrist crunching stay-at-home tomes - can usually only dream of. So: pictures to whet your appetite, enough text to provide historical and social context for the prospective visitor. But: most important of all - does it work? Can you navigate the souk in Dubai or the sand dunes of Oman armed only with the Insight Guide? Within the confines of its 318 pages, the answer has to be yes. You won't find detailed maps in here to mount a major expedition, but the helpfully colour indexed Travel tips at the back of the book provide just the sort of information that the practical traveler will need. A lovely piece of work, Insight Guides. If you're thinking of breaking a journey, or going for a longer stay, in either Oman or the UAE this book will be a useful preparation, a handy source of facts nd an attractive souvenir.