Let's Go 2003: Australia

Rating:
Summary: Vastly Superior to Lonely Planet but you don't need either
Review: Vastly superior to it's competitor, this book still has a few inaccuracies but nothing compared to the mistake ridden Lonely Planet Australia. This new edition by Let's Go isn't too different to its predecessors but it is slightly smaller in size. Every centimetre and gram of weight does count when you're lugging the thing around the vast continent of Australia. Let's go has also introduced some new small features down it's left hand columns on some pages. They are In Recent News which reports on regional issues that may affect you tells you about recent local council works or stuff like what is happening with Tim the Yetti Man. Irrelevant, yes and weight adding but somewhat interesting if you're bored somewhere. The Local Story, From the road, The Big Splurge are a few of the others which are equally irrelevant to most backpackers and seem to have been created just to give the book a new look so you'll buy the current instead of an older version. The big grey rectangle with interesting tid bits still exists. Find out why Hungry Jacks is called Burger King down here for example.

A fair number of hostel listings are in here but not all of them. There are lots of free publications in a lot of hostels with most hostels listed so if buying the book for this reason alone maybe save your money. There is still a lot of weight unnecessarily taken up with stuff such as hotels and restaurants which backpackers obviously never use. Let's Go should produce two versions one for travellers interested in that kind of stuff and one for backpackers. This book would then be half the size and weight.

This book is good for general information on Australia especially if you've never been here before or don't know much. You don't really need one of these types of books to travel Australia or anywhere else but if you must get one definitely get this over Lonely Planet.

Rating:
Summary: Vastly Superior to Lonely Planet but you don't need either
Review: Vastly superior to it's competitor, this book still has a few inaccuracies but nothing compared to the mistake ridden Lonely Planet Australia. This new edition by Let's Go isn't too different to its predecessors but it is slightly smaller in size. Every centimetre and gram of weight does count when you're lugging the thing around the vast continent of Australia. Let's go has also introduced some new small features down it's left hand columns on some pages. They are In Recent News which reports on regional issues that may affect you tells you about recent local council works or stuff like what is happening with Tim the Yetti Man. Irrelevant, yes and weight adding but somewhat interesting if you're bored somewhere. The Local Story, From the road, The Big Splurge are a few of the others which are equally irrelevant to most backpackers and seem to have been created just to give the book a new look so you'll buy the current instead of an older version. The big grey rectangle with interesting tid bits still exists. Find out why Hungry Jacks is called Burger King down here for example.

A fair number of hostel listings are in here but not all of them. There are lots of free publications in a lot of hostels with most hostels listed so if buying the book for this reason alone maybe save your money. There is still a lot of weight unnecessarily taken up with stuff such as hotels and restaurants which backpackers obviously never use. Let's Go should produce two versions one for travellers interested in that kind of stuff and one for backpackers. This book would then be half the size and weight.

This book is good for general information on Australia especially if you've never been here before or don't know much. You don't really need one of these types of books to travel Australia or anywhere else but if you must get one definitely get this over Lonely Planet.