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Title: Lonely Planet Russia, Ukraine & Belarus (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, 2nd Ed) by Richard Nebesky, John Noble, George Wesley, Nick Selby, Deanna Swaney ISBN: 0-86442-713-1 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: April, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A good book, replaced by a newer edition.
Comment: This has been replaced by an updated edition (which eliminates Belarus). Search for 1740592654, or look under "Our Customers' Advice" above. It is still a great guide for your journey of Discovering Russia.
It is always best to get the most current guidebook, as attractions, hotels, restaurants and transportation options do often change--AND THEN VERIFY THAT INFORMATION!
Marc David Miller, Discovering Russia, New York
Rating: 1
Summary: You may have to pick this one, but it will not please you
Comment: A good and usable guide to the entire Russia is still to be written. There are objective reasons for this - the country is huge, and 99% per cent of its territory has no hope of receiving meaningful numbers of tourists. Covering such an area adequately would be an incredibly difficult and expensive task; there is no travel publisher in the world at the moment willing to invest so much for so little expected in sales.
People who come to Russia mostly visit Moscow and St Petersburg, although a few also wander to the "Zolotoye Koltso" (Golden Ring) around Volga river - old cities of Vladimir, Suzdal or Uglich. If this is your case, the choice is easy: just pick one of the city guides (DK Eyewitness recommended - really the best, Fodor's Moscow and St Petersburg is also good, or try Rough Guide for less inspired but more exhaustive listings).
The question is - what to do if you go deeper into the country? Say, places in the Urals, or Russia's Far East? Well, you probably will have to dedicate a lot of effort to picking out nuggets of information from the Internet - preferably armed with some knowledge of the Russian language. Prepare your itinerary bit by bit, seek recommendations, write e-mails to people. It is time-consuming and requires effort, but you do not have a choice if you want to prepare for this trip properly.
Alternatively (an easy way, but not a good one) - buy this book, but make sure you have a pinch of salt on you. A spoonful of salt, rather. Or better make it a sack of salt. The shortcomings of this book have been noted by others: hopelessly outdated, inaccurate, poorly researched. There is a distinct feeling writers either did not visit some of the places they wrote about or spent very little time there. As for pricing information, you will be better off with a random number generator or a casino roulette than this book. I have never seen a guide where price information would be so disconnected from the reality.
There is also a matter of certain arrogance and disrespect to local culture, noted by one reviewer. Lonely Planet is famed for not pulling any punches and giving writers a lot of freedom to voice their opinions, but at times the feeling of writers' perceived cultural superiority is over the top.
So is this book worth buying at all? Well, maybe, if you don't mind carrying around something of very limited practical use. Luggage allowance permitting, you might as well have it - one out of five telephone numbers shown in the book might be still valid, some of the addresses may be accurate. Opening times? Here's rule of thumb: try between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays, chances are, the place will be open. It may occasionally prove useful, for the absence of a better choice, but please do not have excessive expectations.
The same is true for Belarus - the country is no more welcoming to travellers than Libya or Sudan, nosy travellers risk imprisonment and serious travel writing is practically non-existent. You can try using Lonely Planet, or you can get an excellent listings magazine Minsk In Your Pocket.
For Ukraine, choices are better. The country is relatively well-covered by general Eastern Europe guides, there is brilliant Hippocrene Language and Travel Guide to Ukraine (by Linda Hodges and George Chumak), or Ukraine Culture Shock by Meredith Dalton. Generally, you will find Ukraine friendlier to Westerners than Russia or Belarus and, most importantly, not preoccupied by desperate superpower ambitions and constant need to reassert its greatness.
I gave this Lonely Planet guide one star not only because you have to give it at least one star under Amazon system. The book deserves a star because it attempted to cover Russia, Ukraine and Belarus first. Commendable ambition, but sadly, the result is very poor. Maybe they will put together a better team next time, give it a bit more time and check their writing more meticulously.
Rating: 2
Summary: Somewhat outdated and too broad in scope.
Comment: Any guide which tries to everextent itself by covering a too big an area will shortchange the reader, inspite of the best intensions. This is the case with this nitty-gritty Lonley Planet guide to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. I've found the information for Ukraine far less useful than in Linda Hodges' guide to Ukraine. Lonley Planet treats Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as if it still were part of the same country it was 11 years ago. All three countries have their unique pluses and minuses, and, lets face it, deserve their own individual guides. The reader is not being made aware enough and therefore does not really appreciate the fact that, for example, Russia and Ukraine are very different from one another, and any similarities are far less common than once assumed.What I liked best about the Lonley Planet guide,and the same is true for their other guides, are the details about the obscure and less-known hotels and restaurants.
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Title: Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook: With Two-Way Dictionary (Russian Phrasebook, 3rd Ed) by James Jenkin, Inna Zaitseva ISBN: 1864501065 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Hippocrene Language and Travel Guide to Ukraine (Language and Travel Guides) by Linda Hodges, George Chumak ISBN: 0781808022 Publisher: Hippocrene Books Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Lonely Planet Ukrainian Phrasebook (Ukrainian Phrasebook, 2nd Ed) by Jim Dingley, Olena Bekh, Marko Pavlyshyn ISBN: 1740592379 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine by Anna Reid ISBN: 0813337925 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Ukraine (Culture Shock) by Meredith Dalton ISBN: 1558686320 Publisher: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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