LONELY PLANET TANZANIA 2006
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This paperback with 353 pages has a large colour map on pages 4-5. The first few pages deals with getting started. Then the book goes on to the history,culture, environment, safaris and the Tanzanian wildlife. There is a chapter on food and drink.
The book then moves on to different areas of Tanzania. You need to decide where you are going and then concentrate on that chapter. Once decided, log on to internet and check the lodges, roads and maps. The internet gives you lodges and camps in detail with photos.
The last chapters in the book deal with, transport, health, language and do's and don'ts. These are a must read. There are beautiful colour photos, maps and street maps through out the book.
Most of us travel with a reputable company and do the northern park of Tanzania. Havind born in Kenya and travelled to northern circuit few times in Tanzania, I can only reccomend this book. Visit during the calving session of wildebeest,from mid january to mid march. You will be amazed with the ammount of natural wildlife drama. Book ahead for this season. Most lodges and camps are excellent. Be careful, as at home in Arusha, where every body wants to sell you something.
The serengeti, Ngorongoro conservation area, tarangire National Parks are the 8th wonders of the world.
Read and ENJOY.
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let down
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Having just returned from trip to Tanzania, I feel badly let down by this book. It was largely as a result of its information on the supposedly excellent Scandanavian buses that we ended up missing our flight home. Advice: take the Rough Guide or Bradt, if you do take the Lonely Planet, add at least 2-3 hrs on to every journey time, ignore their advice on hotels, either they slam the good ones or big up the poor ones and, in reference to an earlier comment, if you do take travellers cheques, make sure you ave the reciept with you when you try and use them. I can't help feeling that lonely Planet relied on its well known name to make the book sell and failed to do any research for the latest edition.
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lazy research, poor journalism
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on the road, this book is practically useless. information clearly hasn't been updated since the previous edition, so a great deal of info is incorrect. the book was clearly written by someone with access to a car - you find yourself thinking, yes, i'll go and take a look at that. but, read on for the small print> often the only way to get to the recommended places is with your own transport or on a hideously expensive tour. this book is just lazy. the rough guide is 'less recent' (theoretically), but much much more useful. avoid this book like the plague.
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A little out of date, but a great book
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This book gives extensive coverage of Tanzania if you are going as a traveller rather than a tourist. The information on public transport is excellent, and the rough prices given really helpful when budgeting. Having stayed in different hostels, I believe this book gives quite fair descriptions of accommodation. The information on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was extremely helpful. The chapters on Zanzibar are a little out of date, but the basics are still there; the museums, restaurants etc. It my be a little out of date, but as long as you accept that, this is a very useful book.
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Really, a waste of money
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Lonely planet guides are patchy, but this one is an unusually poor, lazy effort. For every area covered a quick list of hotels and tour companies is given, but the a compendium of lists is little use to anyone. The information on Arusha and the popular Ngorongoro/Serengeti/Kilimanjaro trips is thin enough, but the absence of information on Zanzibar (for example the differences between the beaches and towns and dive sites) is a complete joke. Pre-internet this book might just about have been worth it to save time on travel and accomodation information, but honestly, two hours on the web will give you far more interesting and useful information. The fact that it's now well out-of-date is hardly LP's fault, but it makes it even less useful now. (one useful tip that should but doesn't appear in the book - don't take travellers' cheques to Tanzania)
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