Lonely Planet Singapore: The Best Singapore Travel Guide?
Lonely
Planet Singapore Takes No. 1 Spot in 'My Top 5 Singapore Travel Guides'
Ranking.
|
What's good:
As with most of the LP guides, the tips in
Lonely Planet Singapore are concise
and
pertinent.
The writers do not waste their words but tell you what's most
important, making this guide chock-full of Singapore's best
offerings.
You'll
find the longest list of
highly-rated hotels - the whole gamut of accommodation
is covered here, from budget to boutique to super-luxury.
Restaurant tips are
extremely brief, but they are numerous and highlight what's most
important about the food, the atmosphere, the service, the views and so
on.
I've walked some of their
walking tours and
found them absolutely
spot on. Though they don't elaborate a lot about what
you'll see, they point
you to the most interesting spots.
After the Insight Singapore Travel Guide, Lonely Planet Singapore has the next most substantial
information for short
excursions to Malaysia (Johor Bahru, Tioman Island) and Indonesia
(Bintan & Batam Islands).
Whatever your budget, you won't go wrong crossing the border with their
tips.
Other notable strengths of Lonely Planet Singapore:
- Detailed, easy-to-follow maps with exact locations of attractions.
- Color-coded word tabs that tell you whether a hotel is luxury, boutique, budget; or whether a restaurant is Indian, Chinese and the like.
- Clear intuitive sectioning.
- Exact prices for each hotel and attraction, so you could budget accurately; accurate restaurant price range (yes, I did check some of them out!).
What's not so
good:
The photos are squeezed into just a few pages. And the
images, in my opinion, look amateurish and tired. But then again, they
never set out to be a photo tour book.
My recommendation:
If you don't
want to think too hard about which Singapore travel guide to buy, get
Lonely Planet Singapore for its incorruptible research process and (ok,
I'm biased here!) long-standing reputation...
Check out low-low prices for
at eBay.
The Others in 'My Top 5 Singapore
Travel Guides' List
No. 2 - Insight
Guide Singapore
for its very substantial background information to each spot &
souvenir-quality pictures.
No. 3 - The
Rough Guide to Singapore
for its incredibly good range of budget travel options and useful background
information all-round.
No. 4 - DK
Eyewitness Singapore Guide
for its numerous photos and see-through 3-D
drawings.
No. 5 - Fodor's Singapore
for
sticking out their necks to say which the best is in every
aspect of Singapore travel.
And a good companion to these - Singapore
Cityscoops.
