Lonely Planet Reviews 321

Have I been scammed?

I bought a book as a Christmas present the 7th of January. The website said that the cutoff day for Christmas deliveries was the 15th of December for the UK. It’s not 31/12/25 and I still haven’t received it nor the refund I requested.

I sent an email to the customer service team and it says that they will be off until the 5th of January.

I believe I might have been scammed?

Do not use the shop! Terrible site doesn't show which column is the shipping address, or billing.

Someone random gets a free book.

Email them and say they don't update orders.

Pathetic. Go elsewhere

Living and working in Laos, we are genuinely shocked that for the second edition in a row this guide completely ignores one of the region’s top-rated highlights: Don Daeng Island.
A one-boat ride from Champasak and consistently praised on Google and TripAdvisor (best attraction right after Vat Phu Unesco Heritage site). Award winning homestays, cycling trails,pristine sand beach, yoga retreats, birdwatching... yet once again, it doesn’t appear at all.

Meanwhile, this edition still lists long-closed guesthouses and outdated info.
It feels less like on-the-ground research and more like something assembled behind a screen with AI. Travellers relying only on this book will simply miss key parts of Southern Laos.

We had already provided feedback several times before this new edition, they simply ignored it.
Cannot recommend.

Lonely planet guidebooks used to be good, but no longer. I regret my recent purchase of the guidebook to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This book is next to worthless. Same goes for the latest lonely planet guidebook to Australia, another purchase I regret. Little to no practical guidance. So sad that the quality is now in the toilet

Useful travel guides and inspiration, through some online content is outdated.

Great travel guides, but the mobile app needs improvements.

I have been using lonely planet books for over 30 years and at one time I was feeding back details of places we had visited to lonely planet.
In the last few years we have been to California and Costa Rica. We used the books but they are basically worthless. For California it was so sketchy it looked like it had been updated from local brochures, we had better knowledge ourselves.
For Costa Rica there were two books, why, it was all over the place, you just need one factual book detailing each area. In the end we did our own tour and independent research and used the lonley planet just to get a feel for the country. I do not want to say it but we will not be using them again for our next tour later this year and see if we can do the plan ourselves.
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response to lonely planet 14/08/2025
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What a poor response they did not address the issues especially the content statement.
Check other books and the internet as these books are not worth the money anymore.
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Before your holiday, the fun usualy already starts with getting a lonely planet. But after my trip to Greece that feeling will have to be reserved for a different guide. With the new format there is no way of knowing where the nice restaurants, cafe's or sleeping places are. The internet doesn't provide for unbiased trust worty reviews. The lonely plantet now will tell you that Napflio is a nice town and the former capital of Greece. But for this information i can use wikipedia. It's for them a cheap way to make a "travel book" they don't have to travel there anymore.

The new format looks nice, and it will probably get you more exited about a country compared to the old format. But this also brings me to the negative; the purpose of the new guide is completely different. This guide is fun 'before' the trip, but not while you are actually traveling. They cut so much information, it is crazy. You better as well leave them at home. I always enjoyed the Lonely Planets, but I won't be buying the new format. Hopefully they come with 2 versions. 1 for at home and 1 for on the road!

The new guides are horrible, very bad. When you read a new guide of LP now is like reading a book of Jane Austen but with pictures, this is not a travel guide. I recomend all of you buy the DK guides. They are so much better.

The books arrived 5 days after ordering and no tax added.

For the last 2 weeks, I haven't been able to access the contents of the articles published on lonelyplanet.com I have tried everything however it just keeps on taking me to the menu options as to kinda forcing me to buy their products!! it's ridiculous!! if its a technical upgrade i need to read the articles, it's not mentioned. customer support on email just had a flat response of "looking into it." Pathetic response on the website!

Just finished traveling across Asia. Every Lonely Planet book we had was so pretentious as if they were being sponsored to write well about the country. Came back to Denmark and wanted to see what they wrote about home ... exactly the same. What happened to this publisher to make it become so bad?!

We’ve collected so many LP books over the years and have a proud collection on our bookshelf which are testament to our wonderful travels and memories. The last few I’ve bought however are a sad excuse. I’ve just had a Colombia version delivered - ordered an old one and was sent and fobbed off with a new one which is about 1cm thick or thin to be precise! It’s going back and my days of adding to our collection and loyalty to Lonely Planet are over!

Bad, Worse, The Worst …. just a bad Joke!
Avoid buying from their absolutely ridiculous online place. About 2 weeks ago ordered an travel guide to an EU country from their store.
No info when it is coming from their parcel tracking, No info where it is, Package status update keeps saying in synonyms how the package status is just to be updated with no additional info, The only help you can get from their so-called Customer service is that they tell they might get soon their own delivery system, maybe even soon; then it tells I should read in small print how their products can take up to 3 and more weeks for delivery, etc. etc.

While elsewhere in EU and UK packages get delivered swiftly, with timely updates on their status.
… or maybe it is a Lonely Planet thing - we give you adventures, when you have not even started!

Recently returned to UK after 11 weeks in South America. Colombia was ok but the month or so in Peru was a nightmare. Most of the country is a dire dump and Lonely Planet clearly glosses over that with one particular example from Brendan Sainsbury on Huaraz where he describes it as "won't win Andean village beauty contest but has personality" The place is a cesspit with the personality of a stray ravaged dog - and there's plenty of those along these filthy litter strewn streets. Stop polishing a turd LP and tell the truth. I have not just wasted money on reading your garbage, but a month of my life and also risked my sanity in this gunge of a country. Only decent place in Arequipa really and perhaps the over rated Machu Pichu trip.

I have been using The Lonely Planet since they nineties and travelled all continents with them. For me it used to be thé best travelguide ever. Around 2023 The Lonely Planet changed it content and layout and have become the worst travelguide ever published. Please stay away from these books. They hardly have any restaurants in the new guides, with little information about the few restaurants they mention. They always described all the sights to see and gave the most important ones a star. So when you we're short of time you could make a quick selection. Also the preferred restaurants, café 's, shops and activities received a star. That again helped making a choice. To give you an example: in the 2024 edition of Paris, there were 3 restaurants mentioned in the area called Le Marais. None of them were on any map. In the 2022 edition of Paris there were 12 restaurants described to the details in Le Marais and they we're all marked on a map. I have sent several emails tot the publishers to go back tot the perfect travelguide they used to be for so many years and gave many examples on what used to be better but I have had no response. For now I am trying to work with the Rough guide and the Michelin guide and I try to buy (2nd hand) or borrow as many "old" Lonely Planet books as I can. Take my advice : don't buy the Lonely Planet anymore untill they change back to what they once were.

Thanks lonely planet. When I was young I used you and the other one. Always useful. I sometimes felt hemmed in and went off piste and took what came. That was better but I didn't often have the courage to do it. Everyone should. Now I'm older I find you useful. Plus of course we have the intenet now. Just a big thank you for your post about Tata in morrocco. The hotel le relais des sables. The only beer in town. We drove 5 hours from the desert. Mhamid. To get here. Good plan. Worth it. Cheers

Recently ordered a Canada planning map for a motorcycle trip this summer. I'm so disappointed with the map. VERY small print. The roads are not well defined. Mostly just the major roads. Very little detail. Also, no information for the US states that border Canada. A true waste of money. Would cost more to return than cost of map. Seriously, don't waste your money!