I have searched and the most recent topics I seemed to find were circa Jan this year, so thought i'd ask the age old question again...
Guide books for Indonesia...recommendations please! I will be heading from Jakarta down through Java and onto Bali and Lombok. Only just over three weeks in Indonesia, so further is probably not likely.
When traveling before I have tended to opt for the Rough Guides rather than the std LP 'Bibles', I have tended to prefer the style, and there's a significant crossover between them and the LPs anyway. However....from previous threads on here it seems the RG to Indonsesia is pretty ropey!
I've got my Battered/well used copy of the RG to SE Asia which i'm reading at the moment, am I actually likely to get any benefit to getting another guide book? I tend just you it as exactly that a 'guide', No guide book is likely to be too hot on prices anyway as they change so quickly. With Hostels I tend to either rock up without booking, or book from the hostel before it.
Thanks,
Dave
Yeah, the new LP is the most up to date book around (though it's already a full eighteen months since the research was done, and plenty's already out of date. My housemates have a copy, and I compared it (unfavourably) to the previous edition, which was hardly brilliant in itself. Absolutely no new ground or destinations have been covered in the new edition, and a significant number of places seem to have been dropped... ever decreasing circles I say.
The guide book I have carried with me all over Indonesia over the years is an increasingly battered old Footprint, published in 1998. Needless to say the prices belong to another world, and in fast-developing places like Bali the listings are worthless, but out in the nether regions of the country things are much as they always are. It's one of the best guidebooks I've owned (I generally find Footprint more comprehensive in terms of destinations and background info, and without the unspeakably awful "cool" LP style), packed with stuff. There are more recent Footprints, though there's been no new issue for several years, and the last one was no where near as good as the old 1998...
The current LP is the best guide around - by default.
The competition is both years out of date, and even less complate.
The latest RG completely ignores the whole of Maluku, for example!
If you want more info, you must get separate guides to individual regions - see
this overview.
I was toying with what to purchase too. The LP is the most up to date. I usually take most of the price info with a pinch of salt. In fact I use it more to plan a route rather than direct me to hotels etc. But you can always use other web resources to update yourself.
I am doing the same journey three weeks, three islands. I don't know why the Bali & Lombok guide doesn't include Java too as this seems such a well-troden route - instead I had to buy the bulky Indonesia one.
Chickpie,
I was wondering the same thing re: Java, but in the end I just purchased the Rough Guide for Bali/Lombok and "borrowed" the large/heavy Indonesia guide to photocopy the sections on Yogya/Borubodur, Mt, Bromo area, and the route back to Bali.
I think the old travellers beaten track (coming from BKK or Penang) used to be from Medan - Toba - Bukittinggi - Jakarta - Bandung - Yogya - Surabaya - Bali.
Most people who have just a few weeks holiday often fly straight to Bali and if ever leaving the island, it would be to visit Lombok (Gilis).
So to me it seems quite logical to have a seperate editon for those 2 islands.
My next trip will be to Sumatra only so I would be happy if #4 would send me that section, your guidebook would not be so bulky then and I would be a happy man ;-)
trusted partner
