Bangkok 11 (inglés) (Lonely Planet Travel Guide) Paperback – October 1, 2014

Plenty of helpful information and very informative.

I can always count on Lonely Planet travel guides.

I'm a big fan of the LONELY PLANET books and they are the only travel guides I use. The major part of my recent trip was in Cambodia but I planned 4 days in Bangkok, Thailand so I opted for the BANGKOK guidebook rather than the one for all of Thailand. As in the past, I found this guidebook to be helpful and very useful but unfortunately, I found it confusing at times. Of course, Bangkok is a huge city and it is a confusing one to maneuver.The book breaks down the city into various sections. Even after having visited the city, I find it all confusing so when I was booking a hotel before my trip, I had no idea about the layout of the city. I found a great hostel (CHERN BOUTIQUE HOSTEL) via the guidebook but just did not realize the hostel is not centrally located.I like to walk and I got lost a few times in the sprawling city. The guidebook does have an excellent pull out map that was much better than the many free maps I was handed in the city. I had trouble finding my way at times since not all street names are listed and sometimes they didn't match the street signs or the English spelling varied from the sign and from the map. Major street signs are in Thai and English.Again, this book could have been laid out in a more user friendly manner. I would walk and not know which neighborhood I was in. I would see a landmark, such as a temple (wat as they call them in Thailand) or museum and look for it in the book's main index. I usually could not find it since it might only be in the index for a specific neighborhood. It made walking in the city a real adventure as I tried to figure out where I was. A landmark could have helped me pinpoint my location but I couldn't find it in the book. Also, the maps of a neighborhood didn't help in the overall scheme. That is where the big map helped, though I often couldn't figure out which neighborhood I was in by looking at the map.Also the book recommends taking taxis over tuc-tucs because they tend to be cheaper. It mentioned that taxis are metered so you know your fare. My problem is not a single "metered" taxi would turn on the meter even though I asked. Be sure to know the price before begin your journey in a taxi. I had to leave one taxi because the driver would not turn on the meter and quoted a fare I thought might be too high.Overall, I liked the book and found it helpful. It was also useful in planning daytrips to the surrounding area. It's the layout of the book that doesn't make it as user friendly as it could be.

I used this book and like it. The warnings about what to "watch out" for were helpful. I enjoyed the Jim Thompson house very much. Suggest reading the instructions about using the Sky Train in advance. Any advance information will be useful to you when you are taking this train the first time. The information about the various kinds of boats on the river will be very useful as well. It would probably be worth carrying this book with you at least on your first few days in Bangkok. You could always put a plain brown paper cover on it if you don't want people to know you are a (perhaps newly arrived) traveler. There is a hotel near the temple with the reclining Buddha (between there and the river) that is small, but highly rated on various travel sites. I liked this hotel (near the massage school) and would consider staying there another time. I had a drink there while waiting for a friend and liked the vibe of the place. Be sure you get the most recent edition available.

Great book!

Great guide, highly recommended.

Excellent

Good guide covering all the key things to do. Recommend day trip to old capital at Ayutthaya, lot of 700 year old ruins in Thai style.