For many years, I have now been mainly travelling with Lonely Planet guides. Specially in comparison with other guides, the LP proved to be a reliable source of information. I discovered numerous lovely places, pensions and restaurants through the LP. It was hence clear that we`d buy this guide for our two week tour through the country. We were additionally equipped with a Guide de Routard as my partner is French.
This particular LP lacked several features I came to appreciate about the guides. These were the following:
Maps: The city maps lack detail and are partly extremely confusing. Street names are too often omitted and it is hard to identify the grid of streets. Sights are sometimes directly marked, sometimes shown as number which is very confusing. Only little practical information is to be found.
Hotels: The authors obviously prefer to stay at luxurious places, most notably in Dalmatia. Many of our picks" are luxury hotels the average LP reader could never afford. At the lower end, there are little options. Barely any recommendations are listed for places off the beaten track. This LP focuses on recommending hotels and pensions in the main cities. The authors apparently lacked the appetite to go beyond the standard, very much to our disappointment.
Restaurants: The same is true here. Additionally, prices are often drastically inaccurate.
Ways: Normally, one of the biggest strengths of the LP is the Getting There & Away"-section. Not so here. Only the main connections are described, without much detail. Many things that would normally be found in a LP are omitted here.
The bottom Line: We were hugely disappointed with this Lonely Planet. Normally, we travel using the LP as our main guide and the Guide de Routard as our back up. We were forced to do it the other way around this time as the LP was just not good enough. Pity.