I have visited Istanbul around nine times and Izmir about seven. This guide will really take you to the wrong hotels and restaurants. The cultural guide is ok despite a rather boring layout, esp. maps. But the restaurant suggestions are disasterous: where do you find Istanbul's best gourmet, Corne d'Or, or the intellectual bastion Yakup 2, or the best chicken and mezes in Istanbul (Hanedan), or the nostalgic charm of Istanbul's 1930's belle epoque (Rejans)? Instead mediocre places are recommended which will give the dogmatic reader a mediocre holiday. Also, Lonely Planet does not mention the new hotel in Izmir (Crowne Plaza Izmir) which receives raving critics. Does it not know of it yet? And no mention of restaurants like Bonjour, British Grill & Pub, Colonial (at Hilton), only overprized fish restaurants. Is not this 2007 version only a lazy blueprint of the previous, I wonder?