Maldives (Lonely Planet Country Guide) (Paperback)

The guide is a handy, wipe clean, pocket-sized guide. The reader is captivated from the very beginning. The book takes the reader on a journey, starting with the history of the Island Nation, leading to Politics, Environmental Issues, Culture, First Aid and Information about each of the Tourist Resorts.

The book contains useful summary information in little boxes, with a starfish border. The boxes provide interesting facts about; "How Atolls are formed?" "Coral Bleaching," "Snorkelling and Diving" and a useful Medical checklist.

The guide also contains information about what to pack and what not to pack. Until I read the guide, I was unaware that Maldivian Government confiscates Cosmopolitan, because they regard it as a pornographic book. The guide explains that travellers have to be careful with Crucifixes and pocket Bibles. Alcohol and drugs are also banned. If you are a Backpacker, then I urge you to heed the advice about visas and visiting inhabited islands.

I would personally recommend any traveller reading the comprehensive medical advice the author provides, as although a Paradise, the Maldives can have a fatal beauty. Common sense is the best policy.

I loved the layout of this guide, filled with colour photos, to wet my appetite and maintain my interest. There was also a guide to the most 14 common marine species, but it's insufficient for the devoted diver. These pictures were based on hand drawings. There are excellent descriptions of the best dive sites, together with a guide about Diving and Snorkelling Safety and equipment hire.

The guide provides a section of contact addresses; British Consulate, tour operators and the island resorts. Telephone numbers and web addresses are listed, but could have changed. There is also a Lonely Planet website, showing some pages of the guide and tourist feedback. Future publications are updated by some of this feedback and the guide welcomes updates.

On the outside of the book, there are Atoll markers. Information on each Atoll includes a small map and a summary of each resort island (food, accommodation and activities). I checked the account for Kuredu, with comments from Guests and the guide appears to be accurate for this resort. Before the Atoll marked sections, is a whole section devoted to Male (the Capital), providing advice about accommodation and recommended sight seeing.

For all you linguists, a few phrases of the National Language can be found towards the back of the guide. The back of the book contains a useful ruler on the edge of inside cover and conversion charts.

I have looked at other guides and concluded that they don't even come a close second. I would definitely by other Lonely Planet guides, they have thought of everything.

Wendy Davies

The Maldives is a fairly small country and it has a "limited" history. As many people I ended up just visiting the Sun Island resort and not any other island. So even if it is a good book and you can learn some from it I'm still left with the question: how useful is it? Sun Island was just covered by a few sentences in the book and I was far more satisfied when I found a personal trip report from someone that had already been to Sun Island. So when it comes to the Maldives I would have to say that you don't really need this guide. There are so many good Internet sites where you can find a lot of information.