Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts

Lonely Planet Melbourne & Victoria (City Travel Guide) Review

Lonely Planet Melbourne and Victoria (City Travel Guide)
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Lonely Planet Melbourne & Victoria (City Travel Guide) ReviewThe Lonely Planet city guide to "Melbourne" was put together by Simone Egger and David McClymont. The guide I am reviewing is the 5th edition of the guide, so please take note that a 6th edition will be out soon, and it is almost always best to go with the latest edition of a travel guide.
I may update my review after my trip, but from my first reading of the guide, I found it to be fairly comprehensive. It covers the city as well as some things to do in the immediately surrounding region. There are sections which cover the culture (`City Life', `Arts',' Food', `History'), the area (`Neighbourhoods'), and most importantly for the traveler, things to do (`Eating', `Drinking', `Sleeping', `Walking Tours', `Entertainment', `Sports, Health, & Fitness', `Shopping', and `Excursions').
I found this guide to be very helpful in my planning, and only found a couple areas where it wasn't accurate. The first was in hotel costs, and that is undoubtedly due to the fact that I am going to be there during a holiday. The guide is also from 2004, so there would undoubtedly be changes each year anyway. The other area where they might want to update is for getting a visa. Tourist visas for many countries can now be applied for online, but they do not mention that. I feel that one of the most useful sections of this book will probably turn out to be the `Directory' section, which covers a wide range of topics from transportation, money exchange, embassies, tipping, tourist information, and much more.
As the city guide for the city in which Lonely Planet is based, my expectations were very high, and so far they have been met for the most part. As I indicated earlier, I may come back and edit this review after my trip, but for pre-planning, these is easily a four star reference. However, I do see that the 6th edition is due out in October of this year, so if possible I would suggest waiting for the more up-to-date version of the guide.
Lonely Planet Melbourne & Victoria (City Travel Guide) OverviewDiscover Melbourne & VictoriaGo seaside in sultry St Kilda, with a stroll among fishermen on the pier and a beer at the iconic EspyLeaf through newspapers as baristas bang, pump and grind fresh morning coffees on Degraves StreetRummage through designer fashion boutiques in the city's up-and-coming shopping precinctsGiggle and gasp as the Little Penguins make the dash from sea to shore on Phillip IslandIn This GuideFour local writers, over 1000 research hours, 126 well-tested bars and pubs followed by 126 restorative lattesUnique walking tours, created by local legends, that take you beyond the city's famous landmarksFrom slowfood restaurants to ecotours: we cover the best green options the state has to offerContent updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights

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Fodor's Australia 2009 (Travel Guide) Review

Fodor's Australia 2009 (Travel Guide)
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Fodor's Australia 2009 (Travel Guide) ReviewI bought this guide book to help me plan and execute a route through Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Since I did not want to buy three books (one for each state) I opted for this one from Fodor's. It's probably one of the least useful guidebooks that I have ever owned. While it IS difficult to make a guide book on an area as large as Australia, the authors spend an awful lot of space on describing single restaurants that they fancy in detail, while leaving out other helpful listings. So if you are not into the same food that evening you stay in a particular town, you are on your own. The authors have a tendency to list a lot more luxurious places instead of a nice mix across all budgets.
The section on Sidney is still acceptable but western Victoria, South Australia (which pretty much does not exist east and south of Barossa) and Tasmania are so bad, I trashed the book in Sydney rather than taking it home (I have never done that before!).
The book can be used for general planning purposes (which part of Australia do I want to visit in which season and roughly what are the major things that I could see along the way) but while you travel its place is on your bookshelf at home and not in your glove compartment of your campervan.Fodor's Australia 2009 (Travel Guide) OverviewFodor's. For Choice Travel Experiences.Fodor's helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. While you're at the helm, Fodor's offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It's like having a friend in Australia!•Updated annually, Fodor's Australia 2009 provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guide book.•Fodor's Australia features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.•If it's not worth your time, it's not in this book. Fodor's discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor's Choice designations, ensure that you'll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in Australia.•Experience Australia like a local! Fodor's Australia 2009 features information from local experts.•Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include "Top Reasons to Go," "Word of Mouth" advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.•Crisp, clean maps with more depth and detail to make it easier than ever to sail in, out, and around town.Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planning tips, reviews and to exchange travel advice with other travelers.

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South American Handbook, 87th: Longest running English language travel guide, The South American Handbook (Footprint - Handbooks) Review

South American Handbook, 87th: Longest running English language travel guide, The South American Handbook (Footprint - Handbooks)
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South American Handbook, 87th: Longest running English language travel guide, The South American Handbook (Footprint - Handbooks) ReviewThe Footprint guide definately gives the traveler a different itinerary than the typical Lonely Planet guided souls. Often, with the domination of Lonely Planet suggestions being taken by travelers, certain "Gringo trails" are forged and well trampled. Footprint gives the next best comprehensive review of traveling in South America, but makes the travler leave more to their own judgement instead of relying on a guide. I traveled with both my Footprint Guide and my partner's Lonely Planet. The LP is a better guide for nuts and bolts, but the prices are often inacurate because of the popularity increase, which rapidly rises prices in South America.But the Guide has its drawbacks. If you are extremely map based, then go with the LP. Footprint's maps are not nearly as good. Also, for specific suggestions on exactly what a traveler SHOULD do, LP is better. Bottom line is, if you can fit them both in, do it. Take the LP for those late night bus stops in a tiny southern Ecuadorian town, and take the Footprint for those days and nights when you want to make more judgements for yourself than the guidebook makes for you.South American Handbook, 87th: Longest running English language travel guide, The South American Handbook (Footprint - Handbooks) Overview

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Frommer's Australia from $60 a Day (Frommer's $ A Day) Review

Frommer's Australia from $60 a Day (Frommer's $ A Day)
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Frommer's Australia from $60 a Day (Frommer's $ A Day) ReviewVery informative. Great practical info. They tell you straight up the good and the bad. There are lots of little tips as well. I really got a lot out of the book.Frommer's Australia from $60 a Day (Frommer's $ A Day) OverviewFrommer's is the name you can trust for great travel bargains. Our acclaimed $-a-Day series is not for backpackers who want to rough it, but for travelers with taste, who've outgrown their student lifestyle and demand comfortable accommodations and good, authentic meals at a reasonable price. Each guide is loaded with detailed listings for mom-and-pop motels, B&Bs, comfortable guesthouses, good-value bistros, and ethnic restaurants. You'll find a bargain-hunter's shopping guide, affordable fun after dark, and complete sightseeing coverage, including the best things to do for free (or almost).
Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go—they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. Every Frommer's $-a-Day Guide is up-to-date, with dozens of maps and exact prices for every expense, so you can plan each day's budget. Frommer's knows that affordable travel doesn't have to mean making sacrifices. It's about having fun and getting a great deal!
Australia seems like an expensive proposition for a vacation. But it doesn't have to be. With Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day, you'll save money every step of the way, whether you're snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, sharing a pint at an Outback pub, spotting 'roos and koalas, or snagging discount tickets to the Sydney Opera House.
Our authors, longtime residents of Australia, have uncovered hundreds of fabulous, affordable places to stay; you'll find candid, detailed reviews of motels, apartments, B&Bs, and more, all with exact prices. It all comes with dozens of accurate maps, a complete sightseeing guide, and details on the best of Australia's glorious beaches and bush walks, plus the most affordable diving. You'll even get a free color foldout map!

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Due Preparations for the Plague: A Novel Review

Due Preparations for the Plague: A Novel
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Due Preparations for the Plague: A Novel ReviewI was unprepared for the impact of this riveting novel, defined by psychological tensions and a complicated plot, which presents a deceptively simple story. A number of young children are released from a hijacked Air France flight, although their parents meet a horrible death at the hands of terrorists, the children's lives forever tainted by what they have witnessed. But there is a subplot that implicates the government, notably the CIA, in the manipulation of information that led to the deaths of those on the flight. Over the years, the surviving children keep in close contact, desperately seeking emotional connections. They create a web site, where they request any information regarding the Air France hijacking incident.
Of the surviving children, Samantha is the most driven, unable to cease her relentless quest for answers. None of the children have attained normalcy, the devastation of early trauma marking each facet of their lives. Samantha has been phoning Lowell continuously, in search of yet another detail, as he lost his mother in the tragedy, but was not on the plane. Lowell, an ineffectual husband and father, tormented by nightmares, is the son of a suspected CIA operative in charge of Operation Black Death, code-named Salamander. Lowell is unaware of his father's part in the government cover-up, having spent years believing himself a disappointment to an emotionally distant father. But when Lowell receives a package from his father, recently killed in a car accident, the contents change his perspective and raise serious questions of personal responsibility.
When Lowell finally contacts Samantha, he is in a panic, afraid he is pursued because of the material now in his possession. Unsure whether they are paranoid about the surveillance, Samantha and Lowell secretly meet to review Lowell's contraband, faced with a difficult decision, balancing the explosive information and their desire for survival. There are a number of inexplicable coincidences, people who have known each other in distant places and circumstances brought together on the fateful flight. Both Sam and Lowell discover that some of their relatives are associated with the puzzle, although only tangentially.
Due Preparations for the Plague is a bold examination of an incident of terrorism and the subsequent obfuscation of facts by the CIA. The unacknowledged, clandestine operations of a government engaged in a different kind of war, deliberately invisible, albeit just as deadly, exists after all, unremarked by most. When evil is perpetrated in pursuit of power, there are those who seek to contain that evil, to balance the potential for destruction. But history is rife with examples of failure. In consorting with the worst of mankind, contamination by association is inevitable, small surrenders that deplete good intentions, until there is only the lesser evil and a decision to sustain collateral damage is made by the few for the many.
Yet there is redemption for Sam and Lowell, the intensley personal perspective of those that perished, as, unified, they oppose their tormentor with inordinate bravery. The author graphically illustrates the nature of the human spirit, transcending circumstances, transforming victims from pawns to examples of life at its most magnificent. In the most extreme circumstances, the human spirit demands an intimate communion with others, its pure flame annihilating differences. In a message of love and forgiveness, the dead send hope to future generations, survivors of indignity and shame that lift their faces, uncowed, to the light. "To state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise". (Albert Camus, THE PLAGUE). Luan Gaines/2003.Due Preparations for the Plague: A Novel Overview

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