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Trek deep into the jungles of Borneo or laze on stunning Bali beaches. Eat your way through Singapore or dance all night in buzzing Bangkok clubs. Discover ancient Angkor temples or go grass roots and volunteer in Hanoi. Whatever you seek, Lonely Planet’s yellow bible has it covered. With more than 33 years of experience, and a team of backpacking authors, our guide helps you dig deeper, stay longer, and spend less. Get ready – your Southeast Asian adventure starts here.
Get The Lowdown on the environment, history, culture and current events in our Snapshots chapter
Eat Cheap and Sleep Easy with our fully updated coverage of the best street stalls, budget digs and places to party
Blaze Your Own Trail using our full-color regional map and detailed local maps
Talk The Talk with help from our Language chapter more info
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Excllent content, but why is it much more expensive in Europe than in the US?
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The book has everything you need if you want to make the trip of your dreams, and I hope to test its usefulness this summer.
Detailed budget, good hints, clear explanations.
Useful but lack of maps and pictures
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I bought this book just before my trip to Thailand and Vietnam. It was useful, but it lacks of maps of the capitals or main cities and a couple of picture of the main attractions. The rest os ok.
The SE asia bible!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Used this book to travel in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Bali (though I finally ended up buying another book for Bali as Indonesia itself is huge). Don’t know if there is a better book that covers so many countries this well. Other people on tour had the Rough guide to SE Asia book and we found this one to be more useful because it had better maps and more information.
Obviously a bit tailored towards backpackers but you can easily find more upscale places (hotels, restaurants etc) in the “splurge” section.
Wouldn’t dare to say that it covers everything but certainly a must-have for people traveling in the area
Lonely Planet SE Asia 2008
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
We travelled in SE Asia in the Summer of 2008…you would think the 2008 edition would be helpful and up to date. A friend gave me the previous edition but I saw there was an updated version and decided to buy it while on the road – very expensive! I have travelled extensively in many countries and continents. I will never buy a Lonely Planet Guide again. This book inaccurate, the information and prices so inaccurate you wonder if they were ever right (museums, palaces, etc, were 7X more expensive)misleading, did not give pertinent information, descriptions were “cutesy” rather than factual, you couldn’t get from place to place with this guide, just the regualr tourist trail that you could find by yourself int he dark …You really wondered if a person had actually been there. Totally useless and a waste of time.
South East Asia on a shoestring
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is all good so far. Looking at different types of itineries across the whole of SE Asia is very helpful, and the prices seem pretty up to date at the mo (aug 08). Have had some good tips on getting the best for our money and the ‘our picks’ in each section have made the places full of like minded people! Top tip for such a thick book -when you get into a city/town/place cut out the pages with a penknife so you only have to take the relevant info & maps out and about with you. If you are travelling for a long while, the book (with remaining places you havent been to) can be passed on or thrown away.
Southeast Asia on a shoestring
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Absolutely love this book. I wish I would have got it sooner when I was trying to plan my trip. It’s even better than looking around on the internet because you don’t have to sift through a ton of irrelevant information. This is all stuff you want to know.
OUTDATED
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
This is probably the worst travel book I have purchased in the last 12 yrs of traveling. I covered 7 countries and virtually all of them were out-of-date. Not only that, the recommendations for accommodations and restaurants were awful. We ended up using hostels.com and just guessed when it came to food. It was better than what they outlined, and that was if the restaurant was still open.
What else was horrible was that a couple of friends bought LP specifically for the countries. “Our pick” did not coincide between the two books and theirs were more outdated than mine. I personally believe that they must have made a couple minor edits to get the 2008 copyright date when, in fact, the book overall is completely out of date.
The options are limited for SEA but in the past I had luck with Let’s Go. I’m thinking their 2004 version would be a better bet than this. At least your expectation would be that restaurants might be closed. This book, SEA on a Shoestring, ended up being more frustrating and a waste of time rather than a source to reduce stress. Very disappointing!
FAN TAS TIC
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
LONELY PLANET IS THE IDEAL RESOURCE FOR PEOPLE LIKE US…BARGAIN-HEADING BACKPACKERS!THIS ONE WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING DURING OUR DAYS IN THA SE ASIA!RECOMENDED!!!
Inaccurate and Outdated
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Yes, Lonely Planet usually delivers with lots of tips and great recommendations. However, this particular guide is almost worthless. Not only did we encounter numerous inaccuracies in terms of transportation availability, restaurant and hotel existence, and false information about visas and entry fees, but also poor recommendations. There is traveling on a budget, then there is traveling like a homeless person. This Lonely Planet landed us in some of the least clean and least safe places we have ever stayed–but only when we were “lucky” enough to find that the book’s recommendations were still open. I would not recommend this book and will seriously think twice about buying another Lonely Planet book in the future.
VERY concise backpacker’s guide
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
4.0 out of 5 stars VERY concise backpacker’s guide, August 10, 2008
I used Lonely Planet’s “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring” guide exclusively on my last trip to SE Asia. I visited Singapore and parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. Just like every other Lonely Planet Shoestring Guide, it was pretty amazing. However, this guide was much more concise than other shoestring guides I’ve used, probably because of how many places are being crammed into one book. Yes, it does a great job of covering a wide range of places in Southeast Asia. It just sacrifices detailed info and maps of many of those places to do so. This book generally sticks to times, costs, and locations, plus a very brief description of many of the places it covers. If you think you’ll want more than that, you might consider the individual country guides instead. All that being said, the book does a great job of living up to it’s motto: “Big Trips on Small Budgets.” The info it provides was all very accurate and very useful. Recommended.
Good starting Point
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Well although there are no color pictures to make it attractive, theres alot of info.. in fact maybe to much which is a good thing and a bad thing depending on how much u think is right. overall its a good starting point!
Great to read but difficult to do so due to VERY SMALL print.
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I really like the Lonely Planet guides, and this one is very good regarding the amount of information it contains. My main complaint is the size of the type. Not only is it very small and difficult to read even with glasses on, but the paper is very thin so the words from the reverse page show through. I’d rather pay a couple of extra dollars and have higher quality paper. I also agree with other reviewers who felt that the Indonesia chapter could easily be eliminated, partly because it is difficult to due justice to that widespread country in a chapter.
present
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Love to travel and a couple of friends were traveling and decided to give them this gift. Very good companion for traveling.
Lonely Planet- not with this many package tourists.
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
“Nobody touches the Lonely Planet for budget travel advice,” states the back cover of this book.
I just finished travelling around Southeast Asia with this as my primary guidebook. It includes the basics for getting around, eating, etc… but it really is just the basics. I have used other books from the lonely planet series in the past, and have found them good enough to continue using, at least until this volume. It has been 5 years since I was in this region last, and things have changed. Especially the guidebook, which was once a rich trove of off-the-beaten-path hints and tips. Increasingly, however, it seems that the Lonely Planet authors seem less interested in helping you find a unique experience and more interested in serving up a cookie-cutter, package tourist rehash. I have a couple grievances with this book:
-It insists on constantly pointing out little sidebars entitled “Splurge!” which indicate ways that the budget traveller can spend a great deal of money in one shot. Why this is in a travel guide called “shoestring” I couldn’t tell you. Neither do the authors, but I suppose we can assume that backpackers are interested in spending $5 a night for a couple of months and then blowing $150 to stay in some posh hotel in Kuala Lumpur or racking up an additional $20 in credit card debt for an entirely forgettable dining experience in Bangkok. I just don’t feel these are relevant to 99% of actual budget travellers, but they waste a lot of space that could be much better used on greater detail. But I will get to that in a minute.
-Another issue I have is the lack of actual information about actually moving from one place to the next cheaply. Cheap local transport is available in many of the places covered in the book. For some reason though, the book usually offers helpful advice like ‘just take a cab,’ or ‘buses are so cheap, so don’t bother with local transport.’ As an independent traveler that actually enjoys saving money AND spending time with the locals (what’s the purpose of traveling again?!?!), I regret the lack of information about local transport.
-The maps in the book, though better than some in past editions, leave much to be desired. Streets are incorrectly labeled or in the wrong place, intersections are vaguely marked, and occasionally they add a street that doesn’t exist or remove a street that does. Worst of all, in a region that prides itself on an almost complete lack of road signage, not many good landmarks are given to orient oneself. There is little that is less fun on the road than standing in front of a train station, staring at one’s new alien surroundings, being hassled by touts who are trying to steer you in the wrong direction while trying to find that cheap hostel you read about.
Look, if you want a run-of-the-mill book to complete a run-of-the-mill trip, by all means, you will find this book quite helpful. But if you are looking for that individual experience that is the beauty of independent travel, you might be best going with a different guide for this region.
By the way, the quote I wrote at the beginning should be viewed as a warning rather than an enticement
typical shoestring guide
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This guide is really good value, although you notice easily that it covers a lot of countries. South East Asia is big, the book is limited in size and therefore detail is missing. I bought seperate guides for Laos and Cambodia and this benifited my trip greatly.
Also, the part about Bangkok doesn’t show the best bits and doesn’t quite warn you for the worst(sex tourism), either.
The one the only: Lonely Planet!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Lonely Planet Guides are consistently the best travel guides for backpackers and other budget travelers. Their Southeast Asia guide is superior to all the other ones I have seen because it includes Myanmar (Burma)–along with a discussion of whether travelers should travel there or not due to the human rights boycott. Some of the details that you might have in 10 separate country-specific guidebooks are certainly missing, however, it’s a lightweight compact quickie guide to a whole region of the world. Good for us.
South East Asia
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Very good book, I was only interested in Thailand & Malasia but it gave lots of information. It did not give a lot on budget accomadation in some places.
Great book
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a great book. Its helping me a lot on planing my trip to southeast asia.
Perfect for budget travelers
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I travel on a very tight budget and this book totally helped me out with hostels,restaurants, transportation to surrounding countries. Asia has to be one of the cheapest places to travel.
Sleep for $[...] a night in Southeast Asia?
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is another one of the awesome books by Lonely Planet. Easy to navigate by the various countries. And it has allowed me to calculate what an average evening in Indonesia can cost $[...] USDS. Can it get better than that?
My husband and I leave on 09-30-08 to backpack various countries and explore the world. We plan on spending lots of time in Southeast Asia, especially since this book has proved how affordable it will be.
We can’t wait! Feel free to follow us around the world, we will even review various hotels and places to eat in Southeast Asia, as we travel and read the book. http://www.nomadbackpackers.com