Lonely Planet Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand

Lonely Planet Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

Lonely The world's leading travel guide publisher

Lonely Planet Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Tempt your tastebuds with pho noodle soup in Vietnam, sail past the limestone peaks of Halong Bay, or experience the transcendent tranquility of temples like Angkor Wat -all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand and begin your journey now!

Inside Lonely Planet's Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand Travel

Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - customs, history, art, music, dance, landscapes, environment, cuisine Over 70 maps Covers Hanoi, Halong Bay, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Golden Triangle and more The Perfect Lonely Planet Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand , our most comprehensive guide to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled.

About Lonely Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves. The world awaits!

Lonely Planet guides have won the TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Award in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media

'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times

eBook (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones)

Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference, Asia, Guidebook, Cultural

1540 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

OUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

A travel book that gets you prepared rather than excited.

I'll confess that I didn't read the Thailand section, other than Bangkok as I'm not going there. Workmanlike coverage of all the essential facts. I'll be able to report how accurate it is after the trip!

Edit: Originally read Aug 2015, update November 2015. The book was helpful, some sections clearer than others - for example information on money machines more accurate for Thailand & Cambodia than the other 2 countries. With free wi fi (of varying quality) everywhere we went it was often easier to use online sites. But this book's assessment of top sites was spot on & 2 restaurants we enjoyed Pho 2000 HCMC & Morning Glory in Hoi An were recommended in this book.

My top experience Reading with local school kids in Luang Prabang (also mentioned in this guide)
Most Moving Visiting the Killing Fields & Prison T-21. Our guide's parents were murdered by the Khmer Rouge.
Top Site The Buddha Park near Vientiane
Most WTF We were on a full bus heading to Siem Reap & the driver was changed to a guy who had obviously never driven a bus before. No he wasn't simply a bad driver - the original driver was instructing him! My first (& hopefully last) time in a bunny hopping, freewheeling bus.
Worst Moment Seeing a middleaged white guy holding hands with a bewildered little Thai girl in the Soi 11 near the Nana Sky Train stop. This is turning into a red light area, so no point kidding myself that this was her dad.

Will add photos later.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I prefer Rough Guides to Lonely Planet and found that this condenses multi-country volume lacked most of the budget options and many of the outdoor options I prefer. I used it as a basic guide for planning regions but always also picked up a free, out-of-date country guide or used WikiTravel to find the things I really enjoyed.

[torque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously didn't read it cover to cover, but used it as a travel tool for almost five weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia. Very useful with the maps, when a bus would dump me in a new city, to find the areas with hotels, sights and places to eat. Although, I would pick up better maps once in the city.

The downside is that everybody else is traveling around with the same book, so you end up traveling the similar routes, eating in the same places and staying at the same hotels as everybody else. Several times I would find a restaurant in the book that seemed interesting to me, track down the restaurant, find it packed with tourists half of them with this book. Next door the restaurant would be just about empty, because it would not be mentioned in the book, however, the food would taste just as good. The same thing I saw with hotels. There's only so many restaurants and hotels you can put in a book, so when each city has hundreds of eateries and dozens of hotels using tripadvisor in addition was helpful to stay clear of the worst places.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guide was useful as I planned my trip, and helped me decide what sites to include in my planned itinerary. My favorite travel guides are indispensable when I'm in-country (I'm talking about you, Rick Steves) and give me information about all the places I go. This one does not fit into that category. Descriptions and background on specific sites were minimal.

I feel that Lonely Planet's biggest offering is lots of info about hotels, restaurants, and nightlife, which is not mainly what I'm looking for. 3.5 stars.

[Elsa Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

The site information was helpful. However, a lot of the cautionary information was not applicable once we arrived in the countries. February and March is a wonderful time to go. Do note that it is hot even in these "cooler" months (80 to 95). Day tours were helpful for transportation and brief introductions to areas.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, for my holiday to Northen Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Lots of information on areas, sometimes the separate guides would have been useful for more restaurants in the areas to try, but good guide

[Mililani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is another book that is a good resource if you are traveling to these countries on your own. Street maps, bus schedules are details added to the book although I wonder how valid the information is considering the age of the publication. It still does provide some general information of use.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had an excellent section on the history of the region with some useful recommendations for further reading. Because it covers such a wide area, there’s limited information on the main highlights. We found the DK book on Vietnam more helpful for that part of our trip.

[Marit · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of information to gather here but the book is not a pleasure to read. Probably a better on-the-ground resource, but I won't bring it along because it is too clunky. A bit of a wash.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it's difficult to say you've 'finished' a travel guide, but I've just returned from three months travelling in Southeast Asia, and this book served me well.

[Julie Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for planning travels in SE Asia.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential for any trip to cambodia and vietnam!

[Mike Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful guide to my bike ride through this area. These books tend to focus on young people’s interests but gave enough oversight to enhance the trip.

[Nick Angiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent guide, informative and readable.

[Dory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the lonely planet travel guides the most useful.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the 2023 version which I can't find on goodreads

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best (most helpful) LPs I've ever used. (But note that I'm only covering Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos on this trip. Vietnam is on the list for a future trip!)

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good travel guide tells you not just about the places to eat and sleep, but about the history and customs and the "between the lines" stuff that you may not get otherwise. This book provided a great introduction to Southeast Asia-- a place I had never dreamed of visiting and had a bit of trepidation because of my knowledge gaps. There is so much history and local tradition included in Lonely Planet's guide, that I read it cover to cover and checked it every morning for the tidbits it gave about the region I was visiting that day as we biked from Saigon to Phnom Pen, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. I learned so much from my visit (and Vietnamese and Cambodian guides), and this book was an excellent supplement. The things I wish I had explored better were wildlife, volunteering options and even bringing home one of the many stray dogs -- but that's me. I encourage you to hire a local guide for a truly real experience. I would not plan on driving here! Also, please check your visas thoroughly prior to arrival or you will be paying through the nose to fix your issues.

[Juliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

A beautiful guide for a beautiful journey. We travelled from Thailand through Cambodia until Vietnam, started from Bangkok and departed from Ho-Chi-Minh-City again.
The journey through Cambodia was fascinating, especially the very dynamic capital Phnom Penh. However, since it is so dynamic, most of the tips, hints and other entries in this travel guide already didn't exist any more and something else took over. Sometimes the buildings were knocked down, sometimes other bars or restaurants took over, sometimes we just couldn't find the place. But we always found something else instead, sometimes in the same place, sometimes somewhere else. Therefore the guide didn't help much, but it was a great experience not being guided, but finding out by ourselves.

[Christin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This guide just wasn't complete enough for our purposes. We found it better to get the guide books for each country we visited, since they have more complete information. If you're only going for a few weeks, it might be enough, but if you're spending a decent amount of time in each country, it's better to buy the first one you need and then trade for or pick up the new one for each new country as you travel.

[Sancho · Rating 4 out of 5]

We used this book during our month-long trip in the Mekong area (Thailand, Laos and Cambodia). It was very helpful and we trusted it with hotels, restaurants and sites. It has good and reliable information and we had no problems at all.

Laos was the best in my opinion, but this is not the place to talk about it!

[Dudadi · Rating 1 out of 5]

i was in my long term travel and this book surely for the shor termie, i can tell from the places it recommends, very touristic with the plus point, easy acces but prepare to get hassled just like a sitting duck.

[Shavon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than I expected. Not as much of the “roughing it” advice typically found in Lonely Planet books. The book provides a good feel for the region’s history and culture and why it is a must do part of a well-traveled person’s itinerary.

[Ambar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must do before you die.

[Putu Andayani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very valuable hand-baggage, especially when you'll make your first visit

[Gina Gorny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't always trust the Lonely Planet...

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to prepare for my first trip to Asia and took it with me to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It was accurate, genuinely helpful and very entertaining to read.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little travel guide with just the right amount of detail without being to thick and heavy to drag around.