BootsnAll Travel Community

Does anyone have the LP Middle East guidebook? Is it any good as far as the accuracy of the maps and the content listed in it? To me when I was looking at it in Barnes and Nobles, it seemed to be kinda small, considering the number of countries listed. Are there any other good middle east guidebooks?

thanks for any info

I used the previous version of the LP (the new one came out less than a month before we started out trip). The accuracy was fine (though someone forgot to include the legend for the Aswan map), but it is very condensed. I thought it gave decent coverage for the first few countries we visited - Egypt, Jordan and Syria, but when we got to Turkey, which has such huge selection and variety of places to visit, it was woefully inadequate, and we had to get a dedicated Turkey guide as quickly as possible to get more ideas of what to do and see.

As far as I know, the LP is the only Middle East guide that covers as many countries as it does, so what works for you depends on where you're going. If you can, try to get a guidebook more specific to the countries you're visiting, and for countries the size of Turkey or Iran, it would be well worth it to carry a country-specific guide.

thanks for the reply, that is exactly what I wanted to know.

FYI, I just checked and it looks like the new 2007 LP Turkey guidebook will be available on April 1st.

Just know...we're all using LP, and it's obvious because we all show up at the same hostels. It was awkward at times, funny at others. But you don't really go to a place like the ME to be in backpacker central. It's nice to have some space from tourists. And you'd think with all the options, we'd have varied our paths. But seriously, I saw the same people off and on from Istanbul to Cairo!