Israel & the Palestinian Territories
Product Description
Lonely Planet knows the magic of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. We’ve walked the lively alleyways in Nazareth and Jerusalem, explored biblical ruins, slept under the starry Negev skies and floated weightless in the Dead Sea. Take your own unforgettable journey with our guidebook’s 6th edition.
Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.
In This Guide:
Day Trips to Petra in Jordan & Sinai in Egypt
Color feature with locals’ tips on the best sights and food
Green Index makes responsible travel easier… More >>
As a center for Judaism, Christianity, & Islam I was really excited about reading up on the section on Jerusalem. I’m planning to visit in May but after reading this guidebook, I’m left disheartened. This is the first time I’ve been disappointed by LP. This book doesn’t do a good job of representing the ‘Holy Land’ traveler. The attitude that the best reason to visit sites with religious significance like the Church of the Ascension & The Mount of Olives are their ‘spectacular views’ is a let-down. Give me a break! The “Haram Ash-Sharif/Temple Mount” is covered very poorly. And forget about The Dome of the Rock which they didn’t cover because it was only open to Muslims that day (probably because it was Friday- so SMART). I was expecting a guidebook on the ‘Holy Land’ to be a little more sensitive to the religious significance of the sites & would not try to serve as a reader on history tinged with political bias. I was expecting useful info like: what time to go, what is the best entrance, tips & shortcuts. For GOD’S SAKE get a Jewish, Christian, & Muslim correspondent to cover their respective sites so that they’re adequately & accurately represented. This way pilgrim will find useful & relevant information. We don’t need cut & paste history lessons.
I am generally a fan of lonely planet books, and have used them as a guide on other trips. This particular lonely planet guide disappoints. I found this book to provide precious few details about important Jewish sites. Significant space in the book is devoted to the authors’ (one-sided) political commentary. The Let’s Go guide is more comprehensive and informative (with less political fluff). I recommend skipping this particular lonely planet guide.
A wonderful travel book for this region, and the only one for those planning on visiting the West Bank. Geared toward the budget traveler, but useful for anyone, Lonely Planet tells you both the logistical, but highly important details, it also provides detailed info tourist sites both famous and obscure. Frankly after looking at other books (Fodors for example) Lonely Planet is the only one I’d recommend.
The lack of available travel guides to Israel is amazing if you consider the amount of attention the world gives to this tiny state on the western Med. Most that are available are often outdated. Frommer’s Israel 5th edition is perhaps the best overall but should have been updated better. Lonely Planet’s guide, biased and ill informed, is the worst. Eyewitness’s guide is great for background info. Fodor’s guide is new and I haven’t looked it over yet. If you are visiting Israel, you might be better served to buy guides when you get there. Several I have seen that are area and city specific are a lot better than what is available in generic country guides. If you must purchase ahead of time, or need to research your trip before leaving, Frommer’s book will serve you well, not this one however. Lonely Planet’s books are often amusing as the editors tend to editorialize a lot in many of there guides. Not here. The editor’s prejudices are are too obvious.
Forget this book, even if you’re going into the territories.
Compared to Fodor’s and Fromer’s, very few attractions listed for anywhere (1-2 for every 5-6 in the other guides). Descriptions are paultry and mostly political commentary, and have substantial logistical errors in it.
The book is written with distain towards Israel at every corner. Not a mindset I want for anyplace I’m traveling though. People regularly come back from Israel reporting how much they loved it, so this book is missing what almost every tourist can spot! The only time the distain lifts is in the terroritories where it glows. Even there though the glaring inaccuracies and errors made it a no-go. I had plans to go into the territories and wound up borrowing an internet connection to get the details I needed.
Essentially the book is written as one long political statement. I would enjoy the “facts” from a “different” view – except that they are as inaccurate as the attraction descriptions…often even contradicting and illogical within their own wording. Then if you know any history it gets totally strange.
Their description of why it’s safe to go into the territories is – to make sure you look like a tourist because tourists aren’t targeted. This is true, but they should have expanded beyond one very short paragraph for this third of their book so people could decide for themselves.
It’s not a tourguide book and to the extent it pretends to add any guide info, one’d be better off getting the info elsewhere.