Lonely Planet Bali & Lombok (Travel Guide) Paperback – April 1, 2013

If you're looking at this book you probably have an upcoming trip to Bali or Lombok. I was only on Bali for 4 days, but this book was very helpful for trip planning. I like this book as it's fairly thin, being only for a few islands rather than the whole country. It has good recommendations, though not enough maps of smaller towns I think. I actually ended up using google maps on my iphone to find some of the places in this book... I was surprised at how much had made it into google maps.

My rating is based on the Apple OSX Kindle reader app... and i'd imagine that the content would be similar on an actual Kindle. Also, although this is my only (and last) purchase of a Lonely Planet travel guide in Kindle format, I would imagine that my complaints with the Bali and Lombok edition can extend to all Lonely Planet Travel Guides in Kindle format. Number one problem, the maps are unreadable! You cannot zoom into see details, let alone basic text. Second problem, basic navigation and indexing is actually less helpful than a regular book (horrible job of integration)! Third problem, simple searching for reviews of accommodations or restaurants... Buy it if you dare and see for yourself. The only advantage to this e-reader version is the savings of weight in one's backpack. But i will look into the Rough Guides on Kindle and see if they are any better.

good read before your trip, I haven't decided if I'll take it with me yet, It's small and pretty light- touches on the overall details of the locations, but I will not know until I come back from the trip. I will keep you posted as how functional I found it.

I am a loyalist to Lonely Planet travel guides so on a recent trip to Bali, this was an immediate purchase for me. It worked well, but I found myself relying on online guides like TripAdvisor for my hotel stays. I miss the days of the "Off the Beaten Path" sections in Lonely Planet guides. I didn't feel like I got too much unique from this one. Still, it was nice to have on hand.

I wish this guide had more photos and tips in addition to straightforward generic information. Many areas and sites we visited were very touristy and I wish the guide had mentioned that. Needed more customized information on the traffic, negotiating rates with taxis and so on. Some of the detailed maps of neighborhoods were tedious to read with legends and references on different pages.

Lonely planet is as good as always! Some work could be done on the maps though, had to bust out my iPad frequently for Google Maps whenever I had wifi access. The locations recommended and descriptions were spot on.

We are preparing for this trip in April/May and this book is helping us so much. We aren't completely sold on the hotel that we have reserved and the information in this book and some of their suggestions might help us make a change. It is well organized,information helpful and the maps are terrific. I know it will be in my carry-on luggage when we get on the plane and will stay with me throughout the trip.

This is a thorough book and I believe a must read before going to Bali. Every destination is covered in a readable fashion and it is very easy to access. I particularly appreciate the various suggested itineraries.

Some of the descriptions of places to visit were very misplaced. For example when staying in Ubud, we decided to visit what was described in the travel guide as a Elephant Sanctuary. However once we has arrived we soon realized it was anything but! Poor elephants were exploited for rides ALL day long, and chained up when not working away from their young. I found this place very upsetting to visit. How Lonely planet could sell this place as a Sanctuary is beyond me! I have since contacted the Bali animal welfare association to take action against this park. Poor historical information in the book and a lack of information about how to travel around bali and prices for travel.Also, they described a market in Jimbaran as the best thing since sliced bread. On arrival found it was just a large expensive department store? No real information for how to practically get to the major sites your self.

I found this guide disappointing - I certainly felt that I was not the audience! Most of the comments seemed to favour younger readers who were interested in the nightlife and the surfing scene. If you are, then this is the book for you. If not , tough! The tone is dismissive and unsympathetic whilst trying, I suppose, to be realistic. I use lonely planet guides a lot and have never felt that I ought to buy a different guide. With this one I certainly did.

This particulare edition may not be the best as we found multiple errors in it and some pretty bad maps (including one that had us horribly lost in the middle of nowhere. We're avid hikers and could not seem follow their directions. Casual walkers will have NO chance.)All in all, they're a great time-saver. Their restaurant and hotel reviews are quite useful.

Very useful book if you want to see the main sights, and a comprehensive guide to the less visited parts of the island, and also enough information about Bali's history and culture to set the context of what you're seeing. We definitely got the best of the island just by careful planning using this book. Bali is many things to many people, not all of it attractive, however we managed to find our places on the island where we were happy with what we did and saw, much of it thanks to this book.

Excellent guide that we used throughout our honeymoon!Gives advice on hidden gems as well as the better known attractions, along with do's and don'ts