Product Description

Nowhere's as diverse as down under. From Uluru to Kakadu, from city lights to starry nights, this bestselling guide is the key to the heart of Australia.

• it's a big country, but with 160 maps we've got it covered
• spectacular colour field guide to Australia's native animals
• surf, dive or sail; hike, bike or ski – we'll show you how
• hundreds of accommodation options, from bush camping to five-star resorts
• full-colour guide to Aboriginal art

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63297 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 944 pages

From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Destination: Australia

Australia is an intriguing enigma not only to people elsewhere in the world, who look at a map and see this curiously chunky bit of terra firma floating way down in the southern hemisphere, but also to the locals, who can spend years making leisurely explorations and still feel they've only begun to comprehend the full nature of their own mammoth back yard. It's not just Australia's size that defies the exhaustion of travel possibilities - Australia also has a sublime, time-bending quality that can't be overruled by any itinerary.

In a city, you'll experience an urban blur of fashion-festooned boutiques, plate-clattering restaurants and vivacious humankind, but suddenly be mesmerized in a gallery or lose yourself in one long fluid moment inside a wine glass. In the interior, you might be surrounded by noise in a beer-washed pub or hear the thump of rocks under your 4WD, only to be transfixed by a slow, silent swirl of outback dust or an outrageously beautiful sunset. Some roads are so long and straight that no matter how fast you go, it's as if you're barely moving. Around the coast, you'll be tasting the foam of ocean surf or pedalling furiously down a mountain, then end up diving down into a coral garden, taking an endless breath in the depths of a rainforest, or slowly realizing you have an entire beach to yourself.

Only one thing is consistent: every traveler in Australia faces the same wondrous dilemma - where to begin...

Customer Reviews

Strangely Annoyed
I have lots of guidebooks - and lots of Lonely Planets, for that matter. But despite the fact that they say they are for "independent travellers", I keep finding ridiculous reviews on restaurants and hotels, to the point where I've stopped using them.

The History, Snapshot, and similar sections are great, but if you have a brain of your own - use it. Forget their restaurant and hotel recommendations, as I'm not even sure they visit the places. Sometimes they have history or comments on places that is worthwhile to read, though. All tourbooks may have these drawbacks, to be fair.

Finally, I think I'm going to stop buying Lonely Planet's, though. First, they always act like driving is so scary everywhere, when it's actually quite easy to anyone with a brain. They also forget to give worthwhile tips on getting a car, etc. I imagine that this is their way of "saving the Earth". To a person who does care about the Earth, but doesn't believe that being a dirty hippie is going to save anything, this - and all their other BS trying to coerce their opinions onto you as fact - gets really freakin' old. Yes, yes, I know, LP is founded by some hippie freak from AUS or something - whooptie doo. That doesn't mean I have to pay some jerk who's going to push his politics on me, whether I agree with them or not.

Lonely Planet Australia
This was a gift and hoping it would arrive in time but no problems there.

It is really really really bad travel guide!!!,
I started to use Lonely Planet 15 years ago. I can say that I am a witness of how much quality deteriorite it has been. I used to just buy it by default. It was a Bible for me. But, a BIG but, this Lonely Planet Australia set a new lowest standard for the series.

First of all, it had so old information. The hostels listed in the book in Sydeny probably were closed more than 5 years ago. One hostel in bondi beach that I wanted to go that was listed in the book. When I showed up in the hotel address, there was a internet café and pub. No hostel at all.

Second. The most unbelieveable of all, the book I have, which is 2004 version, has no mention at all about the Olympic Village in Sydeny. Oh my God! Sydney Olympic was in 2000. Can you believe that after 4 years, they still didn't update it? I was reading it again and again, before I throw this book away to trash can, I still didn't belive that they can omit all the information about Olympic, like the village, the boat to go there, like the stadium... they pretend that there is no such a thing!

I know that Lonely Plante started many years ago in Australia, by some Australian backpackers. So it is a REAL shame that Lonely Planet Australia is so bad. If there is negative score, I will give that. As one star is minimum, I have to give that. But my true belief is that this book deserves negative 5 stars!!!