Product Description

Discover Israsel and the Palestinian Territories

Listen for church bells and the call to prayer as the golden light of late afternoon illuminates Jerusalem.
Dig your feet into the sand at a Tel Aviv beachside bar.
Tend organic vegetables and fertilize your mind at Kibbutz Lotan.
Start a conversation in the West Bank - how do you pickle olives?

In This Guide

Six authors, 234 days of research, 12 army roadblocks, countless falafels.
History and Environment chapters by renowned experts.
The only guidebook with detailed coverage of the West Bank and Gaza.
You asked for it, we researched it: more sustainable travel experiences than ever, from eco-hotels to hiking trips.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43159 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
Lonely Planet guidebooks are, quite simply, like no others.' --New York Times

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.

Customer Reviews

Inaccurate information
This is the first time that I have used the Lonely Planet series and it may be the last. I found that the restaurants recommended were mediocre, the lodging descriptions were only vaguely accurate and worst of all, the directions for finding the cafes & internet access was both poorly done and at times completely inaccurate. I will admit that the fact that the guide listed internet cafes, etc was quite nice. In addition, I thought that the description of the history and sites was quite helpful. However, if you instead choose the guide by Eyewitness Travel, you will find excellent descriptions and pictures of the sites and, in my experience, better restaurant and lodging recommendations.

If you're interested in hitting the main attractions as well as some off the beaten path suggestions, this is the guide for you!
This is the second Lonely Planet guide that I have used and am pleased to report that I was not disappointed. This guide offered a perfect blend of history, culture, and touristy tid-bits. While I only used the Jerusalem and West Bank sections, this book is great for traveling anywhere in the area. Often traveling to interesting places, at least for me, leads to prioritizing the 'must-sees' with a blend of 'I think that would be really cool to sees', and this book helps sorting those out. If you only buy one travel guide, I'd recommend this for serious contention.

Poor quality as a guide. Plus one long political sell
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.