[.ca] Lonely Planet Kyoto (ISBN 174104085X)

good information but poorly organised!:
Lonely Planet fills a niche by being a good source of information you are not likely to find in other guides, like the funky and the inexpensive, but really I wish they would make their guides more user friendly. For one the maps are extremely frustrating to use. The information on them is numbered, and the keys are either on the page before or the page after the map, so you constantly find yourself looking at the wrong key. The info would fit on the maps themselves, but they chose to use keys without taking full advantage of them by not including the page number of each item's description. Also each map points in a different direction and is a different scale from the others, very confusing. I also found the index to be lacking some very obvious entries, I don't remember specific examples but I do remember being puzzled by the index on several occasions. By the end of my trip I had corrected many of these problems by penciling them in, I suggest you do this on the airplane so you will spend less time on the street scratching your head. This guide also has the nasty habit of inserting chapters in the middle of chapters. Sometimes you don't realise there is more information on subject you are reading, you are expected to look past the following chapter. I found the information in the Kyoto book to be somewhat more up to date than the Lonely Planet guides I have used for other cities. I have learned not to rely too heavily on their specific recommendations, but they usually put me into the right neighborhood for what I am looking for. Over the years I have been a repeat customer of these guides, although grudgingly. I find them to be a good source of getting the feel of a place before I go somewhere. Lonely Planet is going to lose my business real soon if they don't redesign their guides and become more diligent about updating their material.

Waste of money - poor maps, poor info, poorly organized:
Where do I start? Poor maps, chaotic organization or boring writing? Or perhaps ugly, poor quality photographs (except cover which is really nice - this is the trademark feature of this honest publisher, which is only \oinexpensive\c as far as publishing costs are concerned, without bothering to reduce the price of the book itself). There are countries where Lonely Planet does a very good job (in West Africa, I would be lost without them), but oh my God how they can mess up things elsewhere! Kyoto is one of them. With so many good guides to Japan available (Eyewitness, Frommer, Fodor, even Rough Guide, for goodness sake), why bother with Lonely Planet? Well, probably because many readers feel that they have a spiritual affiliation with this seemingly hippy-ish, seemingly anti-Capitalist, seemingly slightly rebellious serious of guides. I can only imagine how they are laughing - this lean and mean publishing house, an efficient money-making machine, being funded by mostly a naive bunch of tree-huggers. If you feel good because you identify their sandal-wearing image, go and buy this book, by all means. This is only an image, a marketing tool - clever publishing people are laughing all the way to the bank. However, do not expect to have the best available travel advice. Usually LP guides are praised by those who have not read anything else.

This is the one !:
This book has so many information about Kyoto. Especially accommodation sect is wonderful. My friend stayed at the Tour Club and he could enjoy his stay in Kyoto very much (Tour Club is recommended by this book as by far the best guesthouse.) Also information and comment about sites are useful.

Reasonably priced and practical:
As the title indicated, this book is reasonably priced and practical. It does a very good job in introducing the history of Kyoto and the local custom. This is not only useful for traveling but also for gaining a better understanding of an interesting and graceful culture. The book also covers widely all of the points of interest, which includes a good selection of hotels and restaurants. One weakness of the book is the organization. The book separates places of interest and maps into two different section and this makes it difficult to cross reference. You have to make your own plans in connecting all the interesting places into one walk. It would be better if the book can organize a few walking tours that allow us to visit all the highlights.

Great for out of the way places, but poor crossreferencing:
A few years ago we discovered Lonely Planet travel guides. They have been a staple of every trip ever since. The Kyoto book was no exception. The major highlights of this book include: - Great walking tours - Fun listings of out of the way places - Interesting history and background - Good tips and recommendations for everything from getting around on the subway (complete with a handy map), to reliable restaurant recommendations. - Restaurant & place names written in Japanese in the book. Even if you don't read Japanese, this was very handy for doing symbol comparison to make sure you were in the right place. Lonely Planet guides are really excellent for helping you see the sights that not everyone else is seeing, and to help you get more out of the culture you are visiting. The authors have a good sense of humor and seem to aim towards a slightly more liberal and adventurous audience. On their own, I found both the guide and the maps very helpful (although I do agree with the other reviewers that the varied orientation and scaling of the maps could occasionally be disorienting). However, when attempting to cross reference these I often got frustrated. Many of the references to maps in the guide were just wrong (wrong map listed), and many things just weren't on the maps. Similarly, many things on the maps were difficult or impossible to locate in the guide. Example: "We need to find a restaurant near were we are right now. Oh look, here's one a block away. I wonder what type of food they have?.... ... Hmmm...I can't find it...." I know Lonely Planet knows how to do this effectively (see the Condensed guide to Tokyo as an example), it was just frustrating that they did not apply that knowledge to this book.