Lonely Planet Sydney (ISBN 1741041740)

Go for it:
Invaluable, this is the kind of book you'd want even if you lived in Sydney. It explains the different character of Sydney's neighborhoods and gives concise intelligent explanations of how Sydney has become the muti-faceted city it is. I've only been to Sydney twice, but with the help of this guide I'm beginning to get it. The maps are pretty good, but some lack detail. Hotel and restaurant sections are comprehensive, and in my experience extremely accurate.

Lonely Planet falls flat on a great city:
Having never been to Sydney before, we stopped into a Dymock's to pick up a copy of what we thought would be the premier guidebook for Sydney, boy were we wrong! Lonely Planet should do Australia right as they are located there, but they miss the boat in this edition. The maps were the most useful part of this book. The index was horrible. It is split up into 4 separate indexes - which if you miss the first page and the small type at the top telling you so, you can't find anything in the index. For example - looking for the zoo - not knowing the name of it - look under "zoo" - but nothing is there. Because there are 4 "z " entries in the book. Until you find the right page of "z" only to then have you see "Taranga Zoo". More than this, It lacks detail on almost every area. Just one example, Jenolan Caves. It tells you guided tours exist bit nothing more about them. Like which one to see if you only can see one or two or mention that fact that there are many stairs in the caves, etc. etc. So many other places are covered in the same manner. In fact they even say in the book that they don't know if something is fun or not - example: Sydney Jet - we took this tour and one like it in New Zealand.... NZ was much better of course, but our son had not been. The author comment was, " who knows if you'll actually manage to see anything in all that excitement, but it sounds like fun. " Obviously, she has not done the tour. If you don't know your way around the area, you will find yourself constantly flipping around the book looking for information. This book gave very few insider tips or really any useful information on the many places to eat. Since most people stay around Darling Harbor - they only chose to put in 9 places in that area! The photos were very hokey and the good ones were very small Black & White which never shows anything well. The rest of it looked like a marketing advertisement for Sydney Tourism. On top of all this - it was incredibly out of date for a 2004 edition. Many places had closed or prices were dramatically higher than listed. We looked for a major department store listed in the book, only to find it had changed to a MYERS years and years ago! Come on, LP! Basically, Lonely Planet has not changed their take on guidebooks over the years and this one does not do justice to a great city.

Confusing and boring at the same time!:
The whole idea of a guide book is to "guide" you--to tell you how to do things, where to find things and how to get there. This book does none of these things! Instead it is a pretentious and disorganized mess that leaves one with the feeling that, while the author obviously knows Sydney well, she is far too smug and self-congratulatory to share much of this information with you! Yes there are maps--but they omit many street names and don't match up with each other. Good luck if the location you are looking for is on a street not deemed worthy of inclusion or if your path takes you from one neighborhood to another. The book does provide spotty information on the city's transit systems (light rail, heavy rail, buses, mono-rail and ferries) but not enough to enable one to get around easily. Plan on spending extra time getting oriented and standing in line at information booths. As far as culture, history, nature and local color--if it doesn't have to do with drag queen reviews, liberal politics or the hippest place to eat or drink, the author doesn't seem to be much interested. Finally, the index-or should I say indexes as there are (strangely) several different ones! You'll probably just have to memorize page numbers as I did! I spent four days in Sydney getting more and more frustrated with this book before I dumped it and started using "Sydney: The Official Guide" which is given out free by the local tourist authority. It was much more informative and much more user-friendly! BTW--Lonely Planets has apparently decided to get rid of those sections of its city guides on getting there, transportation, local money, culture, customs, tips, etc., (which were always the most useful parts of the books) and has replaced these with expanded listings of recommended restaurants, bars and coffee shops. I did take a few of their recommendations in Sydney--and was uniformly disappointed. One good thing about the book-if you are awake due to jet-lag, a few pages of the ponderous prose may help you nod off! This was the 14th Lonely Planet Guide that I have purchased over the years--and the last. This is a once-great travel series that has completely lost its way. Too bad!

Australia's Largest City:
The seventh edition of the Lonely Planet "Sydney - City Guide" was researched and written by Sandra Bao, with help from the author of the previous two editions Sally O'Brien. This edition was published in 2006, which means that the next edition will probably not be published until sometime in 2008 or later. As with the other City Guides from Lonely Planet that I have used, this one appears to be comprehensive. As one would expect, it would cover the things that most travel guides cover, such as lodging, food & drink, entertainment & attractions, and shopping. The Lonely Planet guides go beyond the standard information and include sections on city life, art, architecture, and history, and sections which help the traveler plan activities with sections on walking tours, and excursions that can be taken outside of the city. This guide, like the other Lonely Planet guides that I have used, has been very helpful in my planning for my visit. Probably the most useful section to a first time traveler is the `Directory' section, which covers a wide range of topics from transportation, family concerns, climate, customs, information for travelers which are disabled, electricity, embassies, emergencies, and so much more. If you already have a Lonely Planet guide for Australia, then this section will not be of as much use, but it is always good to have the latest copy you can because some of the information changes or is added. I have had very good success with the Lonely Planet guides, and I have every reason to believe after reading and using this one for my planning that this one will also turn out to be quite useful. There are guides which give you more visual information on Sydney, but in terms of written content I believe this one is near the top of the list.

Perfect travel companion:
The scope of this book is ideal for a small, lightweight yet comprehensive guide. By sticking to Sydney, it can cover pretty much everything it needs to, without adding 10 pounds to your backpack. It's meticulously researched, well organized and became a daily reference point during our trip. I'm a big fan of the Lonely Planet series, and this ranks as one of the best.