Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2020 15

Great book of information. Great gift

This book has an ambitious goal: presenting the 10 best travel destinations in the categories of country, region, city, and "value destination." While I'm sure some people would disagree with some of the choices, they do a pretty good job of hitting the target. I've traveled fairly extensively, but have only hit around 50% of the aggregate list. I'm not sure I agree that Liberia merits being on a top 10 country list, and they kind of fudge the list a bit by listing The Netherlands and Aruba separately, but otherwise these are solid choices. I especially like that they have listed North Macedonia (the country formerly known as simply "Macedonia,"), a country I have long thought was underappreciated in travel circles. Nothing surprising or outlandish in the top 10 cities. As for top 10 regions (think states, provinces, general geographic areas, etc.) the central Asian portion of the Silk Road is listed first. I'm sure it's a great travel destination and it's even on my bucket list, but this is the only entry for which I feel like they shortchanged the safety aspect. This listing encompasses several countries, all areas of which are not necessarily entirely safe for all travelers. On the other hand, the inclusion of the Kvarner Gulf region of Croatia and Cadiz province in Spain, both of which are underappreciated and often fly under the radar compared to other areas of their respective countries, but well worth a visit. Finally, as to best value destinations, I was happy to see Buffalo, NY, a place I have long loved to visit and is a great value. While all the entries on this list fit the bill of being great values (and also very interesting destinations), many of them require a big caveat: while staying there might be a great value, getting there may not be, especially from the U.S. Examples are Azerbaijan; Serbia; East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia; and the Cape Winelands in South Africa. These are awesome destinations where you can stay and enjoy the area on a budget, but finding affordable flights from the U.S. can be quite challenging. Overall, this is a great book (did I mention it's hardback!). If possible, I would have given it 4 1/2 stars, but that's not possible and given the choice of marking it down to 4 or up to 5, I thought it more appropriate to go ahead and give it 5 stars.

Awesome book packed with lots of good quality info. I am not sure I have plans too soon for any of these, but I love to dream and add to my bucket list of places to go. This book helped give me more info than I knew and gave lots of tips, itinerary's , and travel plans. Lots of pictures. Excellent! Amazon will donate to your favorite charity! Use Amazon Smile (smile.amazon.com) when you order and Amazon will donate to the charity of your choice when you make a qualifying purchase. Check out how Amazon Smile works at https://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/about/ref=smi_se_rspo_laas_aas. My shopping is donating to my charity of choice; Unravel, at no cost to me! Unravel is a nonprofit organization working to spread knowledge about the grim realities of pediatric cancer and the devastating impact from the lack of funding. All monies raised by and for Unravel will go directly to the fight against pediatric cancer.

In my (never to be humble) opinion I find Lonely Planet Travel Guides the best of the best. The publisher and writers lean heavily on locals for up to date and unique views of, well, everywhere. In this book they’ve relied on their writers to whittle down the thousands of destinations to top 10s or The Best of the Best. There’s the 10 countries, 10 regions, 10 best value destinations. They promise to deliver the “wow” factor to travelers. In the Countries section we find Uruguay where my son-in-law is from. His photos and stories of his home country has always intrigued me so I’m happy it made the cut. Regions includes such diverse places as Maine (I’ll always think of this as Stephen King country0 and the Brazilian Amazon. Top 10 cities include Washington DC and Dubai. So you get the idea. Many of the suggestions are big popular tourist spots and some are on the path less traveled. What I found most helpful is that each section has a suggested itinerary. Where to start – where to go – unmissable experiences (pay special attention to this little blurb) and timing, seasonal suggestions.

I'm so happy to have this now. After the pandemic is over and we are free to move around again it will be sad in a way, t find out what else in the world has changed forever. High quality printing, gorgeous full color photos. Not too heavy to carry. A time capsule.

What an awesome inspirational book for adventure travel lovers!! There have certainly been a few times I've just been too exhausted from my daily life to do the research on new destinations - so I end up going to the same location several times. This is a great book for me, as I can scope out tons of new destinations and easily see which pique my interest (ok, they pretty much all do). I'm keeping it on my desk at work so when I'm stressed or have a free moment - I can start thinking about my next vacation!

I was expecting a it more from this. The book is small with limited pics and write-ups; I didn’t feel like it was even enough to be inspirational in terms of brainstorming ideas for a next trip.

This is a great "best of" travel guide. It includes the Top Ten: countries, cities, regions, and best value. It is packed with useful information and travel tips specific to each area. The full color photographs are worthy of natgeo and provide interesting windows into each area. I find that it is sometimes easy to get lost or distracted while searching for travel information online and this is a great way to stay focused and get a good look at the top tens before delving further into internet research. Recommended.