The Lonely Planet The Netherlands (Travel Guide)

We are looking to go next year and want some info before we go. We always use Lonely Planet wherever we go as love to mix with the locals, find out their traditions/food etc.

Very useful for the basics of an area, a bit biased towards towns and cities, but still worth having

This Lonely Planet book comprehensively covers The Netherlands and all of its regions including Amsterdam. The book is split into four sections – plan your trip, the guide, toolkit and storybook which is a change from the previous Lonely Planet structure. There are less recommendations about places to stay and eat / drink and more ideas for itineraries / background on the regions. For me this is preferable to the original format as it is ideal for finding inspiration for a trip as I prefer finding accommodation through the internet. The book measures 12.95cm x 19.56cm with a thickness of 1.59cm and has 296 pages so is full of information. The paper is quite thin, which I don’t love, as I feel like you could easily tear it, but I understand that this is to keep the weight down whilst travelling. As the book has a soft cover it is likely to become scuffed and battered over time particularly if you decide to carry it around in a rucksack, but personally I will be mainly using this book as a coffee table book to pre plan a trip. The book has plenty of inspiration for travelling around The Netherlands, detailing each region comprehensively and allowing you to plan your trip and itinerary with expert recommendations. The book is illustrated with beautiful photographs, easy to understand diagrammatic maps and there is a clear contents page with an index making it easier to navigate the book – it certainly packs a good amount of information. It allows you to uncover experiences using local knowledge and still includes a few recommendations on where to stay, where to eat and drink with a heavier emphasis on what to see and do. There are recommendations if you have limited timeframes in specific areas and some brief information on transportation links as well. The book also has a pull-out map of Amsterdam at the back which is very useful. I will be using the book as more of a prompt to discover more through the internet to gain further details and for this use it is ideal. However, if you want specific details about a certain region, it may be worth investing in a different book as this book offers a great overview of the country and what it has to offer including choosing a location, but misses the finer details, although of course this would make the book bigger! It is also worth mentioning that the text in the book is quite small. At the time of writing this book is £16.21, I think that this Lonely Planet format is quite good. The information in the book is good quality and up to date – I would recommend it if you are looking to explore The Netherlands further.

When it comes to travel guides there's one brand that I tend to gravitate towards and that's Lonely Planet. This guide to The Netherlands is up to their usual standards. From the inviting and colourful cover through to the pull out map of Amsterdam at the back, this book is packed full of useful information. There are suggested itineraries which are tailored to the number of days you have, highlights according to your interests, advice on when to go not just where. Add to this a comprehensive selection of maps, pictures and advice it really does give you all the inspiration you could need for a trip. As usual, the book rounds off with the "Toolkit" a selection of practical tips and advice which always prove very useful. This volume is compact enough, at just under 300 pages, to fit in a handbag/rucksack which makes it nice and portable too. A must buy for anyone planning a trip to The Netherlands.

I do like the travel guides produced by The Lonely Planet. In general I've found them informative, interesting and well laid out with recommendations for places that may otherwise pass you by. For some reason I'm not liking this one quite as much as my other travel guides but can't quite put my finger on why. (I have a feeling it might be the paper they've used, maybe it's slightly more matt? It's definitely not the content which is up to the high standard I'd expect from Lonely Planet.) The book is split into four sections - Plan Your Trip (blue tabbed); The Guide (green tabbed and covering eight regions of The Netherlands, each region is also colour tabbed within this section); Toolkit (red tabbed, basic information about how to get around, where to stay etc.); Storybook (yellow tabbed, a small section at the end of the guide, covering history, geography and some sociology). There's also a city map of Amsterdam included at the back of the book - I kind of wish this was in a pocket of some sort, rather than attached with a perforated strip as I just know that I will lose it. I'm always drawn to the foodie bits and there's lots of information on markets, restaurants and cafes. Apart from that my favourite thing is the Plan Your Time pages which give you suggestions of where to visit depending on the length of your stay. I especially like the - If You Visit One Place - which gives you three or four suggestions of what to do if you have a restricted amount of time. I sometimes find you might have one or two hours to kill before you leave, and being able to look at this and say - we mustn't miss this - is very helpful. Overall - love it - small enough to fit into your handbag or rucksack but packed with useful information.

Great travel guide to Netherlands. I am not good at finding information on places to visit on the Internet as it just gives far too many options and then I can not decide what to visit and what to leave for next visit. This travel guide gives plenty I formation on places to visit but it does not overwhelm. I think this is brilliant guide with plenty information for first time in Netherlands.

I like the general layout and way of presenting the essentials of each prospective place to visit. well organized and useful information.

It's not a bad product, but I find it lacking in history of art information. I would have liked more text and less pictures: this guide book is full of showy pictures and looks a bit like a tourist office brochure. I liked Lonely Planets from 15-20 years ago better.

Great travel guide to help with our trip. No wasted, "food and lodging information" though it covered the subject well. I bought most of the usual travel guides and this was the best.

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Large portions of the country, notably the entire province of Zeeland, are entirely left out of the book. I didn't buy the guide to Holland/guide to the biggest attractions, I bought the guide to the Netherlands, but that's not what I got.