Lonely Planet Central Asia (Travel Guide) Paperback – 16 May 2014

A necessity for any traveller

One day ! I love travel but it is not easy as you think... in their countries, it is really hard work to be independent traveller, unless if you are with community-inspired-worldschooling, then it would be easier to travel.. The freedom of travel is wonderful but it is not simple as you think becuase of class-society. Many are unaware of.. Class society is real in global due to education. Many countries do not invested in education... I always have a vision for world schooling but it is not the way I thought they would be... Many international support world schooling in their countries... It is the advancement of education, society, economic, etc. I learn so much from books, people's enlighten and evening schooling. There are so many available to help but they want a favour from you.. you know their favour is not your type. You have to be aware of. I strongly support world schooling, you have the ability to learn something.... I am not a fan of school becuase of politics..

Book came on time and as a pre journey read gives good advice and information. We'll see if it helps when I actually go there later this year.

The information were very accurate and it gave me a big advantage when I was traveling through central Asia. Great maps and prices seen all correct.

I have the 2nd Edition of this guide book, but I bought the recent 6th Edition as I need updated info for the trip that I plan to Central Asia. As expected, the book has updated info on the area, however, it is definitely poor, compared to the 2nd Edition. It seams that the Editors have skipped information for medium size towns. Even if those towns are of little interest to the average tourist, they are valuable to tourist who plan their trip individually. For example, the 2nd Edition dedicates about 4 pages on Western Turkmenistan, including the towns of Turkmenbashi (with map), Balkanabat and Dekhistan. However, the 6th Editions has less than one page (including a small boxed text on Turkmebashi without map) just on Kow Alta Underground Lake and on Gozli Ata & Yangykala Canyon (both places did not covered in the 2nd Edition). Similarly, the over one page plus one page of boxed text on the Kyrgyzstan Karkara valley in the 2nd Edition, has been dismissed to a small paragraph of less than 1/4 of page in the 6th Edition (with barely no information on yurt stays!)Finally, even if the information on border crossing is quite analytical there is some crucial information missing. For example, to find information about the route from Biskek to Tashkent someone has to look at three places in the book, while I would expect that this should be in Biskek "Getting There and Away" section.All thinks considered, I would suggest to buy the guide book, as it is a good source of updated information on the region, however, it is less than I would expect from Lonely Planet.

a very good book

The current guide is 2014 and things have begun to change, especially in Uzbekistan. So up to date visa requirements etc must be checked out. As always when a large area is covered there are limitations on the content but I found it a valuable travelling companion nevertheless.

Great, just used it on a trip thru Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.