Don't Believe "Lonely Planet" Guides!

[Comet]

I borrowed the Lonely Planet Guide to Britain from our local library yesterday, and I was horrified at the lack of knowledge of some of the contributors to these books. I could not believe the rubbish written about Scarborough and can only conclude that the author had never even visited the town.

The railway station is conveniently central, with the bus station behind it.

Scarborough does not have a bus station and hasn't had one since the late 1980s.

The book also recommends visitors to stay on North Marine Road, Trafalgar Square and Aberdeen Walk. These are no go areas at night! Many hotels on these street were converted into DSS accommodation for drug addicts, those just out of prison and yobs many years ago. They are not nice streets to walk along! (And if you are unlucky enough to walk along them on a hot summer day, you cannot escape the familiatr odour which characterises many streets in central Scarborough after the remains of recycled stomach contents of local drunks have had chance to dry out on the pavements!)

There's a bunch of traditional fish and chip places on Foreshore Road. In general though, the possibilities aren't immense, so most people eat in their hotels or stay in self catering flats.

One good thing about Scarborough is the range of eateries. This book at least acknowledges existence of the legendary Lanterna, but Scarborough also has excellent Chinese, Indian, Greek, Italian, Thai and brasseries and not just fish and chips shops!!

Scarborough is connected by regular trains with Leeds via Harrogate.

This again is factually wrong. Scarborough has never been connected with anywhere via Harrogate. If you bought a ticket from Scarborough to Harrogate, your ticket would be endorsed with the words "not via Leeds". You can only get to Harrogate via York from Scarborough. Leeds is served by direct trains and you don't have to change anywhere.

More mistakes from this book when I find them

[sn26567]

... to stay on North Marine Road, Trafalgar Square and Aberdeen Walk. These are no go areas at night! Many hotels on these street were converted into DSS accommodation for drug addicts, those just out of prison and yobs many years ago. They are not nice streets to walk along! (And if you are unlucky enough to walk along them on a hot summer day, you cannot escape the familiatr odour which characterises many streets in central Scarborough after the remains of recycled stomach contents of local drunks have had chance to dry out on the pavements!)

Nice place where you live, Louise!

[Comet]

Andre - if you want to know about Scarborough, ask a local

Scarborough probably has more pizza/pasta/burger/kebab joints per head of population than anywhere else in Europe! One street was a death trap to walk along because the owner of one of these establishments thought nothing of regularly emptying his cooking oil all over the pavement. That, coupled with the familiar odour of that particular street put me off walking along there all summer. Last year we moved to another part of town which is much nicer.

North Marine Road and Trafalgar Square used to be really nice when the hotels were open and people on holiday used to be out for their evening walks, but not so now

[Comet]

Here is another foul up from "The Lonely Planet Guide to Britain" and it is very appropriate for an aviation forum!

This gem of mis-information is about the Imperial War Museum site at Duxford in Cambridgeshire.

It was the home of the famous Dambuster squadron of Lancasters, and today is home to the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows squadron.

Oh dear, they really can't get it right, can they?

Any aviation buff will know that the 617 Lancaster squadron (the Dambusters) flew from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, and that RAF Scampton is also the base of the Red Arrows!

[OO-SBZ]

... to stay on North Marine Road, Trafalgar Square and Aberdeen Walk. These are no go areas at night! Many hotels on these street were converted into DSS accommodation for drug addicts, those just out of prison and yobs many years ago. They are not nice streets to walk along! (And if you are unlucky enough to walk along them on a hot summer day, you cannot escape the familiatr odour which characterises many streets in central Scarborough after the remains of recycled stomach contents of local drunks have had chance to dry out on the pavements!)

Nice place where you live, Louise!

Indeed 8O
No wonder she is looking forward to visiting Brussels


BeN

[A318]

Lonely Planet guides are the bibles for backpackers. Since they prefer a cheap place instead of a safe place this guide is fully in line with their tradition. Seen it so many times already in Lima that I think, my god do you have any idea where you going to????

Erwin

[Comet]

I think that those guides are highly irresponsible for recommending bad areas. Every year we see the same thing in Scarborough, and it makes me angry and ashamed so say I am from Scarborough Many foreign students come here on exchange visits, and every year they are targetted by the local yob population, and every year we see letters in our local newspaper from the parents of these students saying that they will never allow their children to come here again. It really makes me sick, those students (and everyone else) should be able to come here and enjoy themselves without straying into the wrong areas (recommended by guides such as this) and getting beaten up.

As well as aiming for cheap above safe, the information they give out is incorrect, as I said in the examples I quoted.

And the Lanterna has never been a magnet for backpackers, that place is expensive class as befits one of the best Italian restaurants in the world (official), so it is weird that a backpackers book recommends it.

[LJ]

The problem with LP is that is has become too popular and although they still contain usefull information I read more and more mistakes or omissions. One LP about The Netherlands was reprinted due to the errors in the LP. However, the main problem with LP is that they sometimes advertise too much the "evertyhing must be cheap" principle.

I travelled in 2000 to Venezuela and used the Footprint whilst everybody else the group had the LP. To my suprise the Footprint was much better and didn't contain phrases like "Venezuela is great for the backpacker as you don't have to pay for most museums" (in Venezuela most museums are free of charge but tehy expect a donation) or "place X isn't great because they charge too much".

I always travel in a small tourgroup (saves me the hassle of organising everything myself) and see what happens to those backpackers following the "Lonley Planet Trail". The strange thing is that most backpacker look down on those travelling in a tourgroup but don't realise that they do exactly the same by following the "Lonely Planet Trail".

[Comet]

There are very few truly reliable travel guides I think. In the UK media this week, there was an article about the DK Guide to Britain. Whilst these books ahve beautiful photos and layouts, the info they give is always misleading. The Britain guide says that at 4pm, everyone in britain sits down the afternoon tea, with fruitcake, cucumber sandwiches and cream scones. Rubbish! Most people in Britain are still hard at work at 4pm, not sitting down to tea and cakes.

We also have the DK Guide to Brussels. That has some real howlers for those who know Belgian beer. It states that Kwak is a "characterful" example of a frambozen beer, and that Leffe is a Trappist beer. Kwak is not a raspberry-infused beer, and Leffe is certainly not Trappist (it is part of the Interbrew empire). The only Trappist beers in the world are Chimay, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Orval and Achel.