Israel & The Palestinian Territories 8 (Lonely Planet)

Lonely Planet is generally admirable for adding hip, narrative color to its guides and I like most of them. This guide, however, tries but fails to negotiate a balanced, factual account of the IsraelI Palestinian problem, and its legacy of anti-Israel bias still peeks through. Wading into intractable disputes is a quixotic task for a travel guide in the best of circumstances, so take the lapses for what they're worth. For instance, its account of the wars between Israel and Gaza soft-pedals the rockets launched by Gazans into civilian areas and their purpose [to launch invasions and kill civilians] of the tunnels Gazans dug into Israel.

The Lonely Planet Israel and the Palestinian Territories provides a nice overview of things to do and places to see. It hits the highlights but does not seem as detailed to go beyond the main sights as I had hoped. Nonetheless, Lonely Planet does a good job of offering the main sights and is good for the casual and short-term visitor.

We went to Israel by ourselves and all of the areas we visited were in this travel book. It had just enough information to help us feel educated and interested but not too in depth that we felt like we were in a history class. This book made a HUGE difference for us, we got way more out of our trip and now every time I travel abroad I will ALWAYS take a Lonely Planet book with me.

I can't recommend this guid enough if you're planning a trip to Israel and the surrounding Territories. I was able to plan a trip for me and my family from start to finish using almost exclusively this book and it's online resources. Great tips for driving, food, times of day to see certain sites, and includes a pull out map of Jerusalem for site seeing. We navigated the country like pros.

Good travel book with lots of information. Almost too much information to process. The tours I went on were the same in that they have so much information, it's impossible to process it all.

I'm not usually a fan of tour books in general even though I know they give lots of information. But I am really enjoying this one. Lots of pictures and much easier to get through than most of the tour books I've read. So looking forward to our trip next year to this region.

In the old days a Lonely Planet guide was indispensible. That's less true in the age of the Internet. I got the Kindle version, to make it easy to carry, but alas it isn't nearly as user friendly as the good old paperback version. It's very hard to bounce around, to dog ear pages and to see the images/maps well. If you need this, don't get the Kindle version.

I have been browsing the book, and haven't gone to Israel yet (really the ultimate test of usefulness). I have found the information to be of some help, but as with many other guidebooks the maps and text are poorly integrated, making it difficult to connect information with location in a way you can use. There is also not enough practical information about how to get around, travel times, etc.

Not LP's best work. I found the sections on history and politics informative and interesting. However, the recommendations for where to go and where to eat were very hit and miss (e.g. Dr Shakshuka in the Jaffa part of Tel Aviv - recommended highly by LP - turned out to be a place where a tout pulls people in off the street to experience surly service of over-priced basic food). The book also fails to communicate just how expensive Israel is and the pretty poor value for money - something that one would have thought would be of importance to LP's traditional backpacker readership. The insistence that it was important to turn up 3 hours before departure when leaving Israel by plane was also galling - leading to a very long wait in the crumby budget airport terminal 1. On a more positive note - there are some splendid moments to be had in Israel - so not all negative.

The writing in this guide (Israel & the Palestinian Territories) is exceptionally good. I know the subject quite well, and this book really gets it right. The layout and descriptions are excellent. I was particularly impressed by the brief but penetrating discussions of the region's social, cultural and political complexities, and its remarks on economy and environment. This is made interesting rather than boring and seems unbiased. A good read! This is the best guide on any country that I've ever used.

A bit disappointed by this purchase. The maps are not very detailed. Tourist information offices not signposted. The book itself is quite heavy and cumbersome carry all day. I suspect some of the information is out of date so instead I went to Tourist information in Israel instead and they gave/sold more relevant maps.Good for history and information about the sights.

It's a great book but perhaps buying it in Kindle format is not the best as access is not so easy as when you have a book to leaf through. We have used Lonely Planet guides for many years and they are always informative and useful but I wouldn't buy one in kindle format again.

I've been living in Israel for 8 weeks now and the guide has been real let down. I've went looking for markets that don't exist, been directed to restaurants that were so dirty we had to leave, and in general there are many inaccuracies as well as some amazing things we have found, and major parks that are not even mentioned in the book. I would recommend going elsewhere.