The Rough Guide to Vietnam

This is one of three guides that we have looked at to prepare for our upcoming trip to Vietnam. The other two were library books. This is clearly the best of the three, and we are reading it cover to cover. Until we return from Vietnam, we will not know whether it is completely accurate, but it is very informative and clearly written. I am amending my review to indicate that I discovered that admission costs ARE included in the book. They are written in small print between the name of the site/attraction and its description. In the same place, also in small print, is additional information about the attraction, such as location and hours.

Wonderful book - we just read the history and are now reading about culture. The description of each major town is excellent. Why four stars - the FONT! It's so tiny that we feel old because we can't read certain sections (like the short English-Vietnamese glossary at the end - agh!)

very useful and the book had a lot of great suggestions that you don't find in your typical lonely planet guide that everyone else has. i was actually able to avoid the tourists when i wanted to. very reliable and some super great restaurant recommendations. not all the hotels were perfect, but vietnam is a complicated place ;)

have used rough guides for many years. they are by far the best if going on a budget. from middle money to super cheap.

I like the Rough guides and believe are the most thorough around.

Unfortunately, like many travel books these days it looks like it was written for midrange budget tourist instead of backpackers. Section ''getting there and away" is often very basic without details on how to get local transport. But, it is still one of the best guides on the market.

Excellent overview with a lot of history. Good layout

I love it

perfect

Roughly planned a two week trip by ourselves from Hanoi to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. I ordered the book shortly before we left and it was everything I had hope with lots of useful information on transport, sights, accomodation etc.. I found the maps in Hanoi and the other towns/cities we went too very good; just the right mix between simple and clear but with the important detail. For accomodation we usually found places through booking.com or a similar site but the guide gave us a good idea of the area we wanted to stay in. We planned what to do each day a day or so in advance and with the help of the book, local people and tours we managed to see all we had hoped while having a brilliant time. There is still plenty to see and if we get to go back one day as it is an absolutely beautiful country with no end of attractions!

I bought the Rough Guide because I had used their guidebooks when traveling through Latin America and loved them. Back then, the Rough Guides gave all necessary details to find hidden gems, many of whom had not had been covered by other major guidebooks. In the case of the new Vietnam guide, I was disappointed: no unique information and insufficient guidance to actually find the places, for example 'many buses go from XXX to YYY' or 'a few kilometers outside the city centre' without providing actual addresses or directions. A lot of information is outdated; it seems that some items have simply not been checked for the new edition (e.g. Tiger Falls near Dalat have been abandoned for y e a r s). The e-book features are not consistently accessible across devices: my android reader could not zoom the maps nor did the search function work; my old kindle could not activate the links embedded in the text. This is not the Rough Guide standard I expected.

I prefer Rough Guide to LP. Even though both are generally good.

It will do for my trip in May