DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Thailand's Beaches and Islands: DK Eyewitness Travel Guides 2016

Item reviewed: 2016 flexibound edition (minor revisions being made about every two years)OVERVIEW: Effectively a guidebook for Southern Thailand. For many visitors to Thailand, this may be all they need.DETAIL:The area covered by the guidebook is composed of:1. Bangkok (46 pages);2. Coastal Eastern Thailand (34 pp), i.e. the provinces of Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat;3. Southern Thailand (the Thai part of the Isthmus of Kra) from the province of Phetchaburi southwards (158 pp).This book is divided into the following sections:- Introducing Thailand's Beaches and Islands – outlines of suggested tours, maps, introduction to wildlife, Thai culture and history (42 pages)- Thailand's Beaches and Islands Area by Area (240 pp)- Travellers' Needs, including recommendations for hotels and restaurants (44 pp)- Survival Guide (18 pp)- Index (good, but in small print) (20 pp).This is more illustrated than conventional guidebooks such as Lonely Planet. With those guidebooks, when you arrive at a major sight, you may have to read or reread an essay of say five hundred words, and at the end may still be confused as to where exactly things are. DK's brilliant innovation is that instead they provide a labelled diagram, a bit like an aerial photograph, that orients you immediately and shows you where to go for the most interesting items. Of course this takes a lot of space so it's only done for major attractions like Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaeo, Wat Pho and Jim Thomson's house.Another DK innovation is the illustrated diagrams of sightseeing walks, which make it much easier to locate the places of interest, and much harder to get lost, than with other guidebooks. Unusually, this book only provides two such walks, Sanam Luang (north of the Grand Palace) and Phetchaburi.Readers should be aware that the suggested tours in the Introduction often do not allow sufficient travel time, and therefore that the tours will generally take longer than advertised (as a rule of thumb, about one day per week) to do properly. Furthermore, for practical details such as how to get from A to B, some other source of information will be needed.So, should this book be purchased, bearing in mind that Dorling Kindersley also produce a guidebook for the whole of Thailand,  DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Thailand (Eyewitness Travel Guides) ?- If you are visiting only coastal Thailand (and maybe Bangkok), get this book only. This area, in the beaches and islands book, has twice the number of pages that it has in the main guidebook.- If you are spending substantial time in both North and South Thailand, then get both books.

Really good guidebook that also incorporates Bangkok which is a great idea since most first timers to Thailand quite rightly visit Bangkok before heading to the beaches and islands. As with most DK guides it is heavy (but not quite as heavy as some DK guides) so might be better for pre trip research if you are hoping to travel very lightly or just doing some initial research for ideas as to where to go. That said given the fact Bangkok is included it might be a good one to take if you are doing Bangkok and a beach/island and just want one guide to cover both.

I always use the DK guides, I find them informative and concise and accurate. This Thailand guide served its purpose perfectly helping me decide the best and most interesting areas to visit on my forthcoming trip.

Very good book. Lots of detail about all areas of Thailand. I used this a lot to plan our trip and referred a lot to it during our recent trip. It was invaluable in helping me decide on the areas to stay. I definitely recommend this book.

This arrived very promptly and in excellent condition. It was a Christmas present for my son who along with many other family and friends will be visiting Thailand with us in April. The book was passed round at the Christmas party we were all attending and some people were reluctant to part with it.

This travel book is very informative and easily laid out, organised into colour coded areas. There is a section near the back that gives very helpful general info, money, locals, weather etc. Gives good detailed descriptions on all beaches. The only book you will need if doing the islands/beaches.

HANDY

A book exactly as I wished. Superb thank you