Frommer's Australia 2006 (Frommer's Complete) | Marc Llewellyn, Lee Mylne

Frommer's Australia 2006 (Frommer's Complete) | Marc Llewellyn, Lee Mylne | A Huge Disappointment

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Frommer's Australi...

	Frommer's Australia 2006 (Frommer's Complete) Marc Llewellyn, Lee Mylne Frommer's, 2005 - 692 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go?they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!

Completely updated every year (unlike most of the competition), Frommer's Australia features gorgeous color photos of the spectacular scenery and amazing wildlife that await you Down Under. This extraordinary and opinionated guide is personally researched by a pair of lifelong residents, who'll show you how to discover the real Australia. We'll start off in Sydney, then head off to the Great Barrier Reef, where you'll find complete details on the world's most beautiful beaches, magnificent snorkeling and scuba diving, and other eco-adventures. From the urban pleasures of Melbourne to the rustic, untamed Outback, Frommer's Australia covers it all, with all the advice you need to make the most of your time and money. Whether you want to stay in mom-and-pop motels, wildnerness lodges, elegant B&Bs, or luxury beach resorts, this guide will help you design the Australian adventure that's right for you.

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Frommer's 2006 Australia

This book is clear to the point and truly helpful. It tells you what you need to know without becoming some sort of treatise like Lonely Planet. Just be careful when they safe a certain hotel in Alice Springs is only a short stroll from the heart of town. If you don't have a car and it's hot enough in Alice Springs even in the winter, and you are out of shape, this is not a short stroll.

A Huge Disappointment

On my previous trip to Australia in 2001, I used the Let's Go travel guide. It was okay, but after the excellent book I had for Hawaii, I thought I would try for something better. Frommer's isn't it. This book has no more information than the website and is probably not as up to date. Hours and prices were consistently wrong--by more than allowable for a yearly update. Attraction ratings were unhelpful. That is, they did not include the sort of information that helped me decide what I wanted to see. For example, a museum in Adelaide is supposedly known for it's extensive collection of Aborigine artifacts and was highly rated based on that. However, the items are presented with minimal context, so that the collection is not the tremendous learning experience it ought to be; it's more like an art show. Another example: The botanical garden in Melbourne is like a park, with few flowers; the one in Brisbane is organized like a zoo, divided into geographic regions, and with lots of flowers. The distinction wasn't made in the book.

Australia is a huge area to cover, but this book tries to please too many audiences and ends up satisfying none, I would think. By including dining and lodging choices from 5 star to 2 star, it can only offer 3 or 4 choices in each category. A huge failing was not identifying where the best areas to stay are, based on what you want to do. For example, if you will be taking lots of bus tours, you want to stay at a hotel where the buses will pick you up. If you are renting a car, you will want to stay somewhere with free or inexpensive parking and from which you can easily go into or out of town. It would have been far more helpful to list good/reliable Aussie chains/organizations of hotels/motels/b&bs than to list individual establishments.

I didn't even like the way the book was organized. The attractions are why I travel--things to see and do. They were listed after lodging and food and given just as skimpy treatment.
I would have done better to stick with my OLD Let's Go book from 2000.

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