East Africa

by Lonely Planet, Tom Parkinson, Mary Fitzpatrick

Complete, practical country guide for independent travellers. Includes dedicated safaris chapter, offering expert advice on car, boat, walking, balloon and canoe safaris. Special section coverage on gorilla trek. 16 page colour wildlife guide and thorough coverage of cultures and peoples.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Africa, Reference, Guidebook

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

OUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.

Reviews

[Eileen Breseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 70 day trip to Rwanda, Uganda & Kenya with my daughter were highly augmented by reading through this travel book. Like other Lonely Planet books, it includes lots of details, information, both general and specific for a (mostly) reliable guide to E.Africa. Our copy was dated 2016, so written 2015 or so in 3 quickly developing countries, it was out of date in many places.
So we used it as a guide, and learned as we went. I think we did none of the top ten suggested sights, but looked for the affordable, off the beaten tourist track adventures. E.Africa is a challenging but do-able place for shoestring travelers if you are willing to forgo comfort, reliability & your own cultural norms for the real deal.

[Kim Lanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lonely Planet continues to be my favorite guide book - Tanzania here I come!

[heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of useful information but the layout is a mess. Make it easier for your readers to find info, LP editors!

[Cris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Demasiada información. Creo que sería mejor (aunque seguro que lo hay) libros por país. Me ha servido para repasar el inglés

[JC Cornell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always love a lonely planet guide.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I love Lonely Planet guides! Secondly, I'd love to say that I actually read this book cover-to-cover but I used it to plan a trip through Rwanda and Tanzania. I agree with other ratings, however; this region is currently changing so fast that you can really only get up-to-date information online (or on the phone, if you ever reach anyone... so really, in person only!)

History/culture/language sections remain helpful, however, with nice sprinklings of humor from witty Brits :) (check out page 574 on limnic eruptions!!!)

[Marie-Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

As has been said before; good planning tool. I used it mainly for Kenya. But some of the advice about how to behave were laughed at by my Kenyan friends such as never eat with your left hand for eating (most people use both hands anyway). It might only be true for certain regions. I perceived Kenyans to be very open minded so don’t worry. Make sure you learn by watching others and don’t rely entirely on the book.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read, nothing super interesting though. Lonely Planet tries too hard to be cool while leaving out important facts and some mistakes are kind of embarrassing from such an established publisher. I've for a long time seen Lonely Planet as inferior to the Rough Guides who always seem to hit the mark.

Fine for a very general overview of East Africa.

[Sancho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of Lonely Planet and can say that I have been always safe following its advice. In this case, unfortunately, I realized I could not do this trip, at least not yet... I have to save A LOT first!

But WOW, how much I would like to do it... maybe one day!

[Kelsey Breseman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely useful but also (2015 version) so out of date that some places don't exist and transit cannot be relied upon. Terriffic as a planning tool; I used it to figure out a three month trip through Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya. Just make sure to verify on the ground and have a backup plan.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

You had to be there.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like this series, but less useful in a place like East Africa, where things are on constant flux and it is better to be managed in a group

[Nard · Rating 4 out of 5]

time to start planning the road trip..

[E G Melby · Rating 3 out of 5]

More research reading

[Marko]

I have two different editions.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's decently accurate, but is a little heavy on Kenya at the expense of the other countries.