Epic cities of antiquity, hustle-bustle metropolises, fairytale landscapes...the Middle East has all the history you'd expect and a host of surprises...
This book proved to be absolutely invaluable for our travels through Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and even Cyprus!
While we carried with us a number of other supplementary guides, nothing could stand up to LP in terms of its overall usefulness. As usual the maps are extremely accurate which, being a half-pigeon self-navigator, is a very important factor for me!
With regards to lodging, no other book is tailored towards the budget traveler as much as LP is, and this isn't even one of their 'shoestring' versions! Without the blue book we would have spent substantially more then we did on accommodations!
Food of course is almost impossible not to find though, for those few times when you're looking for something specific, LP usually could nail it down!
As far as sites go, there is plenty of room for additional info but that's why we carried other color books. LP can guarantee to get you there an usually has better information than any other source regarding logistics.
Finally, I have never enjoyed a history section as much as the one in this book. For years the Middle East, its history, conflicts and current events have baffled me. The few dozen pages in which this is all explained shed a remarkable light on the whole situation for me. Sure, it's definitely a condensed version, but one that you won't find in any history book or news article!
This is definitely a worthy investment if you plan on visiting any of the included countries, or, are just looking for a sneak peak into the Middle East!
The writers do a wonderful job of bringing the area to life, both with overviews of the history, geography, etc., and with details about specific towns and points of interest. I'm going to miss this book...
Good for ideas about going to the Middle East--think I'm going to stick with my original plan of Turkey, Egypt and Morocco. It did not have UAE, so I have to look into that too!