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The Rough Guide to Vietnam 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis
Publisher: Rough Guides
Category: Book
List Price: $21.99
Buy New: $11.89
You Save: $10.10 (46%)
New (43) Used (9) from $11.75
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 97802
Media: Paperback
Edition: 5
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 616
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1843536161
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.970444
EAN: 9781843536161
ASIN: 1843536161
Publication Date: September 18, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Rough Guide to Vietnam is ideal for people who want to travel independently and discover more about this incredibly diverse country. It includes lively reviews of the best places to eat, from street kitchens to the upmarket restaurants of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and practical advice on activities, from home-stays in ethnic minority villages to boat trips around Ha Long Bay and visits to its national parks. There are extensive, user-friendly descriptions of Vietnams many sights, including Hues Imperial city, temples and pagodas and Vietnams impressive colonial architecture, as well as its deserted beaches and the waterways of the Mekong Delta.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
A well-researched, reliable and valuable guide March 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was in Vietnam (Jan/Feb 2008) and I took with me Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, and the better of the two guides is, by a thin margin, Lonely Planet.
However, there is much to commend Rough Guide Vietnam. It is worth buying just for the section that covers the history, religion (13 pages) and the overall culture of Vietnam. Excellent.
This guide is well laid out; breaking Vietnam into eight sections. Each section has a page that points out the places not to be missed. Each of these sections opens with a very good history and explanation of the area. Rough Guide has an excellent selection of restaurant and eateries (better than Lonely Planet's) with enticing write-ups that tell you what to try, "Goi bo, a salad of banana flower, star fruit and pineapple" or "try stir-fried beef with lemongrass for starters, followed by fried scallops and then che baba - grandma's sweet coconut soup." This guide has a better selection of the discos and clubs than Lonely Planet and it has eight (8) pages of recommended books to consider - Super.
HOWEVER, Rough Guides hardly has any maps, and those that they have are not as good or easy to use as Lonely Planet. It has a cumbersome "price code" system for accommodations, i.e. 1= under to $10, 2= $10-15, 3= $15-30, etc., thus, you have to memorize what the numbers represent or flip back and forth to the legend. Whereby, Lonely Planet shows you the cost in dollars. What an idea! Duh. Only a few accommodations (very few) have webpages. In today's world accommodations webpages are a must. All savvy travelers today want to "see" what a hotel or hostel looks like. R.G. does not breakdown restaurants by cost (Expensive, Moderate, etc.) nor does it give you any prices ranges ($10-15 etc.). Not Good.
In short, the better of the two guides is Lonely Planet, especially if you are going to explore Vietnam and want to get away from the "tourist areas". However, if you are staying in HCMC, Hanoi or other major cities and want the best clubs and restaurants with good eatery descriptions then this is your guide. Strongly Recommended. 4 Stars.
Great book! March 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just returned from a trip to Vietnam (Jan 2008) and was given this book last minute by a friend. This book was invaluable to my trip and compared to the Lonely Planet that I had been using, it was way better. The information was useful, concise and accurate.
The only 2 complaints about it are: the language section in the back does not do a phonetic translation which means if you are trying to ask for tea (tra) you end up saying 'tra' instead of 'ja'. You could flip a few pages to where they list all the proper pronunciations of the consonants but who has time for that? It's a guidebook not a dictionary.
The other complaint I have is that massages were cheap and very good over there and yet were never mentioned in the book (where, how much, what to watch out for etc) The LP book did both. However, comparing the 2 books overall, the RG was still much better!
Best written travel book for Vietnam January 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Used Rough Guide for my 3 week trip to Vietnam. Information is accurate and helpful. Compared to Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide to Vietnam is much better written, has more in-depth historical information, and provides a non-partial perspective to this interesting and vibrant country.
 Rough Guide Vietnam - Good maps, crappy and biased commentary December 17, 2007
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book was very good and detailed with accomodations and eateries. The walking tours were very easy to follow and the maps were easy to navigate. I loved the color section on food to encourage you to try some of the food that would otherwise be intimidating.
The biggest disappointment I found in this book is that it seemed that it was written SOLELY from a communist point of view. The book did not address South Vietnam and the effects of the war on the people there. It bashed the French and Americans. I FOUND IT OFFENSIVE AND WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER ROUGH GUIDE AGAIN! That's how's irritating and disrespectfuly it was.
 Couldn't get along without it November 30, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Rough Guide has become one of my favorites. It's value is that it targets a group beyond the backpackers. Vietnam is no exception. The maps are good, recommendations we used were always good. There is plenty of practical information about getting around and still has info the the backpackers, but many suggestions for more upscale restaurants and hotels. This was our primary guidebook for 3 weeks of independent travel in Vietnam.
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