Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.,U.S. Essential Thailand: with Cambodia & Laos

I did quite a bit of research before I bought this book and used it for my month travelling around Thailand plans. Firstly, one third of the book is about Laos and Cambodia (not on the title) so a waste of effort carting this book in your backpack if you’re not planning to go there. There is too much emphasis on where to eat and sleep, which you can easily work out for yourself. Not enough descriptive text and tips on places to visit. There could be far more information on train services and other transport companies, ferries etc. More maps on where those services leave from. If there was no internet you would struggle with just this book.

"Fodor's Essential Thailand: with Cambodia & Laos (Full-color Travel Guide)" by Fodor's Travel Guides is informative and nicely organized. The general information is at the front and worth the time to read. The pictures in this section are pleasing to the eye. After that, the guide starts with Bangkok and that makes sense since it is so well known. I like how the writers mix in the usual expected information with the more offbeat. The side note of "Beware: Happy Meals" towards the end in the Laos section was a good example of humorous and informative. I like that the sections are not a one-size fits all and that if there is a particular etiquette to observe, it will be mentioned. I also like the notes section for the reader to write in that Fodor guides insert towards the back of the book. The guide has a lot of information to take in but again, it is well organized. For most of us, it is usually one or two cities or regions that will be visited and the guide is designed so that the reader can jump to whatever city or region is of interest and get a good idea of that city or region.

Covers all the things you need for a trip to Thailand. If your focus is on Cambodia and Laos and you want to hit more than the highlights, this might not be the best guide, but unless you are going deep into Cambodia or Laos this is a great book. Fodor's guides are always well organized. Photos aren't the best quality but when combined with the internet, this makes vacation planning a snap. Unfortunately, right now, as I write this, Thailand is in political turmoil and COVID-19 is making travel less desirable, but hopefully we get back to exploring soon. This book will help.

Full of color photos and maps, this one pound book is compact enough to carry with you on a Thailand trip, but complete enough to provide some enjoyable armchair travel as well. There's plenty of planning information here as well: hotels, restaurants, tourism sites - all covered nicely along with sidebars on customs, travel within the country, and other useful tidbits. I do wish Fodor's would place the publication year on the book's spine to make it easy to tell whether you need an updated book for your library, but maybe they'll return to that in the future.

I had to take off one star because I dinged LP in the past for the same reason: why try to cram Laos and Cambodia into a book on Thailand? Especially an "essential" book, which is conceivably abridged? Anyway, it is up to typical Fodor's standards as of late, in that it has full color maps and pictures scattered throughout - Fodor's has become my favorite of the big brands for its tone and layout, and this book fits that same bill. This one does not include a pull-out map, which is fine with me. Great book for browsing and helping you with your trip. But Cambodia and Laos are awesome - they deserve enough attention to warrant their own books. Make this one smaller if it is an "essential" abridged version. By the way, I could have sworn I saw something that said this included Myanmar. That may have been just a description of what they were expecting to deliver or it could have been my imagination. But, regardless, it does not include Myanmar, in case you are wondering.