Lonely Planet Discover Canada (Full Color Country Travel Guide) Review

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Lonely Planet Discover Canada (Full Color Country Travel Guide) ReviewLonely Planet (LP) has introduced a new line of guidebooks, the Discover series, including this one. To me they seem similar to the DK Eyewitness series - lots of color photographs, less text, attractively designed, glossy paper, usually one topic per open pair of pages, but that one topic is covered quite well. Color is used for the edges of pages, to make it easy to find a section for the part of the country you are visiting. Overall the graphic design and use of color of whitespace lends both excitement and useability to the guide.
Unfortunately, there appears to be confusion about this new LP series. Although each LP Discover so far covers one country, it does NOT replace LP Country Guides. Some people have bought it thinking it is a new look for an updated country guide and are not happy with it - "This is horrible, this is like a travel advertisement, I'll never buy another LP again, etc.". Needless to say, it is not for everyone. Fortunately, you have a lot of choices in the best guide for YOU, so...
WHICH IS THE RIGHT GUIDE FOR YOU?
There are LOTS of guides available for Canada. LP has a "Shoestring" guide providing an overview of all of USA and Canada, the LP Canada Country Guide, LP Discover Canada, and guides for individual regions and cities. DK Eyewitness has a guide with lots of pictures (comparable to LP Discover Canada), then there is Frommers, Rough Guide, Moon, and others. A good way to decide which is best for you is to visit your local library; different guides suit different purposes.
Obviously, the more territory covered in a given guide, the less material there will be on each location you want to visit. If you plan to visit Montreal and Quebec City only, you will find the most information on those cities in the city guide dedicated to them. If you want to visit PEI, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia only, you will find more info in the regional guide for those provinces than in any other guide.
COMPARISONS
Suppose you want to visit Quebec City only:
Lonely Planet USA & Canada on a Shoestring has almost 4 pages total of mostly text, briefly mentions or describes 15 sights in 2/3 of one page, 8 places to eat, 4 places to stay.
Lonely Planet Canada (Country Travel Guide) has 15+ pages total of text or maps (and another 4 pages for nearby areas), 30 sights described on 7 pages, 17 places to eat, 14 places to stay.
Lonely Planet Discover Canada (Full Color Country Travel Guide), THIS guide has 13 pages with lots of pictures and therefore less text, 15 sights in 4 1/2 pages, 7 places to eat, 5 places to stay.
Lonely Planet Montreal & Quebec City Encounter has 37 pages on the Quebec City (and another 10 for nearby areas), 28 sights on 11 pages (and a list of children's sights), 28 places to stay (and a handful outside of the city), and 42 restaurants.
Canada (DK Eyewitness Travel Guides)has 18 pages, 18 sights on 9 pages (with lots of photos and some maps), 4 places to stay, 4 places to eat.
Considering all of Canada:
LP Canada USA Shoestring 2005 has only 81 pages for Canada; at 740 pages total, it clearly has a focus on USA.
LP Canada Country Guide has 910 pages covering all provinces
LP Discover Canada has 384 pages of the most visited places
DK Canada has 448 pages focusing on the most visited places but with some coverage of all provinces
LP Discover Canada and LP Canada Country Guide each include a pull-out map for Vancouver City.
COMMENTS
I really like the LP Discover series as a way to get to know a place I am thinking about visiting, and to decide how much time to spend there. It is quite similar to the DK guides for these purposes.
However, when it comes to a guide to bring with me, I prefer LP Canada Country Guide, or if available, a regional or city guide, because they have more information that I might need, especially if my plans have to change. I tend to prefer the LP guides because they are available for most places I want to visit and have a similar organization, making them easy for me to use.
LP Discover Canada does not cover all of Canada; instead, it focuses on the most visited areas. For example, Northwest Territories is mentioned in a boxed paragraph as a place to see the Northern Lights. Nunavit is not presented at all. But these places are very expensive to visit and often very cold, so they are not common destinations. If you want to go to these or other secondary destinations, get LP Canada (country guide).
LP Discover Canada could be used at least two ways:
1. For study before the trip to help you decide where you want to spend your time. For in depth information, bring one of the guides with more information to have with you there.
2. For a more casual trip, for example if you have less time or like to discover things for yourself or research on the Web, this guide will have the basics and some maps and may be all you need for your trip.
WHO, ME?
I have visited 49 countries, using Lonely Planet or rarely Rough Guide for most of them, for both work and holidays. I think travel guides are especially valuable for short visits, because you don't have time to explore. I have visited Canada about six times, mostly central/east.Lonely Planet Discover Canada (Full Color Country Travel Guide) Overview

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