Arabian Peninsula

Lonley Planet almost always publishes excellent travel guides and this book is no exception. I used it in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman and found it of the usually excellent standard of the Lonley Plant series.

Lonely Planet provides a summary of important information for travelers to Arab countries. It is set up similarly to other Lonely Planet travel guides that includes getting started, possible itineraries for different length trips, history, culture, food, environment and information on expats who are a large part of the population in the area.

I've used "Arabian Peninsula" on trip to five Gulf countries: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and Oman. The only country in which the book led me astray and caused inconvenience was in Qatar. Things are changing so quickly in Qatar that it isn't surprising that the guides are out of date. There's now a city bus service in Doha (which unfortunately goes nowhere near the airport), and a huge Museum of Islamic Art is nearing completion on the Corniche. The book is correct in saying you can get your Qatar visa upon arrival at the airport, but they don't warn you that payment of the visa fee (under US$20) is by credit card only (cash not accepted). In the Doha section, the guide says "some budget hotels are not suitable for, nor will they accept, solo women travelers. The hotels listed below are the exceptions to this rule." Well, that's all fine and dandy, but as a solo male traveler, I'd have liked to have been told which perfectly acceptable (and much cheaper) Doha hotels were available to men. And since politically correct Lonely Planet doesn't care to say, here they are: Doha Hotel, Golden Hotel, and Doha Tower Hotel all behind the Gold Souq, and the Hotel Inter-Diplomat near the National Museum. All these charge about 50 percent less than the cheapest hotel listed in "Arabian Peninsula". And yes, I didn't see women in any of them. Contrary to what's in the guide, you can now get your Kuwait visa at the airport and a hotel booking is not required. I ended up staying at the Safari House Motel near the bus station in Kuwait City as the cheaper Al-Bahrain Hotel in the market area was full. In Dubai I came across another example of Lonely Planet-style bias. This book raves about the rather mediocre Jumeira Mosque, but fails to mention the very interesting Dubai Zoo just a 10-minute walk away. Yes, the enclosures are too small, but if that's the problem, why not list the zoo and say so? It's probably the only chance budget travelers will have to see many endangered Arabian animals. Is Lonely Planet trying to pressure the Dubai authorities into moving their zoo to some remote location inaccessible to most of their readers? It grates when a guidebook consciously makes choices like these for its readers. Anyway, I'd like to note here that I felt perfectly safe in all four Gulf countries I visited, and that virtually everyone I met was very friendly and helpful. It's an interesting area, and this handy little book will certainly see you through.

It's not easy to write reviews of travel books- they don't lend themselves to the task as well as a good novel. I am not so much judging the quality of the writing as I am the quality of the research. It is doubly hard to write a review of a travel book that covers six different countries. It is hard to visit all the places- being that, with the possible exception of North Korea, some of these countries are the hardest ones in the world to visit. So I am of necessity limiting my review to those countries which I did visit, and thus the review will be unable to cover the entire book. I found the information on Dubai extremely helpful. I was there for only one day, but was able to use the information provided to find a cheap place to stay ($35 in Dubai ) and make my way to that center of Emirati culture, the mall. The provided maps were accurate and extremely detailed, allowing me to make my way around the center of the city with ease, and stated distances precise. Prices after a year were still relatively the same as those quoted in the book. Not so in Yemen, where I spent the bulk of my time. This is not due to any fault of Lonely Planet, but rather to the extreme rate of change in that country. At the time of printing in 2004 there were 185 Yemeni Riyal to the dollar; it's now closer to 195. Generally, for travel purposes I found that I needed to multiply amounts listed in Lonely Planet by 150% to get the going rate- and, living in Morocco, I know how to bargain for a good price. This was not trying to take advantage of a tourist, but simply the price of inflation. Bus fares, running at 20-40 Riyal, remained the same. As Lonely Planet states, the way to get into the country has changed numerous times over the past few years, as have travel restrictions. So it is now possible for EU and American citizens to get Visas at the airport- though those at the local Yemeni embassy insisted I needed an engraved invitation from a resident of the country in order to enter Yemen. I repeatedly found knowledge of the more up to date laws lacking in different segments of the Yemeni authorities. The police on one day told me it was no problem to travel to Shibam Hadremowt without a travel permit. A couple days later they had changed their minds, and not even chewing qat with the police chief for two hours could convince him otherwise. But he told me that I could fly there instead. I flew there, but the local airline neglected to mention that the airport there is closed indefinitely, and rerouted me without my permission to a different location, from where I had to pay for a taxi to travel 5 hours across the Hadremowt. For which I needed a travel permit, despite that the police in the capitol saying a permit is no longer necessary for that area. And, this is important, for Lonely Planet does not mention it, it turns out you need a travel permit in order to leave an area as well- the same travel permit you took to get there doesn't count. If you are withou