Let's Go 2003: Israel

I've been living in Israel for about four months... saw this in my friend's room and fell in love with it! Seems to be very well-tied-in with the culture, pointing out interesting items "off the beaten path"... Never saw the Frommer's but in any case this is a whole heck of a lot better than the Rough Guide I bought. Anyway, I'm going to probably buy this.

My sister and I visited Israel for 2 weeks in June and I bought this book and she bought the Lonely Planet guide. After a few days we realized my book had better information, the details were more accurate, and it was generally more useful. If you only want to buy one book, at this point in time I'd recommend the Let's Go over the lonely planet.

The editorial staff of this fine work made my vacation in Israel a success. For the first two days I used Let's Go Middle East as my guide book. I figured I might want to venture beyond Israel so why limit myself by an Israel only travel guide. That was a mistake; those first two days were mediocre. Fortunately I found a copy of Let's Go Israel while in Israel. This book saved my vacation. Not only was it an enjoyable read (particularly the history) Let's Go Israel offered countless great ideas for things to do. After investigating why Let's Go Israel was so helpful, I learned that the book was a success due to the outstanding efforts of Editor Laura Weinrib. Thank you Laura Weinrib and the let's go staff, you made my vacation one I will never forget!

The researchers and everyone else who contributed to this book did a mediocre job at best, but everything was pulled together so incredibly well by the head editor that you should buy this book even if you never intend to travel. I used to wonder how the beautiful Ms. Weinrib ever got into Harvard, but the reasons are obvious with this truly landmark work. Without question, this volume will change the face of travel guides forever. I was deeply moved, and on the edge of my chair the entire read. Thank you, Laura Weinrib, from the bottom of my heart.

seriously, this is the best and most comprehensive guide to israel out there. a lot of people travel in the country, and so there are a lot of guide books available to the country, but all you need is this one. it was very thorough (the jerusalem section was amazing!), and it listed the cheapest places to eat and sleep and it had great places to visit--i mean really awesome and fascinating places that they described in great detail and gave the background of. i also liked the fact that they included day trips to petra (this awesome sight in jordan) and the sinai peninsula of egypt (i did some great scuba diving there, and for cheap, too, because they had these really budget but incredibly safe (safer than even the upscale scuba places, so i heard from a friend of mine) sites). the only thing i wish could be changed in the book is that it was a little bit funnier. i traveled to israel after visiting the rest of the middle east and i used let's go middle east, and that book was as accurate and helpful and wonderful as israel, but it was really so funny! SO funny! It had an israel section, too, which would have served me as well as the let's go israel book. i just bought the israel book because people on the road kept saying "oh i see you have the new middle east book from let's go, we have the other new let's go book, for israel," and it was awesome. i recommend this book to anyone and everyone as the best guide to the country--you will thank yourself 8000 million times over if you buy this book (and only this book--all that stuff about people needing like multiple guide books is a lie--you need this book and this book alone for travel in israel; if you want to go travel in the area, pick up a middle east guide, too, you'll be thanking yourself for that too, and laughing really hard because it is REALLY funny!). that's right, go out and buy both books right now!