Lonely Planet Solomon Islands: Travel Survival Kit

This is the last edition of Lonely Planet's Solomon Islands guide. It has not been updated since the mid-90es, and has in theory been replaced by the publisher's 2005 "Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands" guide, which in reality only devotes fewer than 30 pages to the Solomon Islands, completely ignoring half the country's provinces, concentraiting on Honiara and a few popular tourist spots instead. This edition (or the nearly identical 2nd edition), in contrast, covers the entire archipelago in amazing detail, all the way from the Treasury Islands in the West to the remote Polynesian outliers of Tikopia and Anuta in the East. Each major province and island is described in good detail, and is shown on a good map. Needless to say, some things have changed - however in the Solomons they have probably changed much less than in most of the rest of the World! I travelled in the country in 2005, and found myself using this book almost all the time, with the then brand new PNG & Solomons guide quickly buried to the depths of my backpack. If you want to actually travel around this least visited corner of Melanesia, rather than just have a short holiday on a resort island in Western province, and especially if exploring remote islands and hiking remote mountains and shorelines is your thing, this book is definitely the one to take. It is also highly recommended for those with a general interest in the country, as travel practicalities apart, the background info on the culture, geography and fauna of the Solomons is still better than I have found in any other single book.