Lonely Planet Antarctica: Travel Survival Kit

Just got back from Antarctica. You don't have much choice on guidebooks, but I felt this was really good. I read another one also. Several of my fellow travellers agreed. One person (and there is always one) thought it did not give you enough beyond the obvious information. Most of us felt we needed to know the obvious.

I am involved with a Canadian research group that takes high school students to Antarctica for research and study. The Lonely Planet Guide to Antarctica was sent to us by the group to use as a primary source for learning about and preparing for the trip. My daughter and I both utilized a copy of the book for advanced planning prior to her depature. She took a copy with her and I had a copy with me. I read the majority of the book while she was preparing and continued to consult the book while she traveled. I found it to have an amazing amount of information and I really could not find anything missing from the book that I thought I needed. In addition, my daughter found it incredibly useful as the ship she was aboard traveled from site to site. She could research the next stop at night, and be totally prepared for arrival by morning. If you are planning to get only one guide book for a trip to Antarctica, I would recommend this book highly. Small enough to take with you in your carry on, yet large enough to be able to answer almost any question you can imagine!

This book from Lonely Planet is, as always, the ultimate choice of guidebook for travelers. It provides excellent and up-to-date information which any type of traveler will find invaluable. Despite the fact that Antarctica is probably the least visited of the many regions of the world covered by LP, the authors have managed to put together an outstanding agglomeration of data and advice, well edited and excellently written. But... furthermore, on top of being an excellent travel book, this LP guide is also (like many other LP guides, but even more outstandingly) a great book about Antarctica's reality: the place itself, the peculiar or unique characters of this wonderful land, etc. Truly wonderful material is provided in this book, ensuring excellent reading for the armchair traveler, or the Antarctica beginner alike. Its many chapters and additional text boxes about a variety of topics, contain and provide extremely rich information on matters from history to politics, from geography to biology. All in all, a masterpiece.

Lonely Planet have been setting the standards for travel guide-books for a number of years now.Jeff Rubin's guide-book to Antarctica is a treasure, first of all because guide-books on Antarctica are still very rare indeed, secondly because it is exhaustively comprehensive in its detail and yet so readable.Antarctica is a unique place. The last true wilderness remaining on earth. A land where diverse and warring nations co-exist together to work, study and explore in peace. A land where Man can watch Mother Nature act alone, undisturbed. The highest, windiest, driest continent and yet the one containing the most water. Jeff Rubin gives profound insights on this last continent, this last true frontier. This book is packed with facts about history, geology as well as environmental issues (by Dr.Maj de Porteer) and antarctic science (by Dr.David Walton).This book also contains a wildlife guide with more than sixty entries packed with pictures and with information essential for those who want to go and observe the wilderness of Antarctica.Practical tips on when, how and with whom to go is both up to date, independent and as complete as one can get. Plenty of information on the main Antarctic gateways is also provided as well as my most treasured part of the book - the chapter on the Sub-Antarctic Islands packed with information which is very diffuclt to find anywhere else with details on such isolated islands like Bouvetoya - the most isolated land on earth, Ile Crozet, Ile Kerguelen and many many others. There are more than 20 maps in this book including, believe it or not, a map of non-existent islands. Throughout his book Rubin adds boxed text which provide to-the-point information on varied subjects ranging from Helicopter Safety, Taking Photos in Antarctica, Why one should not collect anything from Antarctica, Glaciology, the Aurora Australis and How to cope with isolation. It is a pity that Rubin does not deal with such sensitive issues such as the exploration of the undergroung lake Vostok and attempts by many groups to ban sampling from this lake so as to avoid contamination.A selection of photos is also present in this book, although unfortuantely not even one new photo has been added when compared to the first edition.This book is a must for all those who are going to Antarctica as well for all those are interested in Antarctica but who do not have the good fortune, or the necessary finances to go to the most beautiful place on earth in person. Instead through Jeff Rubin one can practice on a regular basis armchair tourism. The only pity is that here in Malta the temperature is 35 degress Celsius. To feel truly there, I need a 2 metre tall freezer so as to at least feel what is it like to be in a very hot Antarctican summer day!

If you plan a trip to The Ice, you will find this book invaluable. If you do not, you will find it fascinating, and it will make you want to go. In addition to all manner of practical advice for travelers, it is packed with thorough and interesting history of the continent, its wildlife, its geography, and also contains tempting suggestions for further non-fiction and fiction reading, films and videos, and even CD's. It is written with grace and humor, and contains really useful maps and charts. (How about that map of "Non-Existent Islands"!) Highest recommendation.