Seoul (City Guide) | 
|  | | | Title: | Seoul (City Guide) | | Author: | Martin Robinson | | Publisher: | Lonely Planet | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 01 June, 2006 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1740598466 / 9781740598460 | | List Price: | $19.99 | | You Save: | $6.40 | | Amazon Price: | $13.59 | |
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Product Description
Experience Seoul, Asia’s most intriguing city. Tour the grand royal palaces. Sing yourself hoarse in a noraebang (karaoke room). Stuff yourself with hearty beef and vegetable bibimbap. Indulge in exquisite traditional tea shops. This authoritative, bestselling guidebook will take you to the heart of Korea’s captivating capital.
Eliminate The Guesswork – opinionated hotel reviews make the decisions easy.
Shop Your Socks Off – reviews and tips take you to the city’s best traditional markets, glitzy malls, boutiques and galleries.
Discover the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) – we take you on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the formidable and fascinating North–South border.
Feast Like A King – eating reviews serve up the city’s finest Korean fare, from spicy tofu and barbeque to Korean fusion and Hanjeongsik banquets.
Navigate through nameless streets with our clear and detailed maps – complete with hangeul (Korean script).
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Customer Reviews:
• Completely Weak 03 June, 2007
This is one of the only travel books on Seoul that is easy to get. I have taken it with me on three trips to Seoul so far, and have found it almost useless. I got a better idea of places to visit from the map I got from the hotel and searching the internet than I did from this guide.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3UBEDDFVNWG0S
• Stay Away. 16 October, 2007
After reading the negatives reviews for this book, I went to B&N to judge for myself. Conclusion, stay away. That is all that I have to say....I can't really add upon the negative comments herein, yet that they are indeed valid.
That's all.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2U2P1D7TWV2HV
• Buy This As The Last Resort 16 September, 2007
Lonely Planet's guides are getting worse to worst, especially for Asia. I wish they would stop employing solely former English teachers as writers, since alot of them dont know the local language very well or at all. Hello LP, ever thought of asking a Korean American/Australian/Canadian to write for your Korea guide? There are people in the world who are truly bilingual, binational. . . . and would be able to 'guide' better than a foreigner guiding other foreigners.
I bought the Seoul book because unfortunately there weren't many options out there for English speakers, but actually the Tourist offices in Seoul has better information and it's free.
The maps in the book are confusing; when you are on the streets looking for places there are street names but on the map there are not. It would help to if LP would include the places' names in Korean 'Han Gue' since LP's phonetic are not 100% anyway, and if you want to ask a Korean for help then it's better to have it written in Korean. The language section could use a couple more phrases like like 'not to spicy please.' The Seoul book is out of date, lots of places went out of bussiness. I also bought LP's Korea book and it has more up-to date info. Since all the writers in both guides are males, information for women travellers is pitiful. The layout is confusing and not easy to find, I had buy post-it tabs for different sections otherwise it would take more time find it again. THis is not a concised guide, there are two many overlaps, like there are two sections on food, but in the food glossary doesn't have some of the names of food mentioned elsewhere that takes up a whole paragraph.So buy this guide if English is the only language you can read.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1D1QCEX7RE4ZZ
• Needs Reworking 10 March, 2007
Lonely Planet Seoul is poorly organized and riddled with inaccuracies; unfortunately it is the only comprehensive, recent Seoul guide (in English) on the market. I used the book to get an overview of Seoul, but shockingly, found the tourist information office maps and guides more useful and accurate. The website Seoul Style offers much more interesting eating, entertainment, and shopping suggestions, but very occasionally I'll refer to the Lonely Planet for further ideas.
The book ought to be organized by neighborhood rather than subject; it's aggravating to visit an area of Seoul and flip between different chapters, looking for the two inches of print on a given activity in a particular area. Other Lonely Planet and Fodor's guides usually integrate all suggestions by neighborhood and accurately portray those suggestions onto maps. One can get an overview of the different areas when the descriptions are integrated, especially if the author writes an introductory paragraph about a neighborhood's feel; to Robinson, it seems that places are just places, with no 'there' there. In reality, each area of Seoul does have a unique feel and meaning.
In the LP Seoul guide, the maps' numbered descriptions are often mis-categorized (e.g., under 'Shopping' the author suggests the bookstore Seoul Selection, but when you look for the location on the map, it is listed under 'Entertainment'; when poring through dozens of suggestions in tiny font, it is frustrating to check all the categories to compensate for his carelessness). The layout and selection of maps in general is mediocre, and leave little sense of the scale or organization of Seoul; for instance, Robinson devotes two pages of maps to Jamsil to depict just a few activities, and leaves the bottom half of those two pages devoid of suggestion, but gives the large, very happening area of Gangnam / Apjugong just one page. Adjacent Cheongdam, which a favorite hangout for younger Koreans and in 'feel' and location is much closer to Apjugong, he places on the Jamsil map, but doesn't provide any activities.
The transliteration between Hangul and English is frequently bizarre, which makes it difficult to decipher the names of neighborhoods and places. It is better to use the Tourist Maps (in other cities I've never relied on tourist maps, but Seoul is different), for the transliteration and neighborhood names are more commonly understood by Koreans. His language guide is also transliterated ineffectually; a traveler trying to follow his phonetics would never be understood by a Korean. For vowels pronounced 'e' he writes 'i'; the number 1 is correctly pronounced like eel; he writes 'il', which is perfect if he means the French pronunciation of 'il'; same for 2: pronounced e, he writes i - again, great for French, but he's transliterating to English, so it's wrong.
LP Seoul needs to be rewritten by a very organized, clear thinker who possesses a current understanding of Seoul and Hangul-English translation, yet who recalls the needs of a first-time visitor to this dynamic city.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2LB0DEFYNDCF9
• Seoul City Guide 04 June, 2008
Great book! Very informative and very helpful. Definitely taking it with me to the city to use. It is small and convenient for packing and carrying.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1MYKFYPSP31IF
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