All the information you need from the Lonely Planet books is available online from their official website for free. This means you can access all of that great stuff on the road using a quick Google search – saving paper and valuable weight in your bags!
Jump to:
What’s the catch?
Well, there is no catch. Lonely Planet openly publish the information from their books on their website. Using the right key words, a quick Google search will provide you all the information you’re probably ever going to need on the road.
How to access this information?
To make the most of this hack, it’s probably worth investing in at least one book so you know how the information is laid out in print. It’s not quite as simple as copying and pasting the exact headings from the books either, Lonely Planet doesn’t make It that easy for us.
Example
Imagine you arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok and want to know how to get from the airport to the city. You could take the Lonely Planet Thailand book out of your bag and go to page 155, here you would find a section, To/from the airports, with a sub-section, Trains. This would detail how to get to and from Suvarnabhumi airport by train. That’s great, but we won’t be carrying books for every country we visit so let’s try another way.
Try it yourself, type in to Google – “Arriving in Bangkok Lonely Planet”. You will find the top search result is a page titled “Arriving in Bangkok” from the Lonely Planet website.
This web page lists the same key information contained under the section discussed above on page 155 of the Thailand book itself. Content on the web page it is listed under a slightly different heading and worded a little differently – but the information is the same. This web page lists the main station in the centre of Bangkok you probably want to aim for, train times, fare cost, and how long it will take. Replacing the word Bangkok with any other city in the world which Lonely Planet have researched provides the same results.
Endless possibilities
Lonely Planet cover such a wide range of topics – once you remember a couple of key words to use in your Google search you can access all of the information you are likely to ever need on the road. Try replacing “arriving in..”, to “best places to eat in..” or “getting around in..”. These web pages contain the same information as the books, opening hours, price ranges, and handy tips – it’s just online and available for free!
For some great apps you really should be using on the road, see 5 essential apps you need when travelling.
Disclaimer: This article may contain affiliate links, clicking through and paying for these products or services may result in this website getting a commission at no additional cost to you.
