Korean Job Discussion Forums

jennad · Joined: 02 Dec 2010 Location: San Diego

I've looked on amazon, and the Frommer's guidebook got terrible reviews. The Lonely Planet guide got mixed reviews.

Has anyone found a great guide book?

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Umm, for what area of the world? LP and Rough Guides are the most consistent and cover the most places I think.

jennad · Joined: 02 Dec 2010 Location: San Diego

jc1257 · Joined: 22 Aug 2010

I really like the Lonely Planet guide book for Korea and it's less than a year old. I'm not sure what the publication date on the Rough Guides book is. I have used the Moon guide book, and haven't found it all that great.

That being said, if you are living here for a year or more, why not bring two. They include different information and I have found both useful at various times.

As for the reviews, Amazon doesn't update the reviews when a new edition comes out, so any reviews written prior to last summer aren't for the current edition.

ktkates87 · Joined: 13 Apr 2010 Location: Busan

If you're anti-torrent, ignore this comment. If you search btjunkie.org or isohunt.com for "frommer" or "lonely planet" you can basically download any guide from anywhere in the world-- there is quite a list of books available. I plan on actually buying the book for when I travel but it's nice to be able to to read them in advance and do some comparing.

Yaya · Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Location: Seoul

I've used both Lonely Planet and Rough Guides and I have to say the former is more complete and exhaustive. I bought a copy of the Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget and it was not nearly as good or complete as the same guide published by Lonely Planet.

bossface · Joined: 05 Aug 2006

i like the Moon book for. i saw another indie book, wish i could remember the name, it was at Kyobo Books at Times Square Mall, but it was the best i've seen.

the Frommer's Korea is horrible.

as for Lonely Planet - i'm generally a big LP fan. in fact, i've bought each of their last three Korea books. however, i find their Korea book to be lacking. i don't recommend it.

on the most recent Korea LP book - it was released in the spring of 2010. yet, when i traveled around Korea in the summer of 2010, many bars and restaurants they listed had long been closed. most of their "drinking" recommendations are coffee shops. i don't need a guide book to tell me Holly's Coffee is, i'm perfectly capable of swinging a dead cat myself. perhaps most ridiculously, Korea re-numbered its major freeways in the early 2000s or so, and the latest Lonely Planet still uses maps with the old numbering.

mmstyle · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Location: wherever

LP has lost my vote due to a recent trip with one of their books. It was a brand new edition, said it was freshly researched and updated, and when we asked at our hotel about a restaurant that LP recommended, turns out it had closed about 3 years before. Even if the woman who told us this was off by a bit, that's a huge margin!