The new format Caribbean Islands book has no information on where to stay if you actually care about money. No dangers and annoyance section sadly absent as Haiti is one of the included countries that... See more
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Used to be my go to guides for all travels. Easy to read, easy to find the information needed. Sadly the new format is just so bad that the guide books are completely useless. So very disappointe... See more
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Unfortunately there is a lot of information missing, incorrect information, and a new layout which just does not work and is more confusing than helpful. Incredibly disappointing, considering I ha... See more
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I share the frustration of so many reviewers about Lonely Planet guides. They are useless compared to the old format. I have solved the problem by buying excellent (like new) pre 2018 volumes on eba... See more
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Company details
Written by the company
Love travel? Discover, plan and book your perfect trip with expert advice, travel guides, destination information and inspiration from Lonely Planet. We publish travel guides, ebooks, phrasebooks, a range of gift, food and children's titles.
Contact info
United Kingdom
- www.lonelyplanet.com
1.5
Bad
330 reviews
Replied to 100% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 1 week
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Items never arrived.
Ordered 2 books from Lonely Planet. Waited over a week (despite paying for first class delivery at an extortionate £6 with no tracking) before contacting customer services. They assured me the products will have been dispatched and to continue waiting although they couldn't confirm with the warehouse as couldnt find the information, not the greatest of help....
Then out of the blue they sent me a refund (even though I didn't request one). The books still never arrived so clearly had not been dispatched like they originally stated.
Will never shop with again.
October 21, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Danny!
Thank you for taking the time to write this review. We do apologize for the issues with your order.
An issue occurred with how data was submitted to the shipper we use from the warehouse we use.
As soon as we uncovered this issue we notified all customers.
From our end, it did look like orders has processed. Once again, we do apologize for the inconveniences with this. We are working now to make sure this does not happen again.
Thanks again!
Jana
Lonely Planet Shop Customer Support
Have been waiting for a refund for the…
Have been waiting for a refund for the subscription money taken from my bank account after the magazine was stopped. Keep being passed from pillar to post with continual promises it's being sorted. It clearly isn't.
Over a month now and many many calls and emails. Very poor customer service
July 14, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Carole!
Thanks for your message!
We here at Lonely Planet do not handle the subscriptions, but we will be happy to help get your refund.
Do you recall who you purchased the subscription from?
Buy Subscriptions is where most subscriptions originated from. They notified us that all subscribers should have received communication advising them of their options.
If you did purchase through them, you can contact them via: www.buysubscriptions.com/LP-customer and complete the ‘Contact Us’ form to contact their customer services. Please supply your Subscription Number to help them process your request. This is a 10-digit number, beginning with a 4.
If you purchased through Google Play please contact them here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.magazines
If you purchased through Apple, please contact them here:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb
We do hope that helps!
If you still receive no answer please email is at shop@lonelyplanet.com and we will be happy to dig deeper on this for you.
Thanks!
Lonely Planet Support Team
Terrible
Terrible. First time purchasing a book here. It has been over a month and they still have not shipped it. Been emailing them back and forth but they still will not send it. They say they have no control over the factories that hold the books. Asked to speak with a supervisor or manager and have been completely ignored. So right now I’m out $40.
June 18, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Eric,
Thank you for taking the time to write a review here.
We do apologize for the delay in getting your other book shipped out.
One of your books has been delivered, and the other is still awaiting shipment. The other book is not in our top titles, so that is the reason for the delay.
Here is the reason for the delay:
Our warehouse has made the decision to move to an emergency Social Distance Operating (SDO) model. Long term this new model will ensure that valued staff will be able to continue in their jobs in an environment that puts their health and safety first.
What this means is that we are focusing our efforts on shipping out orders for high demand titles and latest releases first. We do expect this to change in the coming weeks, but in the meantime you might find you receive two parcels.
This is detailed further on our website here:
https://shop.lonelyplanet.com/pages/deals
As mentioned in my last email to you, we refunded you as a courtesy for the book not yet delivered.
If you need anything else, feel free to reply to the email chain.
Thank you!
Jana
Lonely Planet Online Shop Support
Tragic Demise Of A Favourite Magazine
I was a subscriber of Lonely Planet magazine for the last six years and always enjoyed the read but sadly the magazine is no more a victim apparently of the Coronovirus pandemic.
May 25, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Gary!
Thanks for your message regarding the Lonely Planet magazine.
You are correct that the magazine has ceased publishing.
Distribution of the magazine is handled by a third party company called Buy Subscriptions. They notified us that all subscribers should have received communication advising them of their options.
You can request a refund with them by May 31, 2020 or have your subscription transferred to National Geographic.
They will need to be notified of your choice.
Their email is lonelyplanet@buysubscriptions.com
If you need anything else, please let us know!
Thank you for your support!
Lonely Planet Feedback Team
Where is my magazine???
After buying a subscription (and money has been deducted from my bank), i still have not received an issue which was due to be released 30th April then 14 may????
May 19, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Sally!
Thanks for reaching out on this!
Here is an update on your inquiry regarding the magazine:
The Lonely Planet magazine has ceased publishing.
Distribution of the magazine is handled by a third party company called Buy Subscriptions. They notified us that all subscribers should have received communication advising them of their options.
You can request a refund with them by May 31, 2020 or have your subscription transferred to National Geographic.
They will need to be notified of your choice.
Their email is lonelyplanet@buysubscriptions.com
If you need anything else, please let us know!
Thank you for your support!
Lonely Planet Feedback Team
Well-structured info, needs some updates
I have been planning my trips based on LP travel guides over the last few years, and generally, they have provided well-structured useful information. After reading some reviews on various platforms, I double-check whether the restaurants I had picked from the guide are still open, and, well, some of them are closed. But overall experience with tips on places of interest and eating out is great. I have never used LP guides for accommodation, though, as I prefer to look this up online.
April 21, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Sue,
Thank you for your feedback and for using our travel guides.
Sorry to hear that some of the restaurants included in the guidebook were closed.
We really do appreciate the time that it takes to write to us and want you to know that it's very helpful to receive the type of feedback you have provided.
Thanks!
Lonely Planet Feedback team
Lonely Planet guides are now archaic, do your own research
Bought the GB guide when visiting Derby UK, and found that a lot of places had been closed for at least couple of years and found some great Asian restaurants not even listed! A very lazy compilation, must have been done remotely by someone on an internship! Then we bought a LP guide to Southern Indian when visiting Puducherry, and what a waste of money that was, again a lot of restaurants omitted.
My advice is dispense with these expensive "guide books" and do your own research on the internet, you can find all the local cultural attractions, restaurants and bars, and talk to the locals. Good hunting!
April 11, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Nina,
Sorry to hear that you've been disappointed by some of the listings included in these guidebooks. I've shared your complaint with our Publishing team, so they can take your comments into consideration when they work on the next editions of our Great Britain and South India & Kerala travel guides.
Our writers visit every single place they choose to list in our guidebooks (and on our website), so they will reconsider every listing for each new edition and hand-pick the places they think best deserve to be listed.
Lonely Planet Feedback team
Scammed after trusting Lonely Planet recommendation on travel insurance with World Nomads
Scammed after following Lonely Planet's recommendation to get travel insurance with World Nomads. World Nomads turned out to be a scam insurance company as they do not reply to emails and claim that they never received and emails for documentation that they asked in order to commence the claim. They just keep asking for the email and documents and you have no choice but to keep sending them the same things until probably you just give up.
Shame on you Lonely Planet.
And avoid World Nomads at all costs.
March 21, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Dear Julian,
We're really sorry to hear that you felt scammed after buying World Nomads insurance. We have worked with World Nomads for many years and they are a reputable and reliable insurer who share many of the same values as us at Lonely Planet. That said, we're always keen to know about travellers' experiences of using our third-party recommended services, so we will make sure to share this with the Travel Bookings team, as we assess our relationship going forward.
Bad recommendations on their travel Guides
Lonely planet can not recommend places to eat and drink on their travel Guides unless they’re trustful. With this I reference for example to Fernando’s Bar In Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) guide just to mention one. Worst place I ever been and recommended by Lonely planet.
February 27, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Guillermo,
Sorry to hear that you've been disappointed by some of our recommended places to eat and drink. I've shared your complaint about Fernando's Bar with our Publishing team, so they can bear this in mind when it comes to updating our Sri Lanka content for the next edition.
Our writers visit every single place they choose to list in our guidebooks (and on our website), so they will reconsider every listing for each new edition and hand-pick the places they think best deserve to be listed.
We hope you found the rest of the guidebook helpful and that you had an amazing time overall in Sri Lanka.
Lonely Planet Feedback team
Rip off
Had a £20 gift card. Tried to purchase a £15 travel guide.. total came to £19.95 including shipping.
Website only takes the gift off the product and still tried to charge us £4.95 for delivery.
Queried this with customer service who said I will have to pay shipping despite having enough on the gift card to cover it...
£4.95 seems a bit steep for delivery of a book if you ask me.
Would not recommend and I will not be using this website in the future.
February 17, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Rebecca!
Thank you for your feedback on this.
I double checked and you are correct, the voucher you used only applies to products. This is per the company who set up the voucher.
How about an ebook so you don't have to pay for shipping? Plus, you can get started planning for your trip right away! Also, one less thing to pack!
Let me know if you have any further questions on this offer. We will be happy to help!
Thanks,
Lonely Planet Customer Support
Lonely planet has provided excellent…
Lonely planet has provided excellent help in recovering two ebooks I bought a couple of years ago.
January 21, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Maurice,
Thank you for taking the time to write this review.
We appreciate your support and we thank you for your past purchase of digital guidebooks!
If you need anything else, please let us know!
Thanks again,
Lonely Planet Shop Customer Support
Rip Off, Don't purchase.
20% discount does not work at checkout. Don't use.
January 4, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
LittleLad,
So sorry to hear you had trouble using a promotion code!
Our current sale is buy 3 for the price of 2 (and will change weekly.) The shopping cart will compare the best deal, so if you entered a code that was less than the cost of a free book, it will not accept it.
Or, perhaps you are using a code that has since expired.
We will be happy to look into this further for you.
Please feel free to email us at shop@lonelyplanet.com and let us know what code you used and we will be happy to help you out!
Thanks and Happy Travels!
Shop Customer Support
Fantastic job when my books won't come…
Fantastic job when my books won't come on time for my trip. The support gave me an alternative and my girlfriend as more than happy about it. Thank you and happy holidays
December 20, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hristo,
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us.
Happy to hear we provided a solution for your trip!
Happy Holidays and Happy Travels!
Lonely Planet Online Shop Support Team
Lonely Planet suggests Tripmate for…
Lonely Planet suggests Tripmate for insurance. DONT DO IT!! They require all documentation of doctors visits and recommendations even if you are deathly ill on your trip. WASTER OF MONEY!!
November 24, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Dear Brian,
I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Tripmate. Tripmate is one of the global companies our recommended travel insurance provider World Nomads uses, to make sure they can cover travellers worldwide.
We will make sure to pass your feedback on to the team who handles Lonely Planet's relationship with them.
Lonely Planet really so good?
Latest comments meanwhile 2 years ago. It became mainstream, no critics allowed whencadvising on Destinations. As an example (one of it) Namibia. Swakop full of Tourist, touring on a high level. But there is another side. People without jobs, and of course mainly black people, begging and also a a slumside. A shame for a little city like this. Lonely Planet missed out on sustainable footprints while travelling
November 21, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Dear Doris,
I'm really sorry you feel our guidebooks have become mainstream. We do our utmost to ensure that we include more off-the-beaten track places to visit and stay, as well as information about the top sights that people expect to see. We also make sure to always tell it like it is, and include details about both good and bad aspects of a place, plus more background about the living and economic situations of local people.
We've always focused on sustainable and responsible travel, but this is becoming more of a core part of what we do, and you'll see this reflected in more of our current and future content.
Exceptional Blue Haven Tours
Exceptional Blue Haven Tours - for any kind of tailor made tours in Sri Lanka !
September 17, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Linton,
Thank you for your review and for using Lonely Planet to find a tour through one of our third party partners!
Great to hear you enjoyed the experience in Sri Lanka!
Happy Travels!
Lonely Planet
LP Customer Service is great!
LP Customer Service is great!
I reached out to LP customer service after losing my phone with all my digital LP guides on it. They were extremely responsive and dedicated to help me (no auto-reply/machine support). The same day I was provided with up-to date versions of previous orders, where download links had expired in the meantime. I did not expect such level of support and am extremely pleased.
Thank you!
August 7, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
David,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write a review about your experience!
We hope you enjoy your updated guides!
If you need anything else, please reach out. We will be happy to assist!
Happy Travels!
Jana
Lonely Planet
Customer service - digital copies
I had an issue with not being able to access an old digital lonely planet I had bought in Dec 2015, I emailed customer service not really expecting anything but they were amazing. Within 30 minutes they sent me new digital copies (updated versions 2018 editions) of all 3 books that were on my original order. Excellent customer service (thank you Vera who handled the query)
May 1, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Aisling,
Thank you for taking the time to write this review!
We understand that sometimes devices or links from old orders can be lost.
I hope you enjoy the updated ebooks! I will also share your comments with Vega!
Thanks again,
Jana
Lonely Planet
Change the World
I had an amazing conversation yesterday, with one of your travel writers, here in Thailand. More specifically we discussed Lonely Planets pivotal role in the travel community, and for us personally, some 25 years ago and since.
Unfortunately, due to the rise of anonymous review sites, such at TripAdvisor, and Google of course, Lonely Planet has been to some extent left out in the cold. I am a photographer, I own a photo gallery and restaurant as well as a marine water sports and tour guide company in Thailand. Like me, everyone I know in the travel industry, from across the globe are rather tired of being held at ransom by people who may have an axe to grind, and from their comfy sofas remain anonymous, while freely attacking and clearly hoping to damage our life's work.
Lonely Planet stands out in this regard largely due to your people in the field collecting objective and professional outlooks on the people out here who are trying to get by and make a difference. However due to the inescapable fact that people are addicted to having their egos stroked these review sites have won out.
It is here that I believe you, at Lonely Planet, are in a unique position to take on these behemoths directly. It is time that you also opened up your site for travellers reviews, of all businesses that wish to be there, alongside and in parallel to, your existing platform. The key here however is to stop the anonymity, people should be accountable should they wish to leave good, bad or indifferent reviews that can affect other people's lives so dramatically. Obviously there is no need to publish details of your members for their own privacy but every reviewer should be connected to a Facebook account, for example, to negate the ability of fake reviews, something so prevalent on TripAdvisor.
I don't believe you should expect to steal the whole market but definitely the well travelled generations who grew up with Lonely Planet will be straight on board. Also should you promote the site as being free of anonymous and therefore fake, reviews, I believe you will instigate a change in other platforms, who will shake in their boots at the notion of being exposed as corrupted as they seem to be.
Keep doing what you do but it's time to move forward. You are the only company in the world placed to take on this great task as your name is already household and synonymous with great integrity in the travel community.
Take a stand and you will once again become the world's leading travel resource, as well as an extremely lucrative platform, we will finally have an online review site that people can trust and believe in. There are many of us who feel this way, TA is used as a weapon by many sad lonely souls and there is no human connection, nobody out here talking to us, you have a chance to change all of that, a chance to change the world for the better.
Please give this some thought, the genuine businesses of the world will get behind you, we already are and we are ready.
April 25, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Chris,
Thank you so much for taking the time to contact us on this topic.
You have presented great insight into the review process and how this can affect the decision of travelers.
I will be happy to forward your comments over to my direct supervisors.
I would also recommend sharing your thoughts on our message board Thorn Tree:
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/welcome
Thank you again!
Jana
Lonely Planet
I ordered a bunch of books and the…
I ordered a bunch of books and the Lonely Planet staff was great when I had questions after I had placed my orders. However, the books never arrived, even after checking with Lonely Planet on the order status. Once I emailed them again (around 5 weeks later) to ask on the status, they gave me the option to resend them or get a refund. Due to the previous experience, I chose a refund. Unfortunately, this was a frustrating experience and after its all said and done, I was someone still out $25... perhaps its the exchange rate but still absolutely frustrating. Won't be ordering off their site again.
April 1, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from Lonely Planet
Hi Vanessa,
Thank you for sharing your experience here on Trust Pilot!
I noticed your post says your location may be Canada? If so, we have seen significant delays with orders arriving and delivering to Canada. This is due to strikes with Canada Post. An order with basic shipping to Canada takes up to 4 weeks typically.
We do apologize you never received your order and will still be happy to send you new books if you like with expedited shipping options.
Just send us a note at shop@lonelyplanet.com and we can help you out!
Jana
Lonely Planet Shop Customer Support
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