Customer Reviews
The best travel book ever. - By: Davywavy2, 03 Dec 2004 
Whilst Lonely Planet Guides - & their various knock-offs - tell you the basics of travelling to the places you think you'd like to go to, DP tells you alll about the places you reallly don't want to go to, what to do when you get there, & how to come back in one piece. Written by a motley collection of adventurers & war correspondents (who have a terrifying attrition rate - at least two contributors to previous editions are now dead) DP is not only a guide book to war zones & danger, but also an excellent grounding in the geopolitical realities of how those places got like that, & a guidebook to surviving the travails & difficulties of being a western traveller in the Thrid World.
Where else would you find chapters on how to survive being kidnapped by Columbian drug barons, bribing thrid world police offers, & how to avoid landmines? Even the list of things to take travelling with you differs from teh usual advice - along with the same old/same old tips on travelling light & taking torches & waterproofs, you're advised to take gifts for the people you meet - cigarettes, & a large supply of cheap watches.
As travel advice, it's excellent. As a geopolitical primer, it's the best single book I've ever read. As a book of stories of people travelling to places & meeting people you'd never want to, it's great fun. What reason is there not to own a copy? I'll be sending copies to many of my friends this Christmas.
Fantastic - By: , 24 Apr 2000 With this book I was able to plan a trip to Chechnya that was incredible. Sure, it was dangerous, but Fielding's plus some common sense & you can have a lot of fun & learn a lot of things, even in a place of immeasurable suffering. While I may not be ready for Sierra Leone yet, I have been to Bosnia & it's not too bad. It will be even better when they remove alll of the landmines that were planted there during the war. Buy this book & forget Hawaii or Europe this year: go to Congo!
Dangerous Places is an Accurate Book - By: , 07 Sep 1999 As a frequent traveller & retired Army officer, I find that Mr. Pelton & his co-authors are very accurate in their descriptions & observations of the countries & places in this book.
As a traveller to Africa, the Philippines, the Pacific rim, Eastern Europe, Mexico, & South & Central America, I find the book to be accurate in every sense. It also offers valuable geo-political lessons about the world.
To the Amazon web editor: It would be a good thing if Amazon removed the duplicate set of comments by our opinionated, close-minded friend from South Africa. It sounds as if the writer has some agenda against the book, which is too bad. It is a disservice to a great book.
A splendid book for the cautious traveller - By: , 12 Jul 1999 A splendid book if you want to see & know the place that you are going to. A "must-own" book for the traveller who want to reallly examine his place.Buy it as fast as you can.
Great Vacation Guide - By: , 24 Jun 1999 We use this book to plan most of our vacations. This book is a "must own" for alll adventurous travelers & it's also a good book for the armchair travelers. I keep one copy with me almost alll the time & the other copy stays on the coffee table as a conversation piece. I wish they would hurry up & publish the 4th edition.
