I have lived and vacationed in a number of countries with the Lonely Planet guides, and always found them extremely helpful. With this new guide, "Lonely Planet's Best In Travel 2009: 850 Trends, Destinations, Journeys & Experiences For The Year Ahead" I found it to be very enjoyable for different reasons.
I always liked how the Lonely Planet guides had a ton of information about the places I was living or visiting. However, I sometimes wished they had more color photos such as some of the other travel guides available. With this "Best In Travel 2009" guide, there is not the depth for each country like the country specific guides, but rather interesting places around the entire world. And this book is full of colorful pictures.
It is a beautifully laid out book with scores of magnificent photographs. Combine the photos with the brief descriptions of places around the entire globe and you have a great coffee table book and a text that will inspire you to plan your next travel adventure. What I enjoy most about this book is it helps generate ideas of places to go and things I want to do.
The book is chalk full of lists. Top 10 Countries, Top 10 Regions, Top 10 Cities and so on. I do not know if I agree with the top 10 in each of these categories, and you might not either, but that does not matter. Use the book to inspire you to travel to new places and to generate ideas and possibilities. Even if you do not travel to the places listed, you will be more aware of what's out there and places that are available to explore. If you enjoy traveling, you'll enjoy looking through this book for ideas.
