Lonely planet guidebooks are the most popular guidebooks in the world and for good reason. In addition to their comprehensive country-specific guides, they have a range of phrasebooks as well as various travel inspiration books like “Dream Trips of the World” or “The World’s Best Street Food”. These guidebooks present the history of a place, highlight notable sites, suggest the best spots to try local cuisine as well as providing practical information such as how to navigate the local transport system or what kind of weather to expect at each time of year. But do they really tell the whole story…
The lonely planet guidebooks were started by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 1972 with their debut book “Across Asia on the Cheap”. During an overland trip from London to Australia driving through Asia, they were having many people ask them about their route and for tips. They realised there wasn’t enough information on traveling this part of the world and started writing the book during evenings and weekends while working full-time jobs. That first book went on to sell 1,500 copies in a week in Sydney. Two years later, they wrote their second book “Southeast Asia”. They continued writing until in 2011 they sold their last stake in the company. Today Lonely Planet is owned by Red Ventures and has over 450 titles published. The writers are comprised of a global team of local contributors as well as on the ground travel experts. There are over 450 writers worldwide, publishing in seven different languages.
Lonely planet guidebooks do have their criticism though, from inadequate research to downplaying the realities of conflict. One example comes from Thomas Kohnstamm, a writer for Lonely Planet in the early 2000s, who revealed in a 2008 memoir that strict time constraints prevented writers from gaining in depth knowledge of the destinations they wrote about, leading to compromised research methods. For instance, for a guidebook on Colombia, he did not even visit the country but instead based his material on information from an intern at the Columbian consulate whom he was dating.
The controversy extends beyond questionable research though. In 2008, Lonely Planet released a travel guide on Burma that attracted significant criticism and prompted calls for its withdrawal. At the time, there were boycotts on travel to Burma due to tourism funding the military regime that ran the country, with the democratic opposition party leader campaigning for tourists to avoid the area. Furthermore, in the 2025 guide to China, Xinjiang is described as having a ‘period of political unrest’, however the UN described this same event as widespread and systematic repression. The UN went on to say that the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities may constitute a crime against humanity due to the credible evidence of torture. In the same guidebook, it said “security measures in Xinjiang are relatively more relaxed”, however the US holocaust memorial research centre concluded that the state policies responsible for these allegations either continue or are intensifying. This situation demonstrates how Lonely Planet can underplay the reality and severity of events.
So Lonely Planet, despite its popularity and success, is not the definitive guide to destinations across the globe. But whilst these guidebooks do in some cases have serious errors and inadequacies that cannot be dismissed, many of them still contain a wealth of in-depth knowledge on diverse places. These books can teach us not only about the practical considerations of travelling to a location but also provide us with inspiration for our future adventures and help us discover and appreciate the uniqueness of each part of our planet. And for that we can thank the adventurous spirit of Maureen and Tony Wheeler.