The Lonely Planet Guide to Sri Lanka

There's something comforting in being somewhere deeply strange and foreign but knowing you have the experience of those before you to depend upon. Lonely Planet Guides are a great start and we will usually buy one before going somewhere new. The sole exception to this has been the Lonely Planet Guide to Sri Lanka, which we found deeply unhelpful. It skims where you want substance, it doesn't give guidance where you need to be guided, it lacks opinion and 'bite' and it shows no sign whatsoever of being based on any depth of experience or insight.

You need all those things when you're somewhere like Sri Lanka, where the signage isn't where you'd expect it to be and where the tourism infrastructure is (and no, it is no bad thing at all, I agree) simply not developed. And, of course, where so many things are deeply strange. You really need a guidebook that you can rely on and that is intuitive and even witty.

A book best used to prop up a wonky cupboard or something.