My experience is people who carry Lonely Planets are as good as people on a package tour. But they are less able to admit it.

They go the same hotels, same restaurants, see the same sights, take the same buses and bump into the same lonely planet wielding crowd at the next town or on the tour bus that they convince themselves they took "independently".

Then the hotels and hostels that are listed in the LP are full of "local day tours" cause all their customers are the LP tour crowd.

Without a doubt, part of the rise of Adventure Motorcycling over the last 10 years is precisely a backlash at the package tourisation of 21st century backpacking. And the rise of this tourised backpacking is directly a result of the popularisation of Lonely Planet.

The reality is the LP wielders are on a package tour, they just cant see it.

Thats why we do it on bikes. So we can go where we want, when we want. Without having to sit on a stinky 14 hr bus ride with a pain-in-the-@ss college kid from California telling you how cool he is cause he KNOWS Bolivia ... cause he was there 2 weeks ago.

I strongly discourage the use of LP as I feel it completely takes away from both the sense of adventure and the reliance on your wits. Further it minimises your interaction with the locals. That for me is a major element of the whole travel experience. Locals will always help you find a bed / post office / internet if you need it. And the more you immerse yourself with the locals, the more you get out of your travels. Ergo, the less you get out of it if you are packing a LP guide.

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