Kerala Handbook (Footprint - Handbooks) Paperback – April 7, 2016

I like the Footprint guides but this one fell short. There's some great background info on the area and it saved me trawling round divey hotels late at night on one occasion but the listings, times for transport and prices are well out of date, not good enough for a recently updated book which is why I chose it. Less travelled areas aren't covered well enough (IE wayanad) whereas areas theres nothing in (calicut) have full maps and there's too much emphasis on the more expensive hotels. Still prefer it to LP but the editorial decisions on what to include are bizarre and the whole thing feels like an out of date chapter from a ten year old guide book on the entire country.

Being focused on one state, I expected this guidebook to contain detailed information on at least the major towns and cities in Kerala. Disappointingly it doesn't! It has very brief overviews and a paragraph on a couple of sites then several pages of hotel and restaurant recommendations which are less reliable than online reviews. It doesn't provide a good sense of how to travel through the state nor really help you decide where to visit and how to plan your trip.I've used Footprint guides previously and really liked them, so not sure what went wrong with this one. It reads like an extract from a much larger guide to all of India, which I expect is what it is, though the Kerala chapter of my Lonely Planet India provides more useful information.

A travel guide book without a decent map!! Disappointing. How on earth do these guides survive when you have Lonely Planet and The Rough Guide on the market? This guide provides the traveller with a very brief overview of the state and not much else. If you're in Kerala for a week it ought to be enough, any longer and I would recommend something else.

This little book is what I wanted. I am going to Kerala on a group holiday next month and I wanted some information and background on the area without lots of detail on accommodation as this is pre booked.

Very useful on my trip