Simon Calder's Holiday Helpdesk: What's the best Indonesia travel guide?

Q. What, in your opinion is the best travel guide for Indonesia?

Suzanne Calder

A. The short answer: the most recent. And that means the 10th edition of Lonely Planet's Indonesia guide, published this month price £20.99 (you can find out more and order it here: http://bit.ly/Indo10). The publicity boasts that the authors have endured "288 boat rides, 148 trips in a bemo (bass-thumping public minivan), 1 bloodthirsty mob and 1 typhoon named Vicente". Indonesia is prime Lonely Planet territory, first covered 40 years ago in the original Across Asia on a Shoestring - the book that began a publishing empire. The new edition is rather more slick, with excellent maps, but the sense of empowerment is the same.

I have a 2003 copy of the excellent Rough Guide to Indonesia, but as far as I can ascertain it has not been updated. And, as you know, a decade is a very long time in South-east Asian travel.

Click HERE to email Simon.

You can also tweet him your questions @SimonCalder

Follow @_SimonCalder