The Rough Guide to South India & Kerala (Travel Guide with eBook) (Rough Guides Main Series)

Covers too much ground and too thinly. Planning a trip to Kerala, I notice that sites recommended elsewhere are not even mentioned. Very little detail. Not much use.

I am married to a South Indian and we travel there regularly so I bought this to seek out any new recommendations for restaurants, places to visit etc.. Out of interest, I read the introductory chapters and have never read such outdated, stereotypical drivel, with lines such as "Westerners...are an outcaste and, in theory, their presence polluting", among other weird statements. It seems this almost must have been published in 1970s and each new edition pumped out without being updated and re-written. Tell tale signs of this "new" "2023" edition being nothing more than a quick rush out include the total absence of references to the Vande Bharat Express train (launched in 2019!) and the section on LGBT travellers noting homosexuality is still illegal, despite being decriminalised in 2018. Writers need to actually take some pride in their work before publishing such outdated crap. Now makes it difficult to ever rely on a Rough Guide again when you know the content is 6 or more years old and not properly reviewed...