Book Review: Lonely Planet's Guide to Pride

A dancer performs during the 41st annual Pride Parade in Seattle. Photo / AP

The Lonely Planet Guide to Pride is another reach out to the queer communities by the largest travel guide publisher in the world. Given the global gay travel market is (according to the UN) worth more than US$100 billion ($149 million), it's probably a sensible move.

There are 20 cities in the guide and among them are some of the most iconic gay destinations in the world: San Francisco, New York, London, Amsterdam, Sydney and Auckland. Yes - Auckland, honoured to be alongside the global "elite" in gay destinations.

Naturally I slipped right past the other "A" cities (Amsterdam and Atlanta) to see what Lonely Planet had to say about our bustling rainbow metropolis. There was a cursory mention of the Auckland Pride Festival with a link to its website, followed by a couple of hotels - one I'd never heard of and the other owned by a casino. The gay venue recommendations were spot on, but the advice not to miss Waiheke Island and Mt Eden seemed a bit odd.

This format is followed for each of the locales, each city has two pages no matter the size of their population or gay scene.

Unsurprisingly, large swathes of the planet are unrepresented, there's no Russian city nominated, only one from Africa (Cape Town), and Taipei is the sole entry from Asia. This illustrates the sad fact that for many queer folk around the globe, this is still a truly lonely planet.

I tried the guide on three different devices and it seems optimised for a tablet. It's difficult to read and navigate on a smartphone, and while easy to use on a laptop, you don't really want to lug one around as you cruise the streets.

The guide has some pretty, if generic, pictures but it's a "once over lightly" tour of these cities and despite it being about Pride, there's no sense of pride in it, no flavour or excitement.

Even the publishers acknowledge this by reminding you on each page to refer to their full city guides for more comprehensive information.

But if you wanted to find destinations that have strong gay communities, then this is a useful starting point - and hey, it's free.