Whats the best guide book for Micronesia & Surrounding areas

We are looking to go backpacking to Micronesia, Polynesia & Melanesia in just over a years time, Whats the best guidebook which will give us the best information on these areas?

We ideally want one which will give us a good understanding of accomodation prices on the lower end of the scale and give us some good info on the areas and best islands to go to etc!

thanks in advance....

There are no up-to-date guides for Micronesia. If you are going to Palau, obtain Papa Mike's guide (he posts on this forum). It was published in 2006. The Moon guide covers all of Micronesia and is useful, but very dated (2003, I think). I used it for my trip last month to Yap and Palau, and was regretting leaving the Papa Mike book at home.

Last place is LP's Micronesia book, which is from 2000.

ETA: There is no one guide that covers everything, because you are looking at both North Pacific and South Pacific. Moon's South Pacific book (copyright 2004) doesn't cover any of Micronesia. LP's South Pacific book (copyright 2003) also skips Micronesia. So you'll need a minimum of 2 very outdated books.

LP's South Pacific guide covers both Melanesia and Polynesia ans is kind of updated.

You might be better to download the chapters you want from the LP website.
Please note, if you are interested in Solomon Islands (part of Melanesia) guides written more than a couple of years ago are way out of date. Anything written between 1998 and 2003 will be totally irrelevant.

I just learned that there is a 2009 LP South Pacific Book. Couple that with your outdated micronesia book of choice and you should be set.

Well what can i say....Wow thanks for all the replies you guys certainly know your stuff :D

well now that i know whats available now i can get a book and start planning an intinary of where we are actually gonna go and how we are gonna get there (roughly because we all know how our plans change)

There's a brand new (2010) guidebook to Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia written by former Peace Corp workers who have served there.

Micronesia and Palau (Other Places Travel Guide)

Thanks for that - tossed it into my shopping cart even though it doesn't cover the one Micronesian country I'll get to this year.

I've also found another good Micronesia guide this year:

Diving the Pacific: Volume 1: Micronesia and the Western Pacific Islands

It's obviously mostly about diving and somewhat dated on practicalities, but still includes good info about "on land attractions" too, and is still in print. Worth having for some extra tidbits.
It is also packed with stunning photos of the islands, both under and over the water.

silvanocat: Thanks for posting this!