See Abbreviations & Acronyms for a list of compulsory abbreviations in Practicalities content.
See also Addresses; Email Addresses & Handles; Money & Prices; Price Indicators; Telephone Numbers; Time; Transport Information; Websites
This section covers the requirements for each element that makes up a POI’s Practicalities content. These elements are designed to provide quick and easy access to practical information, such as contact and transport information. They do not provide every possible piece of practical information.
The following guidelines apply to all Practicalities content and take precedence over standard Lonely Planet style. Other content may also follow these rules (eg Tables). Relevant style sheets will define any regional variation in the information collected.
Practicalities should be lowercase, except in the case of proper nouns. Practicalities should be lowercase even if they start with a word or words such as 'noon' or 'hours vary' after a period (for example, in POI tickers).
Practicalities should be italicised. If practicalities sit after a POI name in narrative, they should be italicised and enclosed in italicised brackets. For more information, see Italicised Brackets (Parentheses).
Address details are included for all POIs with a physical location and should be sufficient for travellers to find the places mentioned. Directions should be included in the review, not in the address.
There are two fields in the CMS for capturing Address information: Street and Extras.
Includes any standard, local-use street address in this field (eg 25 Smith St); ie the text you would put in the ‘Street Address’ field of an online address form.
· Where a street name includes the definite article, this is retained and capitalised (eg 14 The Avenue).
· Tech note: the usage of this field is designed to enable an expansion to hcard-standard addresses if desired in the future.
Always use numerals for address numbers (eg 5 Main St, not Five Main St) but use the local convention for proper street names (eg Fifth Ave in New York, 3rd Ave in San Francisco).
Includes any essential alternative (non-standard) address information (eg near cnr John St) OR any required addition to the Street Address (eg a postcode or town name, where it is required for clarification in the prac string).
· In some regions, GPS coordinates are given.
· GPS coordinates take the style: N 48°35.320’, E 90°04.536’.
Include other details (suburb/state/province and postal/zip code) only for places that people may need to write to for information: chambers of commerce, tourist offices, government offices that distribute maps, places that require written reservations etc.
Entertainment
Street address may incorporate the name of the venue for some sports events.
Transport
Addresses of stations and ticket booths should be included, but head office addresses are generally not necessary.
Drop 'https://' and 'www.' for all websites. A trailing forward slash is not included in URLs (eg ‘bob.com’ rather than ‘bob.com/’. Uses the basic URL (homepage.com rather than homepage.com/tourists/high-fliers), except in cases where this would cause significant confusion (ie a traveller directed to a homepage could not reasonably be expected to find information about the POI from there). URLs should be all lowercase.
If a website is in a language other than English, this is not noted with the website address, ie ‘centroculturalrecoleta.org’, not ‘centroculturalrecoleta.org, in Spanish’.
Drop ‘http://’ or ‘www.’ from all URLs.
If a website is only in a non-English language, this fact can be mentioned in the review; it is not included in the website field.
All URLs should be lowercase.
A trailing forward slash is not included in URLs (eg ‘google.com’ rather than ‘google.com/’.
Host pages (eg Facebook, Etsy) are included where the POI does not have its own business and there is useful information on the host page. Official URLs such as facebook.com/joltcafewhangarei are OK where useful; unofficial pages, eg facebook.com/pages/jolt-cafe/136488353092323, are avoided.
Handles/usernames (eg ‘Twitter: @lonelyplanet’) are not included; mention handles in the review if needed.
A POI’s email is only collected where there is no website available and there is a likelihood that a traveller would want to contact the POI. Instagram, Twitter or other handles/usernames (eg ‘@lonelyplanet’) should not be included; mention handles in the review if needed.
Phone numbers include the area code, with number grouping formatted in local-use style (as per regional style sheet).
Telephone content in the CMS is split into two fields:
1. Number Just the phone number, including the area code
2. Text Additional descriptive text; not used unless specifically required for clarity.
POIs may have an additional phone number (eg a theatre which has a number for the theatre itself and a separate number for bookings); the overwhelming norm is for POIs to have only one number. Secondary numbers are captured in a second numbers field in the CMS and are separated by a comma in products.
For POIs with a single number, the following are used in the text field when necessary for clarity:
fax
mobile
local only
ext (+ ext number)
For an additional phone number, the following terms are used when necessary to differentiate from the primary number:
schedule
bookings
for English
after hours
Where required, these are captured in the text field.
Only collected when there is no available website or email address, and there is a likelihood that a traveller would want to contact the POI.
Sights, Activities
Included for sights/businesses people are likely to call (eg for prebooking or more information).
Sleeping
Included where available.
Eating
Included where people may want to ring ahead (eg to make reservations).
Drinking & Nightlife
Included where likely to be useful.
Entertainment
Collected for venues/events with advance ticketing options.
Shopping
Rarely needed.
Info
Included where available.
Transport
Collected where they may provide useful timetable or ticketing info.
An indicative price for the POI – this is not an exhaustive list of pricing options. Complex pricing information can be covered in the review if useful to travellers.
Price ranges are indicated by a hyphen (eg ‘d $100-120’).
Price variations are indicated with a solidus (eg ‘adult/child $30/15’).
Variations in price ranges are separated with a comma (eg ‘pizzas $10-15, mains $20-25’).
Currency symbol is not repeated when prices are separated by a hyphen or solidus.
Hourly rates (eg internet cafes) are recorded as ‘per hour £5’.
Price always appears at the end (eg ‘campsites per person $15’, not ‘campsites $15 per person’)
Where there is no price category to define (eg adult/child or room type), simply gives the price (eg ‘£20’ not ‘admission £20’)
The construction should be 'with/without bathroom', not 'without/with bathroom' (eg 'd with/without bathroom $120/$100')
Sights, Activities
Covers admission to the site or cost of an activity. Prices for ‘adult/child’ is the default; other variations (eg half-/full-day) used where appropriate. Admission info given in singular (‘adult/child’ not ‘adults/children’).
Where admission is free for a POI a traveller may expect to pay for, use the Free attribute.
Where there is no differentiation between adult/child prices or other variations, simply gives the price (eg ‘£20’).
Sleeping
Gives per-night prices, including the price of a double (d) wherever available. Only lists the one or two room types most central to each type of accommodation – singles/doubles in hotels/motels/pensions; dorms/doubles in hostels, apartments. Prices may indicate if breakfast is included (eg ‘d incl breakfast $50’) – see the relevant regional style sheets.
Plurals used to describe accommodation types (eg ‘cabins $80-100’, even where there is only a single cabin available).
Where a hotel refuses to provide rates (ie ‘Just check online’), writers check sample prices for a Friday or Saturday night in high season and take an average of these as a starting point for the rate provided. An indicative sample is better than nothing for travellers. (Writers: avoid pricing nights that fall during events or holidays so the indicative rates aren’t ridiculously above the norm.)
Eating
Eating POIs record the cost of ‘mains’ or equivalent (eg ‘mains $20-28’, ‘tapas $8-14’ or ‘3-/4-course Rs 300/400). Price ranges indicate typical price range, not very cheapest to most expensive.
Plurals used for menu items, eg mains, dishes.
Transport
Simple cost info can be included for Transport POIs (eg adult/child $12/5), but more complex info (multiple routes, time etc) is better in the review text.
Opening hours are recorded for all POIs unless it is plainly not relevant (eg theatres that are only open for shows or POIs that are permanently open).
The hours recorded are succinct; clarity is prioritised above comprehensiveness. Relevant style sheets will list regional approaches.
9am-8pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat & Sun
9am-5pm Mon-Fri, hours vary Sat
10am-5.30pm Mon-Sat, closed 3rd Mon of the month
Spans are indicated by hyphens (eg Fri-Sun); ampersands are used where the span is two consecutive weekdays/months (eg Sat & Sun).
Opening hours must be in lowercase except for proper nouns. This is the case even if they follow a full stop.
Where significant seasonal variations exist, hours for the season most relevant to travellers are given.
When a POI’s hours are too variable to list, ‘hours vary’ is given.
Generic terms such as ‘late’ or ‘mid-’ are avoided wherever possible. Specific hours are far more useful (and digital-friendly).
‘am’ and ‘pm’ are not repeated in a span of hours (eg 2-5pm) unless required for clarity (eg 7am-1am).
Words are used where they will result in short copy (eg ‘to 4pm’).
Hours, weekdays and months are given in that order.
‘Noon’ and ‘midnight’ are used for clarity (instead of ‘12am’ and ‘12pm’).
Where hours lists certain weekdays or months, the weekdays/months on which the POI is closed are not listed.
Exceptions (eg ‘closed 12 Jun’) come at the end; times when a POI is closed are not explicitly states where weekdays or months can simply be omitted.
‘Daily’ is not used; hours are assumed to be daily unless otherwise specified.
Where multiple ranges of times/weekdays/months are included, ensure its clear what info related to what.
Where month spans are included after two sets of day spans, it is assumed the month span applies to both day spans. The following example suggests the POI is closed November through to April:
9am-4.30pm Mon-Sat, from noon Sun May-Oct
If the POI were open Monday to Saturday year-round, and on Sundays only May to October, the hours would be:
9am-4.30pm Mon-Sat Jan-Dec, from noon Sun May-Oct
Eating
Always included. Includes actual opening hours rather than ‘breakfast’, ‘lunch’, ‘dinner’ wherever possible.
Entertainment
Not included for venues that only open for shows or performances.
Festivals & Events
Include the date(s) of the festival/event, eg ‘3 Oct’.
See also Italics
Records the most convenient mode of transport and station (or line/route). Only used in cities where travellers are likely to use public transport and need assistance locating the best stop.
Two fields in the CMS are used: a Type (eg bus, train) and Description (the closest stop).
The best mode of travel to reach the POI.
There is a specific set of standard transport types, which are mapped to LP icons in guidebooks and other products (shown next to entries below).
Type Symbol & Usage
underground X
bus G
subway b
ferry f
train d
metro m
tram j
funicular j
cablecar J
monorail D
bart Z (for San Francisco BART system)
skytrain b (for Greater Vancouver SkyTrain or Skytrain in Bangkok)
bostont Y (for Boston’s Boston T system)
strain b (for Copenhagen S-Train)
subte b
tbane Y (for Oslo T-Bane)
tube t (for London Tube)
mrt m (for MRT in Manila, Singapore, Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Taipei, and Bangkok)
tunnelbana d (for Stockholm Tunnelbana)
muni m (for San Francisco Muni system)
ubahn X (for German U-bahns)
sbahn b (for German S-bahns)
Other uncommon types are occasionally used where specified in a regional style sheet – these generally appear as text in products.
This is the closest stop (or, if more logical, the best line/route). Relevant regional style sheets will list any further requirements. In the rare case where two stops are listed for the one transport type, they are separated by a comma.
Type train Description Jackson St
Type bus Description 342
Type tube Description Paddington
POIs may use more than one set of transport options where it is of value (eg where a POI is accessed equally usefully via a train and a bus). Multiple transport options are not given sequentially (ie we don’t say Train to X station then Bus 42). If this more complex information is essential to the traveller, it is included in the review.