Lonely Planet Read This First: Central & South America (Read This First Series)

Rating:
Summary: Helpful for those with a notion of where they want to go
Review: - (From Planeta Journal) Plan your trip. This is a terrific pre-departure tool to destinations in Latin America. This is the perfect book for readers who are interested in traveling in mainland Latin America, but lack a clear idea of where they want to go. You can plan the basic itinerary for trips to Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and the rest of the gang. Missing are profiles of the Caribbean Islands, but perhaps the book will be expanded to include all of the Americas in the next edition.

Rating:
Summary: If you don't really know..
Review: ...where to go in central and south america, then read this through. As with all Lonely Planets book, it got lots of information! I want to go to Guatemala or Ecuador, but I didn't really know too much about any of these countries. Reading this through helped me. I'm going to BOTH!

Rating:
Summary: spend the money on a real guide book
Review: complete waste of time and money. wish id looked at the content in more detail before buying. i actually went through in disbelief at the scarcity of contents, compared with my other guide books and realised its exactly the same information which gets condensed into the front of other guide books.
lots of common sense information, only of use to someone who really wouldnt even know the first thing about travelling. this was the least useful resource in planning a trip to latin amrica, to the degree theres actually a lot of bad advice.
avoid

Rating:
Summary: Great travel dreaming book and high level planning tool
Review: I'm going to buck the trend here and give this book a positive review. In the past 2 years I have been on the road for over 1 year. Most recently returning from a 7 month trip which included Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, India, Nepal, UAE, and Qatar among others.

Prior to this recent trip I spent 6 weeks in Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. I used the LP RTF series as a general planning tool - correlating the maps with the weather charts provided. As well as utilizing the regional travel tips provided.

While certainly not a detailed guide it provided just the right level of information to help me determine where I wanted to go, how to get to and from those points (quick border info) and roughly how much time I wanted to spend there via the sample itineraries. The maps are colorful and excellent, they include different colors showing the sample itineraries which are based on trips of different time lengths (1 week, 2 weeks, etc...) and little flags indicating land border checkpoints. Paper quality is also nice and glossy.

I am now planning another trip to Brazil, Colombia, and Panama. I am finding this guide to be useful once again in charting out an overall course. I have specific guidebooks for each of these countries (Not all LP I'll add), but as a "1 stop shop/read" in a compact format the LP RTF series is unbeatable in my opinion.

Another useful feature of the book is the chart showing all the countries listed in the region and whether a visa is required. Although I did find one mistake in the chart, a visa is required for US Citizens visiting Brazil. Though I'm not sure if the latter is a result of this books April 2000 print date.

For the real adventurous this might be the only guide one needs to bring to the region. (It wasn't my only guidebook, maybe someday) Strong language skills and confidence in travelling "lite" and/or picking up guidebooks / tourist pamphlets / searching out internet sites on the way would be recommended.

Great book, if used the right way. If you are only planning on going to a single country, then I wouldn't bother with this book. But, if you are planning a multi-country trip, or just need a better idea of where to spend your time - this could be a book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: This book is designed for a first time traveller -- over half of it was advice about weather, shots, and traveller's checks. Detail about where to go and what to see is disappointing -- it only gives a very general outline about it country (they seem to all have jungles, mountains, and ruins) and then recommends other guide books. If you are only buying 1-2 guide books, just buy the other ones.

Rating:
Summary: A good book for a beginner - but nowhere near enough detail
Review: This book is probably a good start for anyone who has never travelled to Latin America. It does provide some good background info (weather statistics, cultural info, major festival times, etc) on how to plan a rough outline for a trip. It even has sections on travel themes (e.g. where to go whitewater rafting, where to go hiking, where the good beaches are, etc.) The problem is that the information is way too general and brief. For example, in this 300 page book there are only 1-2 pages covering the highlights of each country, and only a half page that describes possible itineraries in each country. Detailed trip planning will require more than this book, so you might as well start with a more complete book.

Rating:
Summary: A good book for a beginner - but nowhere near enough detail
Review: This book is probably a good start for anyone who has never travelled to Latin America. It does provide some good background info (weather statistics, cultural info, major festival times, etc) on how to plan a rough outline for a trip. It even has sections on travel themes (e.g. where to go whitewater rafting, where to go hiking, where the good beaches are, etc.) The problem is that the information is way too general and brief. For example, in this 300 page book there are only 1-2 pages covering the highlights of each country, and only a half page that describes possible itineraries in each country. Detailed trip planning will require more than this book, so you might as well start with a more complete book.

Rating:
Summary: Reader's Digest Quality
Review: This is Lonely Planet Lite, all of it material cribbed and repackaged from other Lonely Planet guides on the region, and in many cases the summaries grossly distort what appears in the individual country guides. It's like drinking non-alcoholic beer--so diluted that there's no satisfaction in it--and some of the original wasn't all that great to start with.

Rating:
Summary: Information content- good. Moral message- poor.
Review: What? A moral message in a travel guide? Yes. But first, let me say that the information content was top notch. I would recommend this book to a South American travel newbie. The coverage of the cultural aspects and scams was excellent in particular. What was very, very annoying was the pretext that Western people are bad. The author was astute to point out that just the fact that you are traveling indicates to natives that you have money. But, trying to pay the same price for goods and services as the natives is called (and I quote) "cutting them off at the knees." The author goes on to add that merchants simply can't survive on the price charged to natives, so it is your job to subsidize their business simply by your virtue of being a visitor. And in the section on Scams and Cons, we learn that it is OK for them to steal from you because they don't have as much as you. I became disgusted at the author's hypocracy several times. But, I will reitterate, that otherwise this is a good book and I would recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Information content- good. Moral message- poor.
Review: What? A moral message in a travel guide? Yes. But first, let me say that the information content was top notch. I would recommend this book to a South American travel newbie. The coverage of the cultural aspects and scams was excellent in particular. What was very, very annoying was the pretext that Western people are bad. The author was astute to point out that just the fact that you are traveling indicates to natives that you have money. But, trying to pay the same price for goods and services as the natives is called (and I quote) "cutting them off at the knees." The author goes on to add that merchants simply can't survive on the price charged to natives, so it is your job to subsidize their business simply by your virtue of being a visitor. And in the section on Scams and Cons, we learn that it is OK for them to steal from you because they don't have as much as you. I became disgusted at the author's hypocracy several times. But, I will reitterate, that otherwise this is a good book and I would recommend it.