The Rough Guide to Guatemala (Guatemala (Rough Guides))

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: I just returned yesterday from 10 days in Guatemala and Belize and found the Rough Guide invaluable. I went with 7 friends and between us we had Lonely Planet's "Central America", Lonely Planet's "Guatemala" and Fodor's "Guatemala and Belize". The 2 of us carrying Rough Guide were in the most demand and we relied on it for all our housing and most of our eating recommendations. In addition, the book begins with 33 things you must see/do in Guatemala and we hit most of them.

Housing: Finding a place to stay was not difficult, but in Guatemala the comfort can vary a lot even in the budget range. We were able to find clean, comfortable and affordable accomodations at all of our stops. I highly recommend the Hotel Santa Clara in Antigua which has a lovely courtyard and older colonial rooms (ours had a cute, decorative fireplace). All the pricings for accomodations were on target throughout our trip (with the Santa Clara coming in at about 17$ per person based on double occupancy). Depending on how much you want to "rough" it - a $5 difference can be a big one in Guatemala and we often reserved rooms at 2 places in each of our locations. If you are traveling in a smaller group or by yourself you probably don't even need to call ahead.

Food: We used this book for many of our eating recommendations and it never failed to give us an idea of the type of food and quality to expect.

History and Culture: The book was enjoyable to read and provided some good information on preparation, recent happenings as well as history. A little more info on Tikal would have been great - perhaps a walking tour guide - but there are other books available for that and the site is huge.

Overall: I plan to use Rough Guide again in the future. After my less than desirable experience in Peru with Lonely Planet, as their descriptions are often flat and pricing out of date depite the "new" edition.

Rating:
Summary: The best guidebook I've used to date
Review: I just returned yesterday from 10 days in Guatemala and Belize and found the Rough Guide invaluable. I went with 7 friends and between us we had Lonely Planet's "Central America", Lonely Planet's "Guatemala" and Fodor's "Guatemala and Belize". The 2 of us carrying Rough Guide were in the most demand and we relied on it for all our housing and most of our eating recommendations. In addition, the book begins with 33 things you must see/do in Guatemala and we hit most of them.

Housing: Finding a place to stay was not difficult, but in Guatemala the comfort can vary a lot even in the budget range. We were able to find clean, comfortable and affordable accomodations at all of our stops. I highly recommend the Hotel Santa Clara in Antigua which has a lovely courtyard and older colonial rooms (ours had a cute, decorative fireplace). All the pricings for accomodations were on target throughout our trip (with the Santa Clara coming in at about 17$ per person based on double occupancy). Depending on how much you want to "rough" it - a $5 difference can be a big one in Guatemala and we often reserved rooms at 2 places in each of our locations. If you are traveling in a smaller group or by yourself you probably don't even need to call ahead.

Food: We used this book for many of our eating recommendations and it never failed to give us an idea of the type of food and quality to expect.

History and Culture: The book was enjoyable to read and provided some good information on preparation, recent happenings as well as history. A little more info on Tikal would have been great - perhaps a walking tour guide - but there are other books available for that and the site is huge.

Overall: I plan to use Rough Guide again in the future. After my less than desirable experience in Peru with Lonely Planet, as their descriptions are often flat and pricing out of date depite the "new" edition.

Rating:
Summary: The best guide book for Guatemala
Review: I recently spent six weeks in Guatemala, and I was able to visit most sections of the country. Although the Rough Guide book was the only guidebook that I brought with me, I have looked through the lonely planet book quite a bit and also the guidebooks from the other travel publishers. I believe that the Rough Guide version is the best guidebook for Guatemala, hands down. I have read the book literally from cover to cover. I especially liked the commentary and general descriptions located throughout the book as well as all of the historical data in the back (which is actually a significant section of the book). Even when I was taking a chicken bus through a random section of the country I could find information any any given area or town along the way--housing, food, and cultural commentary. I've been told by others that the Lonely Planet edits out some places to see (such as Fuentes Georginas near Quetzaltenango). Rough Guide will just give you everything, even if the location is way off the beaten track.
The only complaint I would have is that the author tends to be very socio-politically biased. For example, he dismisses the Eastern Highlands as a stronghold of right-wing politics...the ladinos acting like cowboys..."violent demonstrations of macho pride are common." I suppose this is why "your best bet is to travel directly to San Salvador by pullman" (rather than visit this aweful place of conservatism). I actually liked the Eastern Highlands.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the best
Review: I traveled to Guatemala Dec99=Jan00. This book was great. Information was accurate and informative. In Chichicastenango I recommend the Hotel Chalet Buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: it's okay but....
Review: it would be nice to have more detailed information, such as prices for things and such. seems to be accurate so far, but isn't very detailed. i think i prefer lonely planet's guidebooks.

Rating:
Summary: Shameless self promotion
Review: It's a strange task, reviewing your own book, but seeing as we've put so much effort into ensuring the guide is the very best possible companion to Guatemala, perhaps you'll excuse a little trumpet blowing - we are very proud of the guide.

The strengths of the Rough Guide Guatemala are firstly that it is just that - a guide to Guatemala, nowhere else. There's detail (432 pages, tons of maps); background (essential political and historical contexts); some half-decent photographs; and enthusiastic and accurate hotel, hostel, bar and restaurant listings (we like good value and we know how to enjoy ourselves!). We've taken alot of trouble to seek out the very best Spanish language schools and we don't pull any punches - we tell you the main crime blackspots and where where you'll have to take a little extra care (much to the annoyance of the tourist board).

Whilst in some ways the most important part of the guide is to ensure that the main destinations in Guatemala (Antigua, Atitlán, Tikal, Quetzaltenango) are covered comprehensively and accurately, if you really want to get off the beaten path, all the information is here. We've hiked and rafted to the remotest indigenous villages in the country in the Cuchumatanes mountains, the magical Maya sites still choked in roots, shoots and rubble in the forests of the Petén. It's all to easy to stick to the well-trodden 'ruta maya', seeing all the major sites with home comforts like internet cafés and CNN close to hand. Alternatively, there are Maya cities in the Petén region like El Mirador (with 240ft temples), Piedras Negras (with the largest cenote in the Maya world) and Preclassic Nakbé where you'll be lucky to find anyone other than a guard and a lonely, mosquito-bitten archaeologist for company. We also detail more than two dozen excellent day hikes, if you have less time. If you yearn for some real exploration, or just curious to see a little more than most manage, the Rough Guide won't let you down.

Perhaps becuase of our name, it's an all too common misconception that Rough Guides are just geared to the backpacker. The guides did start off that way, but we now cater for all independently-minded travelers - whether they have a budget of $10 or $200 a day. Obviously, there are good and bad deals at both ends of the scale.

We probably get more compliments about our 'Contexts' section at the back of the book than anything else. In the Rough Guide Guatemala, the Contexts include 22 pages of (ancient and modern) history; detailed explanation of the Maya achievement (calendrics, astronomy, religion and ritual); modern Maya culture; 8 pages on the human rights background; a comprehensive look at environmental issues; 6 pages of recommended reading and a Spanish language helper.

In many ways, it's such an a pleasurable place to write about - with 37 volcanoes, Pacific and Caribbean coasts, Maya ruins, vibrant indigenous culture, rainforest, cloudforest and all - but Guatemala is a fiendishly complex place to unravel, and still recovering from a turbulent recent history. Go and see for yourself.

Iain Stewart, co-author Rough Guide Guatemala

Rating:
Summary: A recommended purchase for your trip to Guatemala
Review: My wife and I went to Guatemala in May of 2002. This is the only guide book we used and we were quite happy with it. In addition to information about various things to do (content was good and accurate) this book contains a lot of great extra information in the back such as chronology of the Maya, recent political history, explanations of indigenous culture, and recommended reading lists. Wow! The listing of hotels and places to eat was on target. The book has a pretty good section on Tikal too.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Guide for Guatemala
Review: This is my personal favorite. We used it a lot on our trip through the Western Highlands and Tikal. It has good maps, from city to national scale. It has something of interest to say about many places, including small villages. It presents lodgings in a logical manner. I found it easy to use. This guide gave us a pretty good overview of places, although it appears that unlike in many very studied/touristed places (such as Europe) there is not as much deep background available on many towns. Of all the guide books I have used for Guatemala this has the most breadth and depth, coupled with ease of use.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and useful
Review: When I traveled to Guatemala I found this guide invaluable. Particularly useful were the listings of hotels, the maps, and the information on bus routes; I always found them accurate. The book includes a plentiful amount of historical background that is essential to understanding this colorful and complex country.

Although this book is aimed at the independent tourist traveling on a budget, the wealth of information it provides would be useful for anyone whose full itinerary hasn't already been determined or who wants to know more about the people and culture he/she is visiting.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: While reading it at home it looked pretty complete and with good information. Once we were in Guatemala, I found that most of the places recommended were like the writer had not checked them himself or just written from what he had heard. I followed the writer's hints and checked it myself, like in some hotels I stayed. In some other cases, I found places that there were not included in the book and which should had been...
Certainly the guide is not updated at all.
Great dissapointment for such a highly rated book.