Chile Guide, 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: Great guide for planning and traveling
Review: I purchased this guide in '99 and used it for trips to Torre del Paine ('99) and the Atacama ('00) while we were based in Buenos Aires. I found that the descriptions were generally right on point although prices had gone up. The proposed itineraries are all do-able in the time recommended and the suggestions for hotels were great. I'm now using it to plan our December trip covering Santiago to Puerto Montt. It's a wonderful addition to my standard bible, The South American Handbook.

Rating:
Summary: Great guide for planning and traveling
Review: I purchased this guide in '99 and used it for trips to Torre del Paine ('99) and the Atacama ('00) while we were based in Buenos Aires. I found that the descriptions were generally right on point although prices had gone up. The proposed itineraries are all do-able in the time recommended and the suggestions for hotels were great. I'm now using it to plan our December trip covering Santiago to Puerto Montt. It's a wonderful addition to my standard bible, The South American Handbook.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Insight
Review: I really enjoyed the Open Road Chile Guide. The recomendations for restaurants and hotels were excellent, just right on. So many guidebooks swamp you with endless lists of names and numbers, without any real input. This guide not only differentiated among the travel options, giving valuable insight, it did so in an readable, quite entertaining manner.

Rating:
Summary: Solid structure, fresh outlook and comprehensive information
Review: In reading an advanced copy of this new guide, I have discovered that Miss Youman and Mr. Estep have created a travelers' gem. One can feel a sense of their efforts and experiences from the outset of the guide's introduction. You will find a fresh outlook from the Authors' open minded base, all encompassed in the dependable structure always found in Open Road Travel Guides. If you're headed for Chile, prepare yourself, rely upon and don't be afraid that this resource will pre-shape your experience. Unlike my favorite Chilean wines, this resource is not dry!

Rating:
Summary: Provides an insider's guide to Chile
Review: It is the nature of travel guides to be a bit sketchy, else you would be carrying something the size of a phone directory. But this book is neither the handy and compact size of the Lonely Planet guide to Chile, nor as comprehensive. And it is full of errors in many sections. In the Hanta virus discussion the translation of the principle disease vector is improperly translated as being a "rat" when in fact it is a quite small "mouse." There are many other examples of just plain incorrect translations, some of which may get you into trouble, while others just illustrate lackluster proofreading. These numerous errors suggest that while the authors may have visited Chile, they did not become competent in its language and customs. Much of the information is just plain wrong, and appears to be gleaned from sources other than first-hand knowledge and experience. For example, during the past ten years I have often crossed the frontier between Chile Chico (Chile) and Los Antiguos (Argentina), first as a tourist and later as a Chilean resident, and NEVER have I needed what the authors claim is an essential "salvoconducto." This bit of misinformation was apparently picked up from very old guidebooks of the past, which should suggest to contemporary readers the origins of many of the errors in this unfortunate attempt at a modern guide to Chile. As the Chileans themselves might say "Lindo, pero harto errores"(nice but plenty of mistakes). Conclusion: not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: No more than an agglomeration of easily obtainable data
Review: It would appear that little has gone into this guidebook. The average Spanish-speaking tourist would be able to assemble all the information it contains, by simply going through each tourist information centre. The guide is good and sometimes reads well, but it's not that useful. Just an extra piece of luggage.

Rating:
Summary: A good and reasonably accurate guidebook
Review: No guidebook that seeks to be comprehensive ever seems to achieve complete accuracy and neutrality. I'm a resident of Chile, and when I head out to the territories I find that most guidebooks suffer from either obsolete data or offensive social notions toward the target countries. However, this title comes closer than the others as an acceptably good guide. My principal objection is that it is a bit too large in format and heavy to handily backpack with (vs the South American Handbook, for example). On the other hand, it strikes a good balance between large size (good reading, much detail) and the abbreviated guides (basic details, sparse background information). CHILE GUIDE would be an excellent choice if shaving off the ounces in your pack is not a problem.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the lot
Review: Of all the guidebooks I read to prepare for a two week trip to the southern part of Chile - this one had me the most enthused about going. The descriptions in the book compel you to go to out of the way places I would have missed otherwise. It is not as detailed as the Rough Guide - but sometimes the zen for travel can be lost in the details. These authors have an obvious enthusiasm and love of this country. This feeling did not come across in many of the other guide books.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the lot
Review: Of all the guidebooks I read to prepare for a two week trip to the southern part of Chile - this one had me the most enthused about going. The descriptions in the book compel you to go to out of the way places I would have missed otherwise. It is not as detailed as the Rough Guide - but sometimes the zen for travel can be lost in the details. These authors have an obvious enthusiasm and love of this country. This feeling did not come across in many of the other guide books.

Rating:
Summary: Good guidebook, but...
Review: There is evidently not yet an ideal guidebook on Chile. This one is a bit too heavy and large for easy packing, but it is easier to read and in some cases has more substance than something like the relatively more compact Lonely Planet guide for Chile. The LP guide for Chile suffers from political posturing which we (Chileans) find obnoxious. This Open Road Chile Guide lacks sufficiently detailed region maps but for that you should use the Turistel map atlas anyway. It also tends to assume a tourist less inclined to stay in the cheapest places, compared to Lonely Planet. But it is misses some basic travel-writing fundamentals by saying things like "....hostals off the left side of the highway" when "left" will depend whether you are traveling from one direction or the other. The book's opinion that Chinese restaurants are "new" to the country and therefore have more expensive food is actually laughable, and remind us that the authors are not long-time residents. In some other areas the historical details about certain events seem inaccurate, but in others the even-handedness is refreshing, compared to the politically tainted (and pompously critical) Lonely Planet book. Schedules in the south of Chile are notoriously variable, so anything written should be suspect. But in general, this is a quite useful book, and its occasional inaccuracies are perhaps no worse than those of comparable guidebooks on Chile. Obviously, get the latest edition if you plan to take this book with you to Chile.