Lonely Planet Central America (Shoestring)
Dig into history along the Ruta Maya, zip through the rain forest canopy or spend the day searching out that perfect hammock spot by the beach. Adventures are born every day in Central America. And this comprehensive guide – with expanded Yucatan and Chiapas coverage – gives you the tools to avoid spending an arm and a leg on the journey of a lifetime.
Explore More – expanded do-it-yourself features help you create your own adventure beyond the ‘Gringo Trail.’
Get Lost – detailed language and cultural coverage and more than 120 maps means you’ll never get lost…unless you want to.
Immerse Yourself – volunteer as a game warden, study Spanish, or simply learn how to extend your stay.
Culture Club – candid local interviews reveal the true nature and spirit of the isthmus’ No. 1 natural resource – its people.
ALL NEW
Highlights & Planning Sections
Cutomized Itineraries
Snapshot Coverage
Responsible Travel Tips
Cross-referenced Maps
List Price: $ 24.99
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Tags: América, Central, Lonely, Planet, Shoestring
3 responses to Lonely Planet Central America (Shoestring)
Use with Caution,
Although a solid guide overall, I would recommend that travellers to this region of the world consider the Footprint guide and/or the Let’s Go. LP looked to me to be up-to-date, but sadly this was certainly not the case when I hit C.A. last summer (especially in Costa Rica). Busing and transportation information were generally accurate. Costs though were often way off the mark. After looking through the Let’s Go guide at the end of my trip, I noted that their prices were much more up-to-date. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the LP online updates for this book are helpful.
Also, the LP book lacks serious detail about hotels. Their wording is scant and weak, and I often found myself wondering why they couldn’t just get to the point. The Footprint guide is considerably better in this area, as their writers seem to be not as afraid to say what they really think of these places (i.e. they will tell you if a hotel has a reputation for petty theft – LP won’t bother).
Overall this book has some good points, but I would recommend that you take another book along with it as a backup (or use this one as a backup). I should point out that this is a great book for someone with a very limited amount of time in each major place, as their agendas are solid. Also, I highly recommend their Latin America Phrasebook. Easy to use and it got me out of a few jams.
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|Vastly overrated,
I recenty returned from a month long trip through Central America, during which I visited all 7 Central American countries, in this order: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. I brought two guidebooks with me on my trip: this one and the Rough Guide to Central America. I soon found myself using the Rough Guide almost exclusively and this Lonely Planet Guide hardly at all. This was a surprise and a disappointment, because for the last 17 years I have consistently found the Lonely Planet guides to be the ones most consistently most useful for adventurous travelers. But not this one. Here are some of the problems I had with this guide:
–The maps are among the hardest to read and most unintelligible I have ever seen, anywhere. They are all in black and white, with shadings in gray. There is very little variation in font size. It is hard to find anything without poring almost microscopically over the maps.
–The book consistently focuses on the cheapest, most bottom end places, especially when it comes to lodging. Now I suppose I should have been warned by the title, but I honestly didn’t expect the book to be so relentlessly downscale. So this is a book only for the truly impoverished. If you want to splurge a little, look in the Rough Guide.
–Like all LP guides, it is not well-organized, so a reader must take his time to get used to finding out where to look for information.
On ths positive side, it is chock full of information for overland travelers and those seeking to venture into the remote areas of the countries visited. But overall, this one is not one of LP’s finest publication. Use the Rough Guide instead (see my review there).
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|Better Take Two Books,
The Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides are great for backpackers: cheap hotels, restaurants, bus schedules, etc. This book was no exception. The information included was generally very up-to-date and thorough. That said, the LP writers must have been directed to gild the lily whenever possible. More than once I decided to visit a place that LP gushed about only to find myself in either a backwater or a noisy charmless city playing cards until the next day’s buses rolled out.
Halfway through my trip I found a used copy of Fodor’s UpClose Central America Guide (used to be the Berkeley Guide, remember those?) and bought it. The UpClose Guide, while incomplete, provided much more honest commentary on the places I wanted to visit. The book is no longer in print but you might be able to dig up a used copy somewhere.
I’d still recommend the Shoestring Guide: you need to know where to catch your bus!
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