Customer Reviews

CUBA: THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE, 3rd Edition

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This guide falls in the middle tier of the Cuba Guide Books. A British publication and British author, Stephen Fallon has a good grasp of Cuba and this third edition guide is current and up to date through 1999 (though published in 2000). His writing is direct, generally informative, but he lacks the engaging writing style of the top guides on Cuba (see reviews on Cuban guides by Christopher Baker and/or David Stanley).

The central part of the guide (accommodations, restaurants and sights) is accurate and descriptive. Though scant in the listing for hotels and restaurant in Havana, Fallon has selected the best and he has given you a sufficient number to select from. However, budget travels will not get a listing of private home that are legal to use and a significant savings from the hotels. The restaurant's listings have a very good description, but lack a pricing gage. The maps were easy to use and above the average for Cuban guides.

The index DID NOT list hotels or restaurants, and this required that I to flip through the section until I found the listing I wanted information on (especially a hassle in Havana). There were no email or Internet addresses (especially for the hotels) to speak of, even though the published date is 2000 and almost every hotel in this book that I checked was using cyberspace for the last few years.

This is a good guide, however, there are better guides (Cuba: Moon Travel, Cuba: Rough Guide and Cuba: Lonely Planet in that order [see reviews]) that I recommend you consider first. Recommended

This is a ok guide to Cuba, but for a few more bucks you can get the Fodors guide to Cuba which is much better.