Customer Reviews

Fodor's Caribbean Ports of Call 2010 (Travel Guide)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I give it 3 because the book was somewhat useful on board ship and did a reasonable job of summarizing some of my ports of call, particularly the most popular stops.
For many ports of call there is too little info and often it is incorrect and/or out of date.
A good example is Costa Maya which only has 1 page dedicated to it and no maps. Contrary to the book there is more than just the cruise ship compound for shopping and as usual the prices are more competitive outside of the tourist trap area. The book states that the only excursion options are with the cruise line. A quick check on the internet shows plenty of other options.
Although I already had a similar book about 10 years old, I bought this one to get the latest and greatest information. Clearly this does not rate a 2010 label.
The maps included could definitely be improved on. We like to wander off on our own and for Belize City we could have left the book on the ship for all the good it was worth.

If you are internet savvy you can get much more info that is up to date very quickly using the search engines. The only advantage to this book is that it is unbiased and organized.

I bought this book for a cruise I was taking with my family. It was the only book I found that had information on ALL the ports we were visiting (including the "private island" used by my cruise company). So that was a major plus.

But I found the info *about* each stop rather vague. Along the lines of "there are lots of new and creative shore excursions available at this port" but there wasn't much information about just WHAT these excursions might be and where you'd connect up with providers.

On the other hand, it led us to a beautiful quiet beach on St. Thomas which was the highlight of our trip. Still probably a good choice if you don't want to purchase 3 or 4 separate guides, but knowing what I know now I would have used this book for ideas and done more on-line research as to how to implement those ideas.

I got this book prior to a week's cruise in the western Caribbean and read all the initial information before we went and also the recommended sights in the ports we were going to. I used the book during the trip too because the information is easy to read and the book is well written