Customer Reviews

Fodor's Peru, 1st Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides)

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I now live in Peru eight months a year, and this year I will have reviewed five Peruvian guides (all listed below), and this Fodor's guide comes in last.

In the world of Peru guides there are two types. There are those guides that are written for the wandering/explorer/backpacker, the vagabond who will travel to the normal visitors' sites, but will also go 'off the beaten track'. The guides that target this type of traveler are: Footprint, Let's Go, and Lonely Planet [see my reviews].

Then there are the guides that target the traveler who doesn't own a backpack, has money (or least a credit card without a limit) and plans to visit only the main tourist attractions, i.e. Cusco [Machu Pichu], Puno [Lake Titicaca], Arequipa [Colca Canyon], and the lines at Nazca. Often these travelers are part of a tour group. The two Peruvian guides that target these travelers are Fodor's and Frommer's [see my Frommer's review].

Fodor's, though dated as a 2004 guide, is more out-of-date and incomplete than the other guides. For example, the guide's listing of 'North American Airlines' omits both United and Delta. Both have been in Peru for the past four years. The guide states that gasoline cost $2 a gallon (wrong). It was $2 a gallon in 2001, now it is well over $3 a gallon. More important are the quotes of restaurant's prices, in actuality the meals cost me twice what the guide quotes (hotels were about 20% more than the range quoted).

Though Fodor's does list the webpage of most hotels, none of the restaurants had a web listing (now all most every good restaurant has a web page with menu, prices and photos).

However, the most serious failure by Fodor's is its omission of location maps. These maps are very important when you are in a new city, and want to locate the nearest restaurant (or hotel) that the guide has recommended. Fodor's only has location maps for Lima (the last place that should be on your 'must see' list). Even Cusco, visited by 95% of all foreign tourists, has no restaurant/hotel location map, so you are on your own and this guide is very much "out to lunch" (pun noted). This is a serious omission.

This surprises me for normally Fodor's guides are great (I have reviewed over a dozen Fodor's guides). The guide does have very good itineraries and walking guides, and its recommendations for restaurants are worth following, but the other shortcomings make this guide only 'conditionally recommended. So, if you are not the backpacker type and want a very good upscale guide, Frommer's guide is your guide.

I've always liked Fodor's and this book is typical, good info, well organized, and geared to the average tourist. Lonely Planet is great but geared more for the student aged tourist - which I am not! And just published (I like getting the most current info before planning a trip - especially in a part of the world I don't have much experience with. I can always get around Europe on my own, but Macchu Pichu? I need some advice there.