Footprint Central America and Mexico 2004 (Footprint Central America & Mexico Handbook) [Paperback]

Peter Hutchison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Footprint Central America & Mexico Handbook | Publication Date: November 2003

Countries covered include Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"My favourite series is the Handbook series from Footprint and I especially recommend the Central America & Mexico Handbook." Boston Globe

About the Author

PETER HUTCHISON Peter Hutchison first visited Central America in 1992 when he travelled extensively through the region and onto South America... using Footprint all the way! Attempts to settle in the UK have proved partially successful, but the attractions of Latin America continue regularly to pull him back to the region. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1280 pages
• Publisher: Footprint Handbooks; 14th edition (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903471729
• ISBN-13: 978-1903471722
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,977,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, July 22, 2004

By 

E. D Papetti (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Footprint Central America and Mexico 2004 (Footprint Central America & Mexico Handbook) (Paperback)

I drove to Panama with a friend of mine this last summer, using this book as a guide. It was accurate, useful, and led us to many places that we would never have found otherwise. I cannot speak highly enough of it. If I am traveling anywhere else in the future, I am buying a Footprint guide. The maps in the back proved accurate, too, succesfully getting us all the way to Panama. I looked at a Lonely Planet guide to Panama once I was there, and found that it was not nearly as accurate or useful. If you are traveling anywhere in Mexico or Central America, this footprint guide is all you need. Buy it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very impressive guide which I strongly recommend., June 7, 2003

By 

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Footprint Central America and Mexico Handbook 2003 (Paperback)

I used this guide during my three weeks in Nicaragua and enjoyed the excellent writing style. His accommodations and restaurants recommendations are up-to-date and reliable. I found his recommendations to always be valid and that says a lot about a guide.

Hutchison's writing is succinct and unencumbered by the superfluous. He gives you a solid mental picture, within a paragraph or two, of what to expect and how you can enjoy it. I also enjoyed his "Further Reading & Cinema" sections that he has with each country.

Because this guide covers all of Central America and Mexico, the history, economic, culture and environment sections are abbreviated and you may wish for more. Thus, if you are going to visit just one country, as I did, you may want to buy only that country's guide. For Nicaragua I also bought "Moon Travel - Nicaragua". (see my review)

The guide could improve it's weak, mediocre maps. Also frustrating, in all Footprint guides, is the use a price guide for accommodations. Instead of just stating the price per room, Footprint gives you a cumbersome group of letters that correspond to the cost of the room. The problem is that you may forget that LL=$... and up. Or that the letter "A" next to a hotel means it costs around $... So you have to find the legion again and figure it out. You would think that as many years as FootPrint has been around, they would have realized that just quoting the cost of the room in dollars is the best way.

Also, there was no mention by Hutchison regarding the rising problems with crime and gangs in Managua (Capital of Nicaragua). In fact he recommends seeing the old Cathedral "at night" and, for the past few years, this is and has been, a dangerous area for violent crime. In fact, when I asked to go to this area in the daytime, even then the taxi driver told me be careful using the words: "peligroso, peligroso". While I was there I talked with the Cathedral's resident shoe shine man and he also told me the area was very dangerous at night, and he leaves every day at 5pm because "me gusto mi vida."

That said, this is a very impressive guide which I strongly recommend for those going to various Central American Countries. Strongly Recommended 4.5 stars

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Reliable Guide, March 13, 2003

By 

Leslie Bary (Lafayette, LA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Footprint Central America and Mexico Handbook 2003 (Paperback)

This is the most complete and reliable guide for everyone - from budget/alternative to business travelers. The information given is useful and accurate, even for the most remote areas. I have spent a lot of time in Mexico, Central and South America over the past 25 years and the Footprint guidebooks have always turned out to b e far more useful than any others.