Customer Reviews

Footprint Chile Handbook (3rd Edition)

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

 

 

I just returned from a month of living in Santiago, Chile, learning Spanish, and living with my Footprint guide to Chile. I read a lot of the book before arriving and everything it had said and recommended was right. I was living in Santiago and it gave tons of things to do, stay, eat, and see in the city. I was also traveling on weekend. Things like, skiing in the Andes, visiting Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, Cajon del Maipo, and taking a trip to the island of Chiloe in the south. Everywhere I went I would read the guide book beforehand and I would arrive and walk around and really have a strong grasp of where things were as well as what to do and what to avoid. There are good detailed maps of all the main cities/towns as well as some of the more popular smaller towns too. The descriptions of places like hostels and restaurants are 100% accurate. I was able to look at other guide books in Chile when I would bump into another traveler. Many times, when someone else had little or no information on something, we would look it up in my book and there would be plenty of information on it. I took this book with me every morning I left my apartment in Santiago and everywhere I traveled. If you are thinking about buying this I strongly recommend it.

We used this book for 2 months as we traveled around the southern half of Chile. For the most part, the book is excellent and the recommendations are solid. The descriptions of the parks and trails are well done and useful. The advice on what to do in each region is well informed. The only problems we encountered with this book were that several phone numbers in the book were just wrong. Hostal Nancy in Puerto Natales comes to mind. I don't think it even had the right number of digits. The other problem, which was minor, was that the metro stops were not positioned correctly on the Santiago maps. Go try to find the Bella Artes metro stop using the maps in this book. It's two blocks from the museum but the book makes it look like it's next door. It's not even on the same street.

These few problems aside, the Footprint series remains the best choice for Chile and South America. We had many opportunities to use the Lonely Planet carried by other travelers and, well, it's just bad. Terrible maps. Footprint has the best maps, especially the multi-page country map at the back of the book. There is also more information packed into the Footprint and the quality of the materials and printing are superior. Rough Guide is also worth considering. If you are only going for hiking/camping/trekking, consider Footprint Patagonia.

4 stars for being better than the overrated Lonely Planet. But not perfect.

Prior to my trip to Chile last year, I checked available guide books in a local bookstore. I chose Footprint for the content and maps, and also because it had a section about Patagonian Argentina that would be useful. I wasn't disappointed, the guide was most helpful. When talking to another traveller in Chile who had an Italian version of Lonely Planet guide, I could see that some information in the Footprint guide was more accurate. I liked it so much that I'm ordering new Footprint guides for my upcoming trips.

I do not recommend this guide, the info its not accurate and not updated. The places recommended in the guide often do not exist (specially hostels and vegeterian restaurants mencioned). Also prices can be really different than those mentioned.

An important detail is that some hostels and pensiones said to be "clean" are definitely not, be aware specially if you are in Puerto Montt.

If you travel off season you may experience difficulties finding travel guides and tours in chiloe. There is only one tourist agent working off season in castro, if you ask you'll get to him, but his agency, he owns an hostel and a simple hotel as well, are not pointed in the guide even though he is the only opcion one can get to visit the chiloe national park during winter-fall months.

About travelling into southern Chile without passing through Argentina the guide offers almost no information about bus schedules and local bus companies or ferries which are more than scarce off season (sometimes there are busses and ferries schedules only once a week. During the summer (dec-jan-feb)its different and won't be an issue.

This is the detail "travel agenda and planning guide" you want to determine hotel, transportation and other location detail. It is very much similar to a Frommer's Guide.

It is sorely missing color and story. Therfore it is boring to read. That's why I only gave it four stars. But Chile guides are not plentiful. This is designed to be more of a reference guide and it is good at that. Don't expect to get enough info on geography, history, politics and the people of Chile.

The good news!! For the information missing in this guide, you should definitly get the "Insight Guide" "Chile & Ester Island" (Discovery Channel). This book has the color and information to give a Chile novice all they need to know about Chile's geography, history, people and politics. I could not put it down until I read all the way through it.

These two books are the absolut perfect combo for the first-time Chile traveller or Chile novice and really should be sold in a package. In tandem they cannot be beat.

Get these two and you have the perfect travel guide package.

Prior to my honeymoon, in which I surprised my wife, I bought and studied 5 different Chile travel books to prepare for the trip. This was the best one I found and the one that I actually took with me on the trip. It had the best local information which I appreciated because I wasn't interested in staying at a Hilton in Chile.

The author is from Valparaiso and there were places in the book that we visited and loved that weren't even mentioned in the other books. Best of all the author loves Chile and it's culture and you can tell by his writing and advice. If only get one book on Chile, get this one.

If you're simply going to visit Vina del Mar and stay in a time share or plan to stay in an American-chain hotel then you may not enjoy this book. But you won't really get to see Chile, either.

Definitely the best guide to Chile. More accurate, enthusiastic, and useful than Rough Guides or Lonely (this bar closed 3 years ago) Planet. Janak also runs a darn nice hostel.

Excelent! All informations I needed to travel all aroud Chile, from Patagonia to Atacama was in this book. I recomend!