Customer Reviews

Frommer's Caribbean Ports of Call (Frommer's Complete Guides)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While Frommer's is the king of travel advce and I have sworn by thier advice and knowledge while traveling, this particular eddition is no better than 2005 or 2006. It is a re-tread. So if you have a version from 2006 or 2005, stay with it. There is really no new information worth spending the money on. While I do not realy fault Frommer's for using old information, since not much changes in the caribbean, it should be more clearly noted that there is not much new in thier book.

Great book to throw in your backpack and take with you on the cruise. You can bone up on a bit of the history and it will get some ideas ffor excursions or places to visit on the islands.

A useful book for planning visits to Caribbean islands. I am using this with the descriptions of my cruise ship's shore excursions: Do I want the shorex, or do I do the sightseeing on my own? The book also gives opinions on what is worthwhile to see and what isn't...which you don't get from the cruise line (everything is worth seeing). The recommendations on what to buy or not buy at each stop are also worthwhile.

The acid test for this book will come when I take the cruise: were the recommendations good or not?

This book is an excellant choice if needing info on ports visited by cruisers - helped a lot, as it was our first cruise. Lots of good advice from start to finish.

I would recommend buying the book before booking your cruise. You get a much better profile of the cruise lines, the destinations, and the age and taste profile of your fellow passengers. It might influence your choice, although the author is extremely diplomatic and couches everything in terms of preferences rather than real critical appraisals. You have to read a little bit between the lines to deduce that a certain cruise might not be for you. A little bit of frankness, would have been welcome.

I'm familiar with all but one of the destinations, and I'm leaving from my home port. My principal reason for buying the book is to learn about cruising, which I've never done before. Although, I have to say, that it was handy to know the differences between flying into an island and sailing in, admission costs, hours of operation, average prices for various services such as taxis, rentals, etc. All the information is up to date and practical.

Judging from the coverage given to the locations that I'm familiar with, and assuming that the locations that I'm not familiar with are equally well covered, the author has done her homework very well. I didn't find any inaccuracies; she exercised good common sense in prioritizing the kind of attraction that might appeal to a wide gamut of interests in the short time available in port. Of course, again, there are no critical comments; everything is ranked about the same, as if the only criteria were personal preference.

I assumed that, since I'm taking my kindle loaded with all my reading material, it would make sense to have the travel guide there as well. This is the first time I've done this and am not sure if I'll do that again. (Reasons listed below).

Kindle version:

* No index, no table of contents (just a listing of contents). You have to use the search function, which doesn't give you an idea how the book is organized or let you casually come across information that you didn't know to specifically search for (unless you read the whole book or bookmark and highlight extensively).
* The author may refer to Chapter 5 in an earlier chapter, and it's no easy job to get there and find your way back to where you were.It is also time consuming to skip whole chapters, screen-by-screen, which don't pertain to you.
* Charts and maps, which by their nature have small print, cannot be enlarged, which means you need a magnifying glass to read them. The fact that the page size has been reduced in order to fit on a 6" screen and everything is in black and white makes matters worse. (Fortunately, Frommer's provides a website where e-reader customers can download & print the maps. It's in the introductory pages, be sure to check for it.)

But, on the whole, regardless of which medium you choose, it is an excellent book that addressed all my reasons for buying it.

We are getting ready to embark on a 14 day Caribbean cruise and were interested in the various ports of call. This book gave us some valuable information on getting around the islands as well as those excursions that were worthwhile taking.

We used this to prepare for a cruise across the Western Caribbean and did not find it wanting -- which is more than could be said for the "Caribbean Guide for dummies." The latter is twice as thick as Frommer's and half as informative and about 2/3 less well organized. Frommer's, without any exaggeration is the complete guide. The history alone of each of the islands and ports of call are invaluable and worth the price of the book. It is like a mini history of the Americas from Columbus' first journey, to the slave voyages, to the wars between the then reigning superpowers (Spain, Britain, France and eventually the U.S). It is in this historical context that the island scenes are explained.

In addition, the articles and sections within the book are well written, succinct and maximally informative. The book is also well organized, covering all of the major cruise ships, their date of commission, history, activities, accommodations (with deck layouts and a map of quarters by cabin numbers, etc.); color maps of the islands both in a regional context and as inset closeups.

Chapter 3 covers things you should know before you go, including passport and visa requirements; health and safety requirements (such as vaccinations, insurance); money matters and how to keep in touch while at sea. There are also packing tips and tips on what to wear both on board and at various port calls.

The bulk of the book (chapter 5 to the end) is spent describing the history and activities to be enjoyed at the various port calls. Very little is left unanswered. Four stars

We have been on several cruises, but only bought this book before our last cruise. We should have bought it years ago. It is packed full of good info about every port of call that you will not find anywhere else without doing days of research. We should have bought this book years ago.

as of 9/2010, some of the information in this book is out of date, especially prices, tours (some tours are not available anymore). however, the land marks are still the same.
i hope it gets updated soon.

I bought the Frommer's Caribbean Ports of Call Kindle edition to be able to take it along easily on a cruise. The content MIGHT be pretty good; I'm not there yet, so I don't know, but the Kindle formatting is horrid. The Menu/Go To is unaware there is a table of contents, but that might be cause the table of contents doesn't really look like one. It has no "tree" structure, so the heading for "Aruba", for example, is at the same point in the margin as Best Cruise Excursions subtopic. As a result, it is extremely difficult to find the chapter on a particular port, or to be sure you have picked the subtopic for the right island. Within the chapters, many of the headings are not set off by bold print, spacing, or punctuation from their text, rendering each transition from one subtopic to the next a reading comprehension jolt. None of this is worth returning the book over, but I am unlikely to try a Kindle edition of such a book again.