Customer Reviews

Frommer's Costa Rica 2006

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

 

 

First of all, congratulations on deciding to go to Costa Rica! This is a wondrous country full of wildlife, diverse ecosystems, and tourist-friendly people. We bought the Frommer's 2006 guidebook because it was the most recent publication in the bookstore (oops, i mean on Amazon). This book was very useful for planning, especially with the free country map that is included. You get a good idea of what to expect, the major tourist highlights, and some good ideas on places to stay. I recommend this book for those who 1) are joining a tour, 2) want to see only the major tourist spots, or 3) are not traveling on a budget.
Now, for the drawbacks. First, there are no maps in the book itself, which means that you have only a vague idea where any of the hotels and restaurants really are. This can lead to some serious problems, since most streets have no signs on them! Second, this book give you too few options for hotels. For example, Expedia.com lists many more hotels for the San Jose region. One of these (the Garden Court) is much more convenient if you NEED to stay next to the airport (it's basically an American hotel though, not the reason you flew all the way to Costa Rica). Third, the book is not so useful if you want to rent a car. The car rental companies all surprise you with extra fees and excessive deposits, which would have been nice to know about before dealing with the slick handlers at Advantage (go with Thrifty instead!). The book offers no help with how to navigate the San Jose area. The foldout map itself is not useful for driving, as it doesn't indicate which roads are good and which roads are virtually impassable. We later got a hold of a Lonely Planet guide, which I thought was far superior to the Frommers guide. The Lonely Planet will save you a lot of money and give you better maps of specific towns and regions. In case I don't write a review for that, the Lonely Planet Costa Rica guide gets 5 stars in my book.

I found Frommer's Costa Rica 2006 to be as good as such guides get, and I am reasonably well traveled. By their nature, such guides are generalists, to be supplemented with specialist literature as you narrow your plans. Many other guides presuppose a specialty like ecotourism, and provide value in that way if such specialization happens to fit your plans. The Frommer's seeks to top the generalist guidebook segment, and succeeds and then goes beyond with more frequent updates than specialized guides. So, for current information on lodging and the like, you'll want a Frommer's. Update: P.S. I had to cancel the trip!

Great information on Costa rica and gives you a good overview. I used it to figure out what I wanted to see and then surfed the web for more information. Good guide book to use for things to do and tour numbers. Better than the National Geographic one I bought also. The NG covers mostly area and not tour information.

This guide has good basic info. However, we sometimes wondered what Costa Rica the author visited, i.e., .."If you're a coffee drinker, you might be disappointed here." ..."Ticos tend to prefer theirs weak..." What?!?! In all of our trips to Costa Rica, we have never had a bad cup of coffee. We prefer small local sodas and restaraunts, and have found the coffee to be excellent, strong but not over-roasted in flavor. Also a lot of significant places to stay are omitted, for example, Hotel del Sur in San Isidro and Costa Paraiso and The Coconut Grove, both in Dominical/Dominicalito. A guide worth taking, but, don't assume that it is too comprehensive.

They do a good job of cataloging the main options is every local. It has been helpful with my research. I work in the travel industry, I have never gone wrong with a Frommers guide book.

not much change from the two years before that.. if you can get the previous years much cheaper buy them , if not and it's the first edtion you can get, IT'S STILL WORTH THE MONEY..much better than the other books at describing and offering places to stay I went there the first time all alone and it was my bible..still take it with me each time i go back and that makes 4 times and counting.

Very helpful; I'd recommend it to any of my friends traveling to Costa Rica.

Awesome color pictures and Map. Easy to use and filled with great recommendations. A must have for anyone going to Costa Rica.

I always use Frommers Guides to get accurate and honest information. I was amazed at the detail of this book.