6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Coverage of The Big Island was so bad I bought a different book during my trip., February 16, 2009
This review is from: Let's Go Hawaii 5th Edition (Paperback)
I just returned from a 3 week low budget trip to Hawaii's big island and I have only the faintest of praise for this travel guide. Let me tell you about why I selected this guide in the first place.
The front page features quotes from newspaper & magazine reviews with gems such as "The guides are aimed not only at young budget travelers", "Let's Go follows the creed that you don't have to toss your life's savings to the wind to travel", and "all the dirt, dirt cheap." And over on the 4th to last page Let's Go describes itself as a company that can "show you just how far your money can go."
Alright. So this book should give me the skinny on how to make it 3 weeks on the cheap, right? Wrong wrong wrong! And with a 2009 copyright date you'd think this would be the most up to date guide? Better than Lonely Planet's
Hawaii: The Big Island (Regional Guide) guide from 2008, eh? Wrong wrong wrong! The front says information was compiled May - Aug 2008 but that's a damn lie as far as the Big Island is concerned.
Here's a small list of errors I can recall offhand:
* Spencer Beach Park is never mentioned in the book. Really, it's not in the list of county parks nor on the map.
* Volcano's Lava Rock Cafe does not have free wifi (as claimed on page 221), it's $10 a day (as claimed on page 220).
* The map of Puna twice, twice(!) labels an area with "active lava ows", you know, flows.
* Business hours for Waimea Coffe Co are wrong.
* Quoted price range for the Dolphin Bay Hotel is from the last decade
* No mention of the multi-million dollar Isaac Hale Beach Park renovations
I think the problem with the coverage of Hawaii, and likely the problem with this series in general is its charter which "unfortunately [only] enables us to employ currently enrolled Harvard students." What are the chances that Philip "Beamer" Eisele, the fellow that covered the big island is a local? Slim and none. There's no way that from a talent pool limited to current Harvard students are you going to find a local from every part of the world that wants to write for your book series.
Halfway through the trip in Hilo I purchased the digital copy of the big island section from Lonely Planet's
Hawaii (Regional Guide) online. It rocks! All the little details are amazing. Like the note on how the winds pick up at night in Hapuna beach's cabins (they really do!). Ah, anyway, just go buy either of the Lonely Planet guides instead of this monster.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, July 23, 2009
This review is from: Let's Go Hawaii 5th Edition (Paperback)
As someone who generally prefers Let's Go travel guides for budget information, and dry sense of humor, I was terribly disappointed with the quality of their 2009 edition of this book (2009 is the copyright date).
While I understand that some information in guide books is going to be obsolete simply due to the printing process, I don't expect it to be this obsolete.
For example: The book references the Piliani Highway on Maui re-opening sometime in late 2008. The highway, according to several internet sources (including local newspapers) was actually reopened in October 2007. This, unfortunately, isn't the only place this occurs.
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