Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring [Paperback]

Tom Brosnahan (Author), Carolyn Hubbard (Author), Barbara Reioux (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring | Publication Date: September 1997

This guide covers travel in Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. It is designed for travellers on all budgets and includes 127 updated maps, a Spanish language section and details of transportation options.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You can't go anywhere in Central America without seeing this book poking out of the backpacks of true travelers. With more than 100 easy-to-read maps, historical and cultural information, the goods on the best of low-budget eats and lodging, plus a useful language section, this book might be second in packing priority only to your passport. Lonely Planet's tried-and-true method of organization will help you quickly find out how to "get there and away," get around each of your destinations and, eventually, get home! Researched countries include Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. If your itinerary includes one or more of these places, this book is an indispensable resource.

Product Details

• Paperback: 818 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 3rd edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0864424183
• ISBN-13: 978-0864424181
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,302,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Brosnahan is a veteran travel writer who has written 40 guidebooks. He now writes travel websites including TurkeyTravelPlanner.com, NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com, FranceTravelPlanner.com, ParisTravelPlanner.com, EgyptTravelPlanner.com, and St MoritzTravelPlanner.com, offering free in-depth travel information to nearly five million travelers annually.

His humorous travel memoir, "Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea" (available through Amazon.com) relates his experiences as a Peace Corps English teacher in Turkey (1967-68), and his--sometimes hilarious, sometimes perilous--travels on assignment.

Born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania, Tom Brosnahan graduated from Tufts University in 1967, joined the Peace Corps, and went to Turkey to teach English. In Turkey he discovered a fascinating country little known in North America or Europe. He wrote Frommer's "Turkey on $5 a Day" (1972) as a Peace Corps project to encourage tourism and increase acquaintance with Turkey. During the next 20 years, the guidebook was the best-seller to the destination, going through seven editions, up to Turkey '92-'93 on $40 a Day.

After graduate studies on a US Title V fellowship, Tom returned to Istanbul in 1974 on a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship fellowship for 15 months' research of 19th-century Ottoman legal documents for his PhD dissertation.

As jobs for historians were lacking in academia, he instead became a travel writer, guidebook author, photographer and consultant on travel information. His 40 guidebooks to Belize, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Guatemala, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, New England, Tunisia and Turkey for Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Berlitz and Insight have sold over four million copies worldwide, and have been translated into ten languages. His Lonely Planet guide to Turkey became the best-seller to the destination shortly after its publication in 1985. Tom also wrote the original editions of the Lonely Planet's "Istanbul" guide, "Turkish Phrasebook," and "Turkey Travel Atlas."

Tom served as a founding Contributing Editor for "Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel" magazine. Many of his travel articles and photographs have been published in other leading newspapers and magazines as well.

Tom has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including ABC's "Good Morning America," NPR's "Talk of the Nation," the Travel Channel, and PRI's "The Connection." He has given lectures on Turkey at the American Turkish Council's annual conference, the Smithsonian Institution, the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, and other organizations.

His travel-information consulting clients have included many top names in the travel and public relations industries, as well as the Turkish Embassy in Washington. He is currently a consultant to Dream Design Factory of Istanbul, a prominent advertising and public relations company that has developed many worldwide annual advertising and publicity campaigns for Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

He is a longtime member of the Society of American Travel Writers, and has served two terms on its board of directors.

In 2000 he founded Travel Info Exchange, Inc., a developer of destination websites. TurkeyTravelPlanner.com now serves four million visitors from 213 countries annually. Other TIE websites include NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com, SipNewEngland.com, FranceTravelPlanner.com, ParisTravelPlanner.com, EgyptTravelPlanner.com, and St MoritzTravelPlanner.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LP - Does it again! Central Am. makes it easy!, March 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring (Paperback)

I am doing a PeaceBike trip around the world so I have read a fair share of travel guides. As I am biking I want a guide book that will prepare me for what's ahead and give me just enough tips to make the adventure fun and not a ¨wild hotel¨ chase.

Lonely Planet's Central America on a Shoestring includes everything I need. It has got very detailed maps of almost every town I pass through. It has a section for every town as to where the good eats are and often reviews the vegitarian restaurants which for this vegi-biker is a real treat!

I have found that other guidebook series give you just a few options as far as cheap places to stay but this guidebook gives you at least five places to stay in each town or city that are real bargains.

I like to learn a bit about the country I am going to before I enter it. Central America on a Shoestring has a good little history section for each country as well as many of the sites. This way when you get to Tikal you have a map in hand to follow around the ruins. You have got a concise history of what the place is about plus if you want to stay a little longer that you thought this books adds enough Places To Stay options so that you never have to panic. One other thing I really like about this book (and this may only be of real help to other bikers)is that it often gives road and uphill, downhill information which is vital when you are planning how far you are going each day. Central America on a ShoeString and a few country maps and you are set!

Their huge number of city maps, the mini Spanish language guide, the consistent and thorough sub sections all make this book a must. I might even say, the only. I used this book on my bike trip and I am writing this from Central America and I'm loving it. The book and the region!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can never go wrong with a Lonely Planet guide!, March 2, 2001

By 

Hilde Bygdevoll (Stavanger, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring (Paperback)

I have just returned to Norway after a year backpacking around in Latin America (of course accompanied by the Lonely Planet books). I do not claim to be an expert, but I know what I look for in a travel guide!

This edition of the LP Central America did not disappoint me. I used it, going from Panama to Guatemala by bus(!). It is up to date on the information, and as with all the other LP books it is easy to find your way around with it. It includes maps over the big cities, good information about the hotels, restaurants, places worth visiting, and time schedules for bus, train etc. You have to take into account that this is a guide that is meant to cover the whole Central America so naturally it is not as detailed as the guides for each country separate. It is good as an overall guide if you plan to go to more than one or two countries, as you would try to cut down on the baggage to carry around.

As for the prices for hotels and food, the book is fairly accurate.. It is hard to keep up with all the changes, especially in the Latin American economy, where the inflation is "somewhat" higher than in the rest of the world. So, for prices - if you are on a backpacker-budget, do your own research, or at least be prepared for changes! (We usually multiplied the prices in the book with 1,5 and that gave us a good indicator of what to expect).

You will find that if you are walking around with the LP book under your arm, many of the local people will approach you and ask you if you need help. Say yes - even if you don't need help! It is a great opportunity to get in contact with the local people!

This book is a must on your travel!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Travels in Nicaragua and Honduras in January 2000, July 2, 2001

By 

Erin L. Mayer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring (Paperback)

My father and I traveled to Nicaragua and Honduras in January 2000. This guide was helpful as a security blanket for information on the different cities and towns we visited, but we couldn't rely much on the lodging, restaurant, and/or transit information due to it being outdated and that natural disasters had changed some of the roads/cities since the book was written.

The information on daytrips was great - we ended up seeing a couple of towns within an easy journey of Teguchigalpa, Honduras and Managua thanks to the LP guide. Especially like the organization of the LP books, which really helped outline an itinerary that made sense prior to our departure. With the "Getting there & away" section about each destination, it was easy to figure out how to modify that itinerary as needed "on the fly."

Previously, I'd used LP for travels in Bolivia and been very impressed with the detail and level of information for La Paz (the capital). We found the level of detail a little lacking in the Central America guide probably because Nicaragua/Honduras were only two small sections of the book. So I guess I'd recommend this book for an overview, but would suggest finding a guide with more current, updated detailed information and/or an increased focus on the country/cities you're visiting.