Lonely Planet Central America (Shoestring Travel Guide) [Paperback]

Carolyn McCarthy (Author), Greg Benchwick (Author), Joshua Samuel Brown (Author), Alex Egerton (Author), Matthew Firestone (Author), Kevin Raub (Author), Tom Spurling (Author), Lucas Vidgen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2010 | Series: Shoestring Travel Guide

Lonely Planet knows Central America. Whether you want to explore ancient Maya ruins, zip through rainforest canopies or search out the best surf breaks, this 7th edition is your key to adventure.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Full color highlights chapter with top picks from other travelers
Detailed itineraries to get you started on your trip to Central America
Unique Green Index makes ecofriendly travel that much easier

Product Details

• Paperback: 776 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 7 edition (November 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741791472
• ISBN-13: 978-1741791471
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 5.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Budget Travel
  • #9 in Books > Travel > Central America > General

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Green Index a disappointment, but otherwise very useful April 11, 2011

By duermite

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just returned from 2 months traveling through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala. Because I was covering a lot of ground in a little time, I used the book extensively for the busing information, which I found quite accurate. Bus departure times were much more reliable than I expected, though when possible I always asked around and tried to arrive a little early. Prices overall were also reasonably close, even in Honduras where they include a disclaimer that prices were extremely low during their research due to the drama with President Zelaya.

The biggest inaccuracies seemed to be with restaurants either no longer existing, or not being all they were cracked up to be, so I found it more useful to ask around. With hostels and hotels, I was bummed that lp's "our pick" was often out of typical backpacker price range and many of the lower priced rooms were really talked up. You'll have to learn to read between the lines if you're traveling on a really low budget: "well scrubbed" might actually mean brightly painted and "simple" might mean dirty and the toilet doesn't work.

I loved the idea of the green index, but in practice, didn't use it once. It felt like lp just threw that in there to make it seem like they cared, but didn't really put any effort into it. The 2 page index leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of warning that some hardwoods sold in the markets are endangered, tell me which hardwoods are endangered and which are ok to buy. Same thing with seafood - tell me which are harvested sustainably in which areas. Lp was especially contradictory in this respect, noting that I shouldn't eat conch or lobster outside their seasons in Belize, but constantly recommending lobster dishes in Utila, Honduras (where they have no lobster season and harvesting is never very sustainable).

Another, minor, qualm I had was their budget approximations in the beginning of each country chapter. These are budgets if you are doing little to nothing other than eating and sleeping and maybe one inexpensive activity. I'll admit, this could easily just be my own misunderstanding of how to use the book, maybe that's what lp intended, but I didn't have lots of research time before my trip so I used these budgets as a baseline and it didn't work for me.

Overall, I did find this book extremely useful and the negatives above are meant as constructive criticisms and things I would've liked to know beforehand. Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring helped me significantly during my travels, but you'll never fully experience a place relying solely on a book so just make sure you don't expect the world from it and you'll likely be very happy!

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good guidebook, Kindle failure April 14, 2011

By John Walzer

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Formatting a guidebook for an e-book reader presents challenges that LP clearly has not worked out yet. First are the maps: if shown whole, they are too tiny to be readable; if cut into pieces, each piece shows a tiny area. Worse, the legend, with names of hotels, restaurants, etc. is often cut in two, literally breaking words and rendering it useless. (An interim solution: anyone buying a Kindle guidebook can download, for free, a packet of PDF maps for that guidebook.)

The use of icons - telephone, WiFi, clocks - taller than the text causes ragged spaces to appear between lines. Bad links often lead to unrelated text elsewhere in the book. It is difficult to navigate; one has to return to the table of contents and click on country, region, etc. There is no index in the back.

Some sections of the book are riddled with errors that make one question whether anyone is minding the store. The "Costa Rica" chapter, for example, is loaded with typographical boo-boos: what should be an apostrophe instead looks like the two Chinese characters for "blind proofreader." Even the capital, San José, is rendered "San Josă".

As e-book readers grow in sophistication, and if Lonely Planet dedicates itself to exploiting the new medium creatively, Kindle could be an effective vehicle for guidebooks. As of now, however, I would avoid this Kindle failure and buy the paper edition.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't miss with Lonely Planet! April 11, 2011

By Leslie B. Chaplin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been to 43 countries and lived in 10 so I think that I am qualified to rate a travel book. I usually take a look at other travel guides out there but still can't find a better overall guide than Lonely Planet. It gives you information that you won't easily stumble over on the internet and is always pretty much up-to-date.