Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island

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

 

 

We just returned from 6 months in South America. We traveled with the Footprint guidebooks but had many opportunities to use the Lonely Planet, as that is what everyone carries.

Almost everyone who was carrying this book complained about it. It is full of errors and the maps are hard to read. Hostal Nancy, in Puerto Natales, for example, is shown on the complete opposite side of town.

Do yourself a favor and try out another guidbook. Get away from the Lonlely Planet people. Look at Footprint or Rough Guide.

I usually don't like the LPs but this one worked out great. I left it in Santiago with my sister. The thing about travel books is that they are just guides to give you ideas. Never go by the book, it makes for a boring life. The best adventures I have every had in South America were the ones that were not planned that goes for life too. The Easter Island part was good because it gave alot of info about the history and culture and gave directions to the museum so that we could get even more info if needed. I also like the Spanish vocab in the back because my Spanish is Mexican border now and guess what a sopa in SA is a bread and here in border land it is a soup. winter in Santiago you want soup not bread. Buy it and see the world the best thing in life is to follow you heart and dreams.

I'm planning a trip to Chile and this book has been so completely helpful. All lonely planet books I've bought in the past have been excellent; always full of honest information for budget/backpacker travelers. They list everything you can imagine from hostels in every area to dinning to ferry schedules and bus routes/rates. I wouldn't trust any other travel book when traveling abroad.

I have used LP guides all over the world, mostly for the maps and hostel listings...so when I went to Chile, I happily bought the Chile guide. I threw it out two weeks later. The maps were incorrect again and again, information was just plain wrong, the listings unhelpful. We ended up walking all over one town looking for a hostel that had been misplaced on a map, we missed buses, and were shocked at how horrible "the best hostel in [a certain town]" was. Fine adventure and all, but after I trashed the LP, we used my friends' Rough Guide instead (which thankfully had correct info) and we saved our time and enjoyed ourselves for the rest of our trip.

Going back to Chile and will visit more regions. This book is not only my perfect guide, but informs me of its history so I will not be totally ignorant and will be able to ask intelligent questions of the natives.

I visited chile in early 2007-I credit this book with the best time of my life...I you go to Lake region around Puerto Montt, this book will tell you all the cool hostels to stay...Organized information and useful...lots of good restaurants and hostels. Also recommend Argentina guide from same publisher...

thanks to lonely planet we found chilestay apartments at www.chilestay.com an inexpensive alternative to a hotel. also, lonely planet provides a comprehensive and updated information about places to visit and enjoy.

We went on a Princess cruise, so only used the guite for Santiago, Chile, Valparaiso, Porte Montte, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, Falklands, montevideo, and BA. Wew found it useful. Did not really use the hotel or restuarant guides.

As the author of "The Complete Guide to Easter Island" (Easter Island Foundation, 2004), I read with much interest the chapter on Easter Island in the 2006 edition of "Chile & Easter Island" by Charlotte Beech, et al. There is one important factual error that readers show know about: The account of the Peruvian slave raids on Easter Island as it appears on page 428 makes reference to an out-dated and erroneous account of Easter Islanders being forced to work the guano deposits on Peru's Chincha Islands. Due to confused personal accounts reported incorrectly by early ethnologists and historians, this story appeared in some of the first Easter Island literature and has been repeated ad nauseam by more contemporary writers who haven't done their homework -- so it's no surprise that it might end up being source material for the authors of "Chile & Easter Island" who may have had little or no way of knowing the inaccuracies involved. But, as Easter Island researcher and author Grant McCall discovered after doing extensive historical and genealogical research on the islanders (including a visit to the Chincha Islands), there is no evidence to support allegations that Easter Islanders were taken to the Chincha Islands. There is evidence that Easter Islanders were taken to coastal plantations in Peru where they were sold as indentured servants, however. One key fact that has been uncovered in investigating this misinformation is that the guano mines were not actually operating at the time of the 1862 slave raids (they were temporarily closed due to Spanish raids), so it's clear that Easter Islanders couldn't even have been on the Chincha Islands. This may all seem like a small matter but, when it comes to Easter Island (where there has been no shortage of nonsense written and far fewer mysteries than most people would like to believe), the more accurate we can get, the better!