Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Costa Rica (Country Guide)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While I agree with the conservationist spirit and general distaste for overrun tourist traps expressed throughout this guidebook by Matthew Firestone (one of the book's two authors), I found his relentlessly negative tone to be extremely off-putting. While the sections written by the other author (Mara Vorhees) are more neutral, informative and generally reflect the high quality I've come to expect from the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks, Matthew Firestone's sections have fully succeeded in dampening my enthusiasm for a trip to Costa Rica before the trip has even begun.

While it may be that the beach at Playa Tamarindo "is full of blubbery North American and European holidaymakers who spend most of their time frying in the sun like beached whales" turning their complexion "from a pasty white to a rosy shade of skin cancer," and while that description does indeed sound like a scene I would rather avoid, I find the author's consistent haughty tone and overriding negativity to be out of place and offensive in a book that is intended for - after all - tourists.

I am still planning what I fully expect to be an exciting and fun vacation in Costa Rica, but now I have to do so in spite of the author of this book's overbearing negativity. It's true, I'm sure, that Costa Rica was once better to visit than it is today, but this book is not for people who knew and loved the country years ago. It's intended for people who have never been there before, and since Mr. Firestone couldn't put aside his sour gripes and focus on what's great about the place rather than bemoaning what's been lost, his words and advice won't be making the trip with me.

This book has been my first disappointment in the Lonely Planet series.

As usual I bought a few guide books and took them all with me. I had the National Geographic, the Tico Times book (Exploring Costa Rica) and the Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet was the bible. All the rest were fluff. As my trip progressed I put the others in the glove compartment and eventually deep in my luggage. The only time I needed anything else was consulting the map (I had a waterproof detailed Costa Rica map which I also recommend) and once when a phone number was misprinted.

As for the preachy tone, yes, I agree, there was a huge element in the book. A lot of it I tended to agree with (I personally think zip line tours are a terrible idea and would make more sense over Manhattan skyscrapers than in one of the world's most precious cloud forests and I also agree that Tamarindo is a hole) so it didn't bother me as much as some of the other reviewers. I wouldn't lower my score by more than half a star for that so they still got 5 stars.

If you want to enjoy traveling to Costa Rica I would recommend another book. If you want to spend your time lamenting about how Costa Rica has changed, how Americans are annoying, and be afraid to take your valuables out of your hotel safe than I recommend you check this book out. I would often read passages out loud to different people I was traveling with. You would think that Jaco is similar to Jersey but with more crack and lots of prostitutes from reading this book. In fact, when I went it was mostly families, a little sketch, but man get a grip. I read the chapter on San Jose and was to afraid to take my camera to the central market and downtown. What a regret! The people everywhere in Costa Rica were so nice. Downtown was crawling with tourists with their cameras and police. It wasn't even remotely sketchy. We could only get reservations in Tamarindo for Christmas day and I was terrified that it was going to be like Myrtle Beach on Spring Break. Yes there were lots of condos but it was still Costa Rica! Dirt Roads. you could walk from one end of town to the other in less then 10 minutes, everyone was nice, the beach was pretty. I just couldn't understand why the authors seemed to hate travel so much and be so hateful towards places where we were going.

Also, the book didn't give a lot of key information about how to get around without a car. We wasted so much time in La Fortuna trying to figure out how to get to the different places we wanted to go. It turns out there isn't a bus, there are only guided tours. They are all expensive. We finally hitchhiked which worked out well but I never go to go on the hanging bridges. I loved Cahuita (it wasn't dangerous) and Dominical. I loved Costa Rica. I am ready to go back.

I just wanted to warn people to stay away from this book. I love guidebooks. I am the kind of psycho that gets them from the library and reads through them even when I am not going anywhere. This one was the worst.

I've taken numerous trips using Lonely Planets and have always found the info useful, correct and up to date. One would expect the same from this book since it was published only a month before our trip (we left Dec '06 and returned home Jan '07). Not so. This book had many questionable endorsements...the food was not nearly as good as indicated. And many places to stay were either not as nice or much nicer than the book indicates.

Information on climbing Cerro Chirripo is terrible hence we only received a one night permit instead of the 3 nights we wanted. Even so, this was the highlight of our 27 day trip. Also, almost no info is given about what to do once you hike Chirripo...from the base camp there is easily 3 days of exploring you can do on your own without one of the inexplicably expensive guides. The sunsets are incredible. But with over 7,000 feet elevation gain on one day and the same to walk down the next, we cursed lonely planet more than once on our way down. Not that we're wimps, we hiked the 50 miles through Corcovado only a few days prior and were in great shape for Chirripo. Its just a lot of stress on the knees.

If you are going to Chirripo, I highly recommend staying at the Rio Chirripo Retreat.

If you are going to Corcovado, you will love staying at Ojo Del Mar.

If you have the chance, The Peace Lodge will blow your mind.

Overall this book is superior to most of the others I reviewed before taking the trip but from Lonely Planet I expected better.

I generally find Lonely Planet Guides quite helpful. This volume, sadly, was written by a couple of Ugly American Backpackers.

Their coverage of San Jose was positively absurd. The author's overstate crime dangers by a comical margin, and come off sounding like the snide "Ugly American" of bygone decades, looking down their noses at the sad, dirty third world. They also fail to comprehend the obvious: if you want to see what life is like for Costa Rica's citizens, you might want to spend some time in the city where most of them actually live.

If nothing else, Lonely Planet would do well to hire a third author that isn't allergic to cities; especially third world cities.

The editors might also simply practice the lost art of editing. Much good information is lost here, in a sea of snide.

I'm an LP loyalist for all my travels, but of all the countries I've visited before, this LP guide seems to have the least accurate information. I only traveled to a small section of CR, flying into Liberia and staying in Playa Grande. Even in that narrow scope, I found listed restaurants that no longer existed and hotel descriptions that were quite off the mark. For example, I chose Hotel El Punto in Liberia as a staging place before flying out on my final night based on this description:

s/d/tr/q US$21/41/48/53 This converted elementary school is now one of the chicest hotels in Liberia, though it would definitely feel more at home in NYC than humble Guanacaste. Rooms here are ultramodern loft apartments with private showers, small kitchens, Japanese minimalist accents and plenty of MOMA worthy art. This spot is recommended as the rooms are severely underpriced.

The decor is more IKEA than Japanese or MOMA, but the room is decent and one of the nicer places in town. It cost $90 per night for 2 people, however. In Liberia, that is far from "severely underpriced" and more than double what was noted in LP. The staff said that they have been trying to tell LP for a long time that the prices are incorrect, as it doesn't suit them to have travelers becoming immediately disappointed upon their arrival.

LP was right in recommending Hotel Las Tortugas in Playa Grande, however. The value for what you get is incredible - right on the beach, great food, great staff, great price.

I did notice the negative tone that other reviewers mentioned, but being a person that typically wants to avoid tourist traps and exploitation of land or locals, it did not bother me that much.

On a recent trip, I had a few travel guides with me, and one of them was The Lonely Planet's Costa Rica. I found the Lonely Planet guide useful, but a bit dry. I also took Explore Costa Rica (5th ed.) by Harry S. Pariser, and enjoyed reading and using the two books in tandem. We could get the nuts and bolts from Lonely Planet--they are GREAT for this--as well as a lot of lesser known background information from Pariser, and the two worked together fabulously. In fact, come to think of it, I usually take a Lonely Planet and Pariser combo when I go Central America or the Caribbean...In any case, I highly recommend using both books to explore the country, and get away from the tourist traps which have become so prevalent!

I always use Lonely Planet and have always been thoroughly impressed. However, the LP Costa Rica must have bad authors because it didn't compare to the others.
Accomodations: They leave out some really good ones and rave about some really bad ones.
Eating: They choose all the most touristy restaurants, none of which are worthy of praise. When I travel, I like an authentic experience - I don't like going to places with "tourist menus" and I don't like falling into tourist traps. I felt like LP was always guiding me towards those traps.
Pricing: Totally off - I think that the prices go up exponentially in Costa Rica, so don't depend on LP for the current prices.

Altogether, I would say LP CR is better than the other books for the country (Frommer's, Fodor's) in that it is more thorough, but it is one of the weaker Lonely Planet books.

I bought this book from Amazon.com prior to a recent missions trip to keep on hand as a reference. It was recommended by one of the Costa Rican translators as one of the best guides. It turned out that one of the trip leaders needed to borrow it to get up-to-date information for the "free day" portion of the trip.

This travel guide came in very handy. It provides a wealth of information on a variety of topics. The only thing I would add is a large map, but quality maps are available for purchase elsewhere at reasonable cost (just don't buy in-country).

I enthusiastically recommend this guide.

I found the guide to be off-base in many areas. The authors seemed to have nothing but complaints about many of the places described. Instead of giving facts about where to find a cheap room or good place to eat the book seemed to continually drone on about how bad everything is. If I followed their advice I would have missed some great experiences (Zip lines are bad for the environment?) Not what I was looking for in a travel companion.