Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Cuba

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

 

 

... the following letter was sent by us to LP after using the (then) fresh off the press LP Cuba in July 2004. We still did not hear from them.

-A.

Dear Madam/Sir:

We have been avid travelers for the most part of our lives and cumulatively have entry stamps from over 140 countries to boast. For the past 10 years, we have primarily used Lonely Planet to aid travels around the world (see attached picture of subset of LP library).

Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we toured Cuba in June with the LP Cuba (2004 edition). We have never been let down more by a travel guide in our entire lives. Of course, things change ... prices go up ... schedules evolve; but never have we seen a guide so off the mark. Here are a few reasons why LP Cuba is simply the worst guide we have ever used:

1/ Biased Politics -

Authors love for Cuba makes them overlook many negative aspects of both Cuban society and travel in Cuba. Neither of us are Americans and we do not support the American government sanction on Cuba or Americans traveling there. However, we fail to see the need to vilify each U.S. government action while simultaneously painting a picture of the perfect socialist State. True, Cuba has some of the best social indicators in the Americas - but please also point out the "Dollar is King" economy, the sad "apartheid" regime, which allows clubs/bars/cafés/restaurants and even whole islands with some of the country's best beaches to be exclusive domain of just tourists. How could the authors marvel at social indicators when you could sit at Hotel Inglaterra's patio, sip a mojito and gaze at the Cubans who cannot enter?

2/ Biased Interpretations of Dangers -

The section on Warnings, Scams, and Travel Advisory is the skimpiest we have ever seen. Why? Cuba still might be the safest destination to be in the Americas, but that's not saying much is it? Both my friend and I (and an informal survey pointed to over 70% of the tourists) were subject to daring robberies by some very skilled "jintero's" (our advice: please do NOT give rides to anyone - other than old people or women with small children - especially if crossing the circumference of metro Havana going from A1 to A4 highway). We never thought it would happen to two skilled travelers - but it did. As our informal survey indicates, our later conversation with many travelers indicated many who had been robbed, mugged, conned, etc. during their travels and almost all agreed to have let their guards down due to the lax coverage of security by the authors. In future editions of LP Cuba, PLEASE do not call "jintero's" as charming Cubans who need to be told off and do not write that the best solution is to become friends with one! Perhaps the author's personal experience(s) with a "jintero" clouded their ability to make rational judgements? "Jintero's" are EXTREMELY dangerous!

Furthermore, the authors fails to point out the many tourist traps in most of the tourist towns - especially in Trinidad.

3/ Biased Interpretation of Bureaucracy -

Why is their no comprehensive section which deals with the level of bureaucracy and corruption that each tourist must face while vacationing in Cuba? In our experience, we were stunned at the need to pay bribes at the airport, at the car rental place (our advice: please plan from before and avoid the Transtur car rental agency in Copacabana Hotel near Miramar or going through Canadian agent A. Nash Travel Inc. in Ontario). After our robbery, we spent many hours in a police station trying to get a report done but it seemed that no one was willing to help. After having spoken to more than 10 officers over the period of 2 days, our report miraculously appeared when a $10 bill was slipped between our passports. I mean, don't get us wrong - from extensive traveling and by the virtue of one of the letter writers being from India, we KNOW bureaucracy and corruption - but Cuba took the game to a whole new level. Again for some reason, the authors were completely off the mark.

4/ General Info, Maps, Prices, Numbers, Layouts -

Prices go up; inflation is a part of daily lives. But how do you explain almost 200% price hikes between what's printed and the reality? These numbers are especially depressing given a/ this edition was hot off the press b/ the official inflation was running below 5-10% band c/ we traveled in low season and the prices listed were for high season. Our hunch that the authors never actually checked the prices and conduct the required background work was confirmed as we asked all the places we stayed at and NONE had the authors visit them in over 4 years!

Worse than prices are phone numbers and access codes. I challenge the authors to call the numbers in the book - I am willing to buy them a plane ticket if calling the numbers gives the right destination more than 50% of the time. I know that's a low expectation rate to give someone a plane ticket, but that is exactly how inaccurate this guide is. E.g. try calling the numbers in Cayo Santa Maria. We asked the Department of Telecommunication if there had been any recent systematic changes in the telephone numbers and they answered in the negative.

Outside these 2 main sub thematic issues, the maps in LP Cuba were highly inaccurate. One of our favourite reminders of Cuba was coming across many tourists at major junctions looking at the maps from LP Cuba trying to make some sense. Another was when we were driving through Santa Clara for one hour in search for a recommended wellness/massage place that does not exist anywhere close to where it is marked on the map (actually, none of the Cubans we have been asking has ever heard of the place). Furthermore, the new layout made it VERY hard to find things. Please go back to the old layout - it made more sense. I don't know if other readers had gripes but it was very complex going back and forth as opposed to the ease of the last format.

Our hope from this letter is to encourage Lonely Planet to conduct a systematic review of their guide to Cuba. Moreover, it is to remind to LP that irrespective of their disclaimers, tourists do depend on them and basic expectations warrant the authors to conduct thorough investigations before sending a book to print. If there are any other questions, both of us are available via the internet to answer them. We sincerely hope LP takes our feedback into consideration and incorporates them into the next edition of its travel guide to Cuba.


Warm Regards,
MO, AD

Though David Stanley is a good, informative writer, he still knacks the expression and fire of the Cuban travel guide writer, Christopher Baker (see review). However, Stanley's economic analysis (in the Facts about Cuba section, which is also very good) is the best out in a guide book today.

The strength of this guide, as with most all Lonely Planet guides, is that they are an excellent source for information that is often disregarded in other guides (i.e., paragliding, language schools, how to get a tour bus to transport you at a fraction of what you would pay for a taxi, etc.).

Though I think this guide is ONE OF THE BEST, there are a few areas that, as in the old report card mark stated, N/I - needs improvement. I found this guide more difficult to navigate than other Cuban guides; mainly because of a paltry index. The index DID NOT list hotels or restaurants and this required that I to flip through each section until I found the listing I wanted information on (especially a hassle in Havana). The maps, though plentiful (68), could use improvement by adding color plates and clear/cleaner definition. The best guide book for clear, easy-to-use maps for Cuba are in Michelin's Neos Guides and Moon Travel.

These points noted, I do not hesitate recommending Cuba by David Stanley - 2000. I thoroughly enjoyed his upfront commentary on Cuba - though some anti-Castro individuals will find him politically incorrect, I found his views on communist Cuba and Fidel refreshing. Recommended

Over the last 7 years, I have made many trips to Cuba becauseof the business that I do there. I have a copy of David's guide and Iread it regularly to find out about new places to visit, refresh mymemory about places I missed and to keep track of new developmentsthat are appearing throughout Cuba. There is so much happening downthere right now, that this guide is a must and if you are lucky enoughto visit Cuba in the near future (before mass tourism) make sure youtake a copy of this guide. With it, you can leave the regular touristareas and visit those fantastic out-of-the-way places that still existin this country.

In the LP, the layout for Havana/suburbs/outlying areas is very difficult to follow. maps aren't consecutive, and the division of restaurants vs paladars divided by neighborhood and separated by pages of other stuff is hard to manage when you just want to know "where to eat". However, if you're just visiting Havana, i suggest another guidebook: the Time Out Guide. the maps are in color, easy to access (at the back of the book), and there is much more up to date stuff on current events, social attitudes/mores, clubs etc.

It is not easy to write a book about Cuba, whether it be a book on politics and society, or whether it be simply a travel guidebook. Cuba remains a communist island under the iron fist of a minority, and all research work, all travel, all writing, is closely scrutinized by the central apparatus. Despite the restrictions he must have met in such a situation, author David Stanley has produced a truly outstanding work, a perfect guide for the traveler who may wish to go to Cuba for the most disparate reasons, from sightseeing to good food, from snorkeling to biking, etc. David has truly been throughout the island, getting to know all its cities and places far better than a local. Well done ! It will be hard to replace, with a book, the emotions, the warmth, the spirit of Cuba which can only be found on the island itself. Nevertheless, this book is certainly very close to achieving that, and will be a true companion throguhout your journey to this wonderful Caribbean island, the star of the Caribbean, the biggest of the Antilles, as it has been called on different occasions.

Of the three major publishers of Cuba guidebooks (Moon Handbook, Fodors and Lonely Planet), I found the Lonely Planet guide the least useful. The maps are terrible and (be warned) inaccurrate for driving outside Havana. The most recent edition is outdated in many respects, with museums and hotels having been much changed since this edition was published.

Then, there's the book's politics. And the reason that I mention the politics in this book is because they are not just merely in the political or history sections of the book, but that the author permeates even the descriptions of the attractions throughout the island with his all-too-rabid political thoughts. In a rather unorthodox (and well-hidden) forward to a travel guidebook, the author writes, "I admit I'm sometimes politically incorrect... The negative approach usualy taken by the US mass media certainly doesn't foster understanding." Frankly, neither does this book. I have never thought that The New York Times nor The Washington Post have been particularly supportive of the embargo, nor of the CIA's highly negative actions in Latin America.

As a left-leaning American who is staunchly anti-embargo, I still found the writings in this book warped and unnessarily anti-American. The politics in this book are staunchly pro-Castro and do not begin to offer the more balanced accounts of Cuba in Fodor's and Moon (both of which discuss the good as well as the bad in Castro's Cuba). It seems the author did not remotely try to understand American politics, that the majority of the American people are and have been against the embargo for quite some time, and that the embargo continues to be in force mainly AND ironically because of the strong political clout of Cuban-American exiles in Miami (by contrast, these facts do appear in Fodor's and Moon).

I came away from Cuba feeling that the Revolution in Cuba has created much that is good for its people, but also that its citizens are denied freedom of speech and the press, and that everyone is in a state of poverty. I found Costa Rica, for example, as equally and proudly independent as Cuba, with similar good literacy and health care as Cuba, but also with a free press and a higher standard of living than Cuba. Cuba, in fact, should logically have a higher standard of living than Costa Rica since the former was heavily subsidized by the USSR for decades.

But you cannot escape the author's America bashing in the Lonely Planet guide, nor the rampant politics. For a more balanced approach, and a much better guide to the attractions, try the Fodor's or Moon guides.

I just studied in Cuba for four months, with a group of 20 other students, which gave me the opportunity to look over almost all of the Cuba guidebooks on the market. Lonely Planet was definitely the worst...if you're only going to be in Cuba for a few days, then it's fine. But if you want to really learn about the country's fascinating history and culture, don't opt for LP. I was one of two students to buy the Moon Handbook, and the other students were constantly borrowing it, because their Lonely Planet books just didn't have enough information.

Having spent every winter in Cuba for the past 7 years, I have found David Stanley's new guide to be a complete and invaluable source of information not available anywhere else. Certainly is a must-have, both for first time visitor and the most experienced travellers. Dianne Jefferson; manager Cuban Connection Tours

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

The Cuba guide is a good, complete guide. Filled with information, history and beautiful pictures about almost every corner of this gorgeous country. Reading the whole book gives you a good update on your history and geography knowledge! (Something to do if you are trekking around by bus and train like I did!)

I particularly enjoyed the facts about Cuba and the story of Cuba. It is obvious that the author of this guide David Stanley has a passion for the country, and that he is very knowledgeable when it comes to Cuba and its' political history.

The information given is good, and I found it to be very accurate. An advantage was of course that this guide came out in July 2000 and I visited Cuba in October the same year so the guide had just been updated!

I can recommend both Cuba and this guide....

This LP guide is the best for information, history, prices and a good unbiased account of the Cuba-US relationship. This is far better than the Moon guide, the only exception is that the maps try and cram a lot in a small place -bigger maps please. But this is an minor grumble. I travelled around Cuba by myself speaking no Spanish and found my LP to be my second-best friend (after my Cuban hosts). Go to Cuba & take LP with you.