Customer Reviews

Moon Costa Rica (Moon Handbooks)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I usually purchase Lonely Planet guides, but the LP Costa Rica was too old. Moon was more recently published and I'm very glad that I was able to try out a different series. I was very impressed with Moon Costa Rica and the Moon series will definitely be one that I check first when looking for a guidebook in the future.

The similarities with LP mainly come from the tone in which it was written since it was authored by a Brit (much like most of the LP books I've used in the past). And this author has a tremendous amount of knowledge of Costa Rica as well as Latin America. The layout was logical and easy to navigate.

Of all the Costa Rica guidebooks on the shelf this one had the most, and most detailed, maps. In small towns where there are no road signs and "intestinal" roads that make getting turned around and confused very easy these detailed and zoomed-in maps came in very, very handy.

Of all the guidebooks it also devoted the most amount of pages to the areas where we were visiting (the Pacific beaches/Nicoya peninsula and the Arenal volcano area).

I liked this guidebook especially because it gave me the feeling that nothing was left out. For instance, while driving by the tiniest town I noticed that it would be mentioned in the guidebook even if very little was written about it.

As a loyal Lonely Planet reader, I thought Moon would be as good or better, considering the reviews for the two. This book is written for the author's ideals only - anyone who is really into sportfishing and seeing expats exclusively while traveling. It does a poor job of listing the more budget-minded lodging and restaurants, and has little to no mention of info that would suit someone with cultural interest. All restaurants and lodging are "to avoid the Ticos, book here" or "try expat Chuck and Susan's place, here". It would help someone book an entire trip to see other travelers traveling, and to go fishing. Disappointed, I went to the bookstore and paged through LP's older, more concise guide book, and was thrilled to see better descriptions, more color pictures, and more cultural insight. Moon's book also packs an extra 100 pages of Costa Rican history - something that is nice, but not necessary to take with me in a backpack trekking around the country.
Lastly, the author has an absurd overuse with superlatives! "This beach is the best in the country" and "the wildlife in this park is unmatched" - these are good descriptions, but when applied to every park and every beach, given that there are dozens, it makes it difficult for the traveler to make an informed decision to organize their best trip to Costa Rica.
Overall I was disappointed and will be buying a different guide book to take with me.

This book attempts to serve as a tavel guide for both the budget and the upscale price segments for trips to Costa Rica. It was first published (over) 15 years ago in 1994. This review considers the 6th edition of the book, which was the most current version when we made our trip in 2009.

While we cannot speak for the upscale price segment, this travel book utterly failed on us as a guide for our backpack tour through Costa Rica. It appears to us as if much of the information provided in the book is outdated and has not been properly updated.

The reasons for why we are so disappointed with the book include the following experiences:

1) In 2009 a change in the telephone system of Costa Rica took place. While the book briefly mentions this in the last chapter, it does not explain how this change affects the old seven digit numbers. Without this rather simple information (a number 2 must precede the seven digit numbers) all telephone numbers in the book are rendered useless. While this detail may not have been available when the 6th edition was published in 2007, we would have welcomed to be given a hotline number or an operator at the least, through which the necessary information could be obtained.

2) Hotels which are mentioned in the book are occasionally missing from the maps (e.g. Cashew Hill Jungle Lodge and Kaja's Place, Puerto Viejo).

3) The information about getting to Tortugero is rather misleading. The water taxis are not public, but run by a private operator. Thus the fare for the trip is not $6, but $35-40 (one-way). According to the locals the public water taxies were put out of operation as early as 1991 (!). The telephone number given in the book does not reach the taxi operator, but the port's main entrance gate. Furthermore the taxi trip from Puerto Limon to the port is not $4 but $10 (here the author contradicts himself, the error can be spotted by looking up the taxi meter rates at the end of the book).

4) The information on Cashew Hill Jungle Lodge, Puerto Viejo, is not correct. The Lodge does not offer any of the rooms mentioned in the book, instead it offers rental cottages for a much higher price. This can even be looked up at the very website which is provided in the book.

5) The telephone number of Tamarunda Lodge, Puerto Viejo, is not correct (wrong number).

6) On page 595 the author describes that tourists occasionally get pulled over by police men in the hope for bribes, because rental cars can be spotted by the letters TUR on the license plates. During the two weeks that we spent in Costa Rica we did not see a single car with such license plates, nor seemed our own car which we rented in the second week to be marked in such a way.


After our travels we went to the book store to have a look at the Lonely Planet guide for Costa Rica. It was surprising to find that a lot of the information which we missed in the Moon guide could actually be found in the Lonely Planet. We suspect that in the future we might be better of with a book that considers budget travel only, but does not aim to deliver information on both the budget and the upscale price segment.

I just returned (7/08) from a trip to Costa Rica. My sister and I had the Moon guide as well as the LP. Although LP's guide bears an older copyright date, it was the Moon guide that seemed out of date, and it contained many errors, ranging from incorrect phone numbers, to badly out of date prices, to outdated hotel descriptions, to listing no-longer-existent tour and transfer companies. It basically became dead weight in the baggage.

An example: the Moon Guide discourages individuals from visiting the Aviarios del Caribe sloth rescue center, near Cahuita, alleging that it now only welcomes cruise ship groups. In actuality, my sister and I were warmly welcomed and given a wonderful tour -- a highlight of the trip. (And: the admission fee was much lower than what Moon listed.) Travelers following the Moon guide advice would miss out on a wonderful experience.

I don't know the author's actual research methods, but I sometimes had trouble believing he had personally visited many of the hotels and restaurances he describes; I suspect heavy reliance on user feedback.

Costa Rica is certainly changing fast -- in general, prices were significantly higher than either Moon or LP listed, and hotels tended to have been upgraded. Towns listed as not having banks, in fact do. I can't believe, though, that all the changes we saw had happened just in the year or two since the Moon guide was supposedly updated.

Christopher Baker makes this one of the most versatile guide books for Costa Rica to be found on the market! You get a lot of info for one book-historical, nature, lodging, restaurants, things to see and do -my favorite! Thanks!

This certainly wasn't a pretty picture book with very few colored pages, but the information and many maps turned out quite useful for our 11 day trip to Costa Rica. We already booked our hotels and rental car in advance, so had a good idea of where to go in general, but the details for restaurants, parks, and other atractions were appreciated. Unlike somet of the other reviewers I found there to be a range of recommendations from the budget traveler to luxury options with no particular bias for expat establishments. We found a great Tico cafeteria restaurant through the guide that was better than other similar restaurants in the area. The author also gave precise driving recommendations about the state of different roads for the rainy season when we were traveling. This helped us avoid blindly following the GPS along river crossings which could not be passed. For the much reduced Amazon price the Moon guide is a worthy alternative to the other higher priced guides from LP, Frommer's, Fodor's...

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, as I photographed the cover art. Having lived in Costa Rica and traveled there many times, I was interested in the content and immediately set about looking through the book. I found many of my favorite hotels described exactly as they are, in such glowing detail that I find myself wanting to go back. The writing is engaging and it's clear the author knows the country inside and out, often inserting blurbs on future projects where relevant. It's also well illustrated with b&w photos throughout. This is THE guidebook on Costa Rica!

Also recommended: Moon Guatemala (Moon Handbooks)

I love these Moon guidebooks. They set the right tone for travel. For example, they don't try to scare you out of driving someplace as the other guidebooks always seem to do, but instead tell you information about driving in the place matter-of-factly. They don't try to force you to agree with their slanted liberal beliefs as Lonely Planet always seems to do, and I'd even beleive that the authors have been to the location in question unlike a lot of other guidebooks.

I attribute these qualities to the fact that Moon is still a rather small group of books, concentrating mostly on Latin America. As they grow, I expect the quality will decrease, but I hope that doesn't happen. For now they are great.

I also like the fact that there are a lot of black and white pictures in these books, along with some color photos. I can take my own photos when I get there, but I like to have some idea of what they are talking about in the meantime, making the higher quantity of photos without sacrificing text quality desireable. They also have some great boxed texts with personal travel stories that give a good example of some cultural aspect and offer an interesting read.

The review concerns the sixth edition.

I read 80% of this guide book before I went on the trip. I found it to be a pleasure to read, interesting and very well laid out.

This book gave me a good understanding of what my options were while visiting Costa Rica. Although planning the trip was difficult I felt like I understood what I would gain or give up by choosing one destination over another. I was able to plan a trip that matched my needs and that I thoroughly enjoyed.

For the record I was traveling on a fairly low budget and stayed in hostels the whole time. I do not share the opinion that this book is not useful to backpackers although to be fair I also relied heavily on the internet, especially websites like hostelsworld and trip advisor.

I will say that I was led astray by this book when it came to getting the bus from San Jose to San Isidro. They do not leave from just outside the Coca Cola bus station and haven't for a while. If going to San Isdro you need to ask the taxi driver to take you to the Musco bus station. A website I was using and a little bus book at the hostel also had the same mis-information. I hope this is fixed in the latest addition.

On a final note to the reviewer who said there are no public boats to and from Tortuguero. In March 2010 I took I public boat for $3. The whole trip to San Jose cost about $10. I suspect you got misled and swindled.

This is my #1 favorite guidebook to Costa Rica - and I've owned quite a few. Always seemed like the book was right on, and in tune with my interests. (I'm not a backpacker, cost conscious but not overly frugal, don't like roughing it TOO much. But I don't like lookalike commercial hotel chains, and I DO like being out in nature.) This book always seemed to provide great advice. Highly recommended!