Customer Reviews

The New Key to Costa Rica

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

 

 

I used a previous edition of this book as a guide when I was an exchange student in Costa Rica. This book contained everything that I needed. I spoke little Spanish in the beginning of my stay, and this book helped me to travel the country with easy. It contains information about everything from restaurants to travel to ecological information. Prior to using the New Key, I had never used a travel book. After using it, I wanted to buy a travel guide for every trip. Though I have now used several travel books, unfortunately, I have never found another book that is so comprehensive and useful as the New Key. This book explains a lot of inside information that one needs to know and hotel and restaurant tips. I highly recommend it. I only wish the makers of the New Key would do New Key books for other places,especially other Central American countries. I would buy any New Key book even if it were over my own home city so that I could let my visitors use it. I would buy the full set without hesitation. My few words can hardly do justice to this excellent book. If there were a nobel prize for travel books, this book would have won it. If you are taking a trip to Costa Rica, buy it!

When my family and I decided to vacation in Costa Rica, I bought several guidebooks. This is, by far, the best of the lot. Prices and descriptions are accurate, and I especially appreciated the e-mail and Web site addresses. This allowed me to finalize prices and make reservations without expensive phone calls. We continued to use the guidebook when we arrived in-country. The descriptions and historical backgrounding were accessible to all of us, and our four teen-aged sons often asked me to read aloud the "New Key" information about our next destination.

This is the best book we've found so far. We used it to plan our trip, id hotels that we wanted to stay at, determine where we wanted to go, etc. We go on the trip in November and will definitely be taking this with us but in terms of preparation it was a must have for us

We just returned from Costa Rica where we used this book. We were disappointed at the incorrect and misleading comments the author makes throughout the book. For example, the author opens the description of Monteverde by describing the drive as "through deforested, eroded pastures." I wonder where the author gets her information as the climate, soils, and environment at Monteverde is what creates the special cloud forest. This same enviroment does not exist at the lower enviroment. The route up does pass through small communities and family farms. The author demonstrates her lack of botany or plant ecology background.

In addition to inaccurate description of the environment, we found the information in the book dated. We preferred to use the lonely planet and frommers guides.