Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to West Africa (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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

 

 

Admittedly, Lonely Planet's version is a couple years old now, but this Rough Guide is SO much better in terms of what to expect, how to get around, cultural aspects, what to bring, and a general cohesive overview of the region, it's sort of ridiculous. Lonely Planet's book is essentially useless compared to this. We're moving to West Africa for an extended stay, and this book has been helpful, informative, and even an interesting read. I'm glad that I waited for and then purchased this new release rather than just sticking with the guidebooks I had.

Just returned from Ghana, Togo and Benin and while I think some of the prices and phone #'s are getting a bit outdated over all it was a great help and pretty spot on. The accomodation and getting there and around info was really helpfull. Alot of usefull information. I would recomend the book!

I bought this book to start mentally planning a future trip to West Africa (take a month, go wander around) and realizing that Lonely Planet's book was a few years old, I went with my backup, the Rough Guide.

The book is pretty comprehensive - the information seems up to date and there's enough tidbits to make me think that someone actually visited these places and reported firsthand versus relied on anecdotal evidence. Mainly I was interested in Senegal, since I want to go there for the infamous Paris-Dakar rally along with Cameroon.

But after reading the other reviews, I was like "Oh yeah, where IS Liberia?" and went back to the book to find it not there. What's up with that, Rough Guide?

I used this book while working for 4 months in West Africa. I tried to use it to travel around Ghana and found it pretty much useless. Over half the book is cultural information and longwinded historical essays about the country. That's nice, but what I really wanted to know was how to get places, where to stay, is it safe, and how much does it cost. It's terrible at listing public transportation. It will tell that there is a bus from Accra to Cape Coast but doesn't say where to get it, how much it costs, a time estimate, or even give the name of more than one bus company (and the one they listed is far from the best one in Ghana). The only thing it does semi-well is listing options for lodging and restaurants.
The guide also doesn't even cover Liberia or Ivory Coast. It's still better than Lonely Planet but that's only because Lonely Planet is so terrible.

Kinda lame, they just completely left out Liberia!?
Will report back after I have a chance to use it in West Africa.

I was disappointed Liberia wasnt included in this edition, I was unable to find that explained before I bought it