Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to South America (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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I have just finished driving 8,500 mile, through six countries (Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina & Chile), and I had with me this guide and 'Footprint - South America'.

Rough Guide, though not as exhaustive as Footprint, is one of the best South American guides out today.

The guide starts with a basic, but very good, sixty-page information section on South America. Then each country has it own basic information, history and a few recommended books. When Rough Guides has city maps, they are very usable, each having numbers and letters that show you where hotels and eateries are located in the city.

Its primary strength is its excellent descriptions and recommendations of a select few of the better restaurants and accommodations in each location.

It is far better than 'Footprint' in its description of select accommodations and restaurants. These reviews are the primary reason to purchase this guide. Each review clearly describes the hotel or restaurant, allowing you to have a good, solid comprehension of what you will be getting, both in lodging and in food. For example: "Red Mangrove Inn" - this secluded bohemian hotel was designed and built by its artist owner and has many idiosyncratic flourishes. Rooms are built with bay views and have hot water. There is a whirlpool on the veranda" and the Restaurant, "La Bonga del Sinu" specializes in local Caribbean cuisine, especially beef dishes at low prices".

Because good reviews take space, this guide, though 1100 pages, has far fewer recommendations than 'Footprint'. Thus the guide provides you with a small (occasionally paltry) selection of what the writers considered to be the best accommodations and restaurants available. For example in Puerto Iguazu (AR) 'Rough Guide' has 4 recommended accommodations, whereby 'Footprint' has 13. In Cusco, Peru this guide lists 8 recommendations, whereas 'Footprint' has 32. This also holds true with restaurants.

'Rough Guide' is best for those who stay on the main roads, as it is not as extensive, or complete as 'Footprint' when you leave the pavement. 'Rough Guide' lacks coverage of smaller cities and towns that 'Footprint' covers. This will not be a problem for the majority of travelers, but for those that have wanderlust, or those that seek to drive South America and take the road-less-traveled, they occasionally will be without help.

I found 'Rough Guide's' recommendations for accommodations to be better than their recommendations for restaurants. Another flaw is there is no price range for the restaurants (expensive, moderate, cheap, etc). Thus you can go to a restaurant and you meal can cost $3.50, and your next restaurant meal may cost $35. Also, there is an incongruity with website listings for recommended hotels. One country listing may give you the website address for each hotel, but most countries are hit and miss with the website address. As you know, seldom today does a hotel NOT have a website and a hotel's website is extremely helpful in giving you a vivid picture of what you get for the buck.

Caveat: Any guide's research was conducted one to two years before its published date and accommodations, and especially restaurants, come and go, so call to confirm before you pay for the taxi.

Ultimately, the biggest flaw that the guide has is its serious deficiency of maps. Maps are imperative to a good guide. When you arrive in a city or town the first thing you want to do is orient yourself. Many, far too many times, this book fails to publish a map for its locations. If 'Rough Guides' could do one single thing to improve this guide it would be provide a map for each location in the book.

If you are going to spend time in South America and be in various countries then I recommend that you take both guides: 'Rough Guide' and 'Footprint'. If you want only one guide then it is a decision between excellent descriptions (Rough Guide) or numerous recommendations and sundry maps (Footprint). Even with its idiosyncrasies and shortcomings this is a great guide. Strongly recommended.

I am currently travelling through Peru, Boliva, Chile and Argentina and if you are only taking one guide book (which you probably would since they are relatively heavy), I *strongly* suggest that you do not waste your time with this book.

The accomodation listings are inconsistent - eg: they list whether some hostels have private bathroom and then don't bother mentioning it for others. The maps are hopeless and miss out important information. Can you imagine standing on a crowded Cusco street staring at the map looking for the main bus station, only to find that there is an arrow on the side of the map with a caption 'to bus station, airport'.

Go with the Lonely Planet Shoestring guide - not perfect, but miles ahead of the Rough Guide.