Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide Brazil 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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

 

 

Just returned from my second six week trip to Brazil. I own practically every guide book on the country and foolishly brought along this one. The information in the latest edition seems not to have been updated for a couple of years and I wasted a good amount of taxi fares or time walking to recommended places that were no longer in business. Even in the major cities, English isn't often spoken by the people outside of the tourism infrastructure. This can be frustrating without some preparation. Fortunately, I speak Portuguese and found many of the best restaurants etc. from the local people or through the particular city tourism authority. Another thing that I didn't like about the "Rough Guide" is that it doesn't include locations of internet cafes like other guidebooks do. For the price of the book, I give this particular Brazil edition one star.
Take my advice and take any other guide book with you or you'll truly have a "Rough" time with this "Rough Guide".

I am a Rough Guide aficionado but I'm disappointed by this book. I have the 4th updated edition (December 2000) but to me it seems as though this is a rather messy update, especially on the part of accommodation. Places that have moved 5 years ago (according to the owner) are in the book still at the old location. Or a pousada that is described as `charming place build right on the riverbank' has almost all of its windows broken and must have been closed for years. On the other hand a lot of nice budget options are not in the book while others that are in the book have been closed. And the thing that bothers me the most is that in several occasions addresses of tourist information offices are wrong. Fortunately for the editors the `things to see and do' doesn't change to much over the years so they don't have to update this.

Just to be upfront about everything, this review is based on the 3rd edition of this book. But based on that book, I won't buy this one.

Here's just 2 reasons why:

1) The basic introductions to the each area/city are a great idea, but I couldn't seem to find one that ever made the place sound interesting. I live in Brasília, and granted it hasn't got the excitement of Rio, but it's much more interesting than they make it sound, and Natal, despite having the second cleanest air in the world sounds like a drag.

2) The information is incomplete and rather superficial. The section on Pirenópolis, a great little spot in Goiás, for example, has no mention of the dozen or so waterfalls (with guided tours if you need them) in the area.

Perhaps the authors are just used to travelling in "1st World" countries, or maybe they know little or no Portuguese, or maybe it's something else altogether, but wherever they're coming from and whatever their experience, this book has ended up a somewhat depressing, and extremely rough guide that misses much of this enormous, gorgeous, and amazing country.

Well, one of the first positive things I can say about the Rough Guide is that it is noticeably superior in coverage and writing quality to the LP guidebook, which in my mind has been the #1 reigning worst guidebook to Brazil on the market.

My biggest complaint about this book is that the writing quality is incredibly uneven. Frankly, it is quite evident that the authors have not visited all of the places the write about. For example, I found the description of Mossoro (Rio Grande do Norte) superbly written. Not only was the description true to the way I remember Mossoro on my last visit 11 years ago, but I ended up learning a great deal about historic sights in Mossoro that I was never aware of. On the other hand, the coverage of Barreirinhas and the Lencois Maranheses National Park was pathetic, to put it mildly. It is abundantly clear that none of the authors have ever been near there. I visited Barreirinhas 13 years ago (when there were already 4 pousadas in town) and slowly travelled down the coast to Rio Novo and Tutoia, and then by boat from Tutoia to Parnaiba. It was a fantastic trip, but you wouldn't be able to do it with this book because as far as Rough Guide is concerned, Tutoia doesn't even exist. Off the coast of Tutoia there is a very exclusive privately owned island that has small ecotourism visits called "Ilha do Caju"... also no mention in the Rough Guide.

But the biggest scope-of-coverage oversight to me seems to be the shoddy coverage of Sao Paulo state. SP state has an abundance of excellent tourism opportunities. Maybe the authors' travel priorities are just different from mine, but when I think of "Brazil" I think of outdoor adventure travel. And frankly, ecotourism is a huge part of the Brazilian tourism industry. But this book is all about big cities, beaches, and architecture. Sao Paulo state has great rafting, mountain biking, hiking, camping, and fishing opportunities, but you wouldn't know it from this book. Likewise, the Central West (Mato Grosso, Goias) have INCREDIBLE rock climbing opportunities. No mention here.

We get an idea of where these authors' priorities are when we read on p. 497 that "Goiania and Anapolis, with their rising affluence and acres of new high-rises, already look like the cities of the paulista interior - and are about as inetresting to visit, which is not very." Clearly this book is of the "urban-poverty-chic" genre of travel guides... If you are into that.. this book is for you. If you plan your trips with a goal in mind - snorkelling in the Caribean, mountain climbing in Mexico, bike riding in Utah - this book will not help you at all with your Brazil vacation.

The Rough Guide to Brazil is a very good book and I did get by fine with it but time and again fellow travellers using the Lonely Planet Brazil or South America books had more information, especially about accomodation in places off the beaten track. It would be good if there was more information about Pantanal tours too, it's difficult to know which companies are reputable and at least if they were in the guide book you'd know they'd been established for a while. Other things not made clear were how difficult it is to change travellers cheques if they're not American Express and how crucial it is to have a little Portuguese.

This is one of the poorest guidebooks on Brazil, if not the worst. And I've used all of them. For starters, it is horribly out of date. But the major problem with this book is that it focuses on random road-side towns while barely paying attention to popular and happening spots (AKA places where people are actually interested in going). It is as if the writers took at trip around, wrote about a few obscure places where they stayed and disregarded the rest.

The best guidebooks on Brazil right now are the newish Let's Go (although they tend to only focus on major towns) and the new Lonely Planet.

Have the other reviewers been using the same guide book as I have? The Rough Guide is simply the best guide book to Brazil. The Lonely Planet offers no understanding of the country, the book is written for idiots and the much of the material is seriously out of date. The authors of the Rough Guide seem to really know, understand and appreciate Brazil. The chapters for Rio, the South and the Amazon are, in my opinion, the most comprehensive, including lots of detail on places that Brazilians I know were unaware of. The Northeast is probably the weakest chapte but the area is so vast. One problem is prices, but you quickly learn to ditch the price guides -- seriously out of date and in US dollars and not in Brazilian "reis".

I just spend 3 weeks in Brazil. I too decided to veer from the Lonely Planet to check out a new guide. They're all the same, right? WRONG. Rough guide is terrible for Brazil - maps are horrid, exaggerated descriptions of supposedly cool places that actually are a dump (especially for fortaleza), and simply a lack of good info (Salvador, the islands nearby/excursions; Fortaleza - beaches and routes; Sao Paulo generally with important/updated bus info and airport info). If I didn't speak Portuguese like a goofy gringo i would have been in serious trouble. The only reason why I still have the book is because I intend to burn it when winter comes-the only true death for such an abomination.

I just returned from Brasil, having used The Rough Guide, I can say it sometimes left out what I would consider necessary information. The prime area is bus info. Sure it's great to know how much time it takes to get from one place to another but I think the editors should also include prices for the destinations they offer. Finding out how to get to a place is not so difficult but it would be nice to know approximate pricing to see how much money you actually need to take so you can see the places you want to see. I think the editors should also just leave prices in REAIS. The pricing codes they use are CONFUSING...you never know if it's dollars, pounds or reais when they give the price code. Sometimes I found the price matched the reais, sometimes dollars. My other complaint is that it doesn't list where to find the American Express offices to change Trav. Cheques. I wasn't too happy overall with the book and I would never use it again because I think a lot of information is left out, unfortunately LET'S GO doesn't have a Brasil edition or I would have chosen it instead.

I found this book very usefull and other travellers I met thought it was better than the Lonely Planet guide. Rather confusing were the facts about bus services in some cities, but on the other hand the city transport in Brazil is confusing itself. I am a budget traveller and the book provided me enough information to save in many ways.