Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide Costa Rica, Third Edition

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The 2002 edition of rough guide is a definite improvement over the previous edition of the rough guide. It is a solid guide to the sounds and sights of Costa Rica that has lots of information for the budget traveller. It has good maps and gives good descriptions of most tourist sites. I would say that this would be one of the 4 best guides for the budget traveller right now for Costa Rica--the other three would be the Lonely Planet, Footprint and New Key guides.

What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular hotel or site. The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides. I would balance your trip to Costa Rica with a Fodors (or Frommers) book because the maps and illustrations are often better and there are more higher-end hotels listed.
This book will help you decide where is best to spend your vacation in Costa Rica. There are clear critical descriptions of all the regions and great general info on getting around in Costa Rica.

If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels. The guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels (there aren't that many in Costa Rica).

I would definitely read this book before going to Costa Rica.

On a recent trip to costa rica, I had two guide books, and this one was lacking in comparison. I purchased this book, but then later ended up buying the new addition of Lonely Planet as well, as the rough guide simply did not have as much information. For most towns, they did not have as many accomodation listings as LP, and there were many smaller towns rough guide did not cover at all. I also found their maps not as easy to use. Overall, I would say this book is adequate, but that LP gives you a lot more info.

The above introduction, in the book description, contains an important falsehood concerning the social gains of Costa Rica. It claims that revenue from tourism is one of the reasons Costa Ricans now enjoy the highest rate of literacy, health care, education and life expectancy in the isthmus. But this is far, far-away from the truth! Those social achievements have been in place in Costa Rica long before it was discovered as an ecological heaven and a destination for international tourism, more precisely, at least for 40 years. I ignore who wrote that introduction, but whoever did it should do his (her) homework (that is, he (she) should begin reading history books on Costa Rica) before attempting to write such a innaccurate and outrageous opinion on this country. The author of the introduction, should know that those social gains are the reasons, among others, of why Costa Rica has enjoyed political and social stability, in contrast with their neighbors. Some of those social achievements were the result of important social movements and others the product of a civil war. It would an insult to a Costa Rican hearing someone saying that those achievement are the product of tourism. And because of the aforementioned falsehoood,I decided not to buy the book. And this for obvious reasons. A book containing such an important falsehood deserve not credibility.

This is an absolutely wonderful guide and yes, It's chock-full of details! I think every paragraph may introduce a new idea but it's so well written, and the specifics so supportive, that you tend not to notice just how much information is here.

For another dense book on the country, try out Costa Rica the Last Country the Gods Made, a big-ass book that introduces soooo many concepts that it's dizzying! Why did it take so long for cultural historians to realise that distinct culture of Costa Rican's Pre-Columbian ancestors? What did the Spanish settlers prefer poverty in the city to lucrative farming? What were the surprisingly liberal politics of the "Olympic Generation" 0f 1889 that lay the groundwork for Costa Rica's liberal politics today? Do rainforest ant really feed randomly? Is morning a good time for pirates? And on and on! The chapters are self-contained, so you can read them in any order you want. Plus they're fairly short, which is a good thing since as I mentioned the material is dense. But I like dense, which is why I love thiese two books!