Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Guatemala 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I recently spent six weeks in Guatemala, and I was able to visit most sections of the country. Although the Rough Guide book was the only guidebook that I brought with me, I have looked through the lonely planet book quite a bit and also the guidebooks from the other travel publishers. I believe that the Rough Guide version is the best guidebook for Guatemala, hands down. I have read the book literally from cover to cover. I especially liked the commentary and general descriptions located throughout the book as well as all of the historical data in the back (which is actually a significant section of the book). Even when I was taking a chicken bus through a random section of the country I could find information any any given area or town along the way--housing, food, and cultural commentary. I've been told by others that the Lonely Planet edits out some places to see (such as Fuentes Georginas near Quetzaltenango). Rough Guide will just give you everything, even if the location is way off the beaten track.
The only complaint I would have is that the author tends to be very socio-politically biased. For example, he dismisses the Eastern Highlands as a stronghold of right-wing politics...the ladinos acting like cowboys..."violent demonstrations of macho pride are common." I suppose this is why "your best bet is to travel directly to San Salvador by pullman" (rather than visit this aweful place of conservatism). I actually liked the Eastern Highlands.

I just returned yesterday from 10 days in Guatemala and Belize and found the Rough Guide invaluable. I went with 7 friends and between us we had Lonely Planet's "Central America", Lonely Planet's "Guatemala" and Fodor's "Guatemala and Belize". The 2 of us carrying Rough Guide were in the most demand and we relied on it for all our housing and most of our eating recommendations. In addition, the book begins with 33 things you must see/do in Guatemala and we hit most of them.

Housing: Finding a place to stay was not difficult, but in Guatemala the comfort can vary a lot even in the budget range. We were able to find clean, comfortable and affordable accomodations at all of our stops. I highly recommend the Hotel Santa Clara in Antigua which has a lovely courtyard and older colonial rooms (ours had a cute, decorative fireplace). All the pricings for accomodations were on target throughout our trip (with the Santa Clara coming in at about 17$ per person based on double occupancy). Depending on how much you want to "rough" it - a $5 difference can be a big one in Guatemala and we often reserved rooms at 2 places in each of our locations. If you are traveling in a smaller group or by yourself you probably don't even need to call ahead.

Food: We used this book for many of our eating recommendations and it never failed to give us an idea of the type of food and quality to expect.

History and Culture: The book was enjoyable to read and provided some good information on preparation, recent happenings as well as history. A little more info on Tikal would have been great - perhaps a walking tour guide - but there are other books available for that and the site is huge.

Overall: I plan to use Rough Guide again in the future. After my less than desirable experience in Peru with Lonely Planet, as their descriptions are often flat and pricing out of date depite the "new" edition.

This is my personal favorite. We used it a lot on our trip through the Western Highlands and Tikal. It has good maps, from city to national scale. It has something of interest to say about many places, including small villages. It presents lodgings in a logical manner. I found it easy to use. This guide gave us a pretty good overview of places, although it appears that unlike in many very studied/touristed places (such as Europe) there is not as much deep background available on many towns. Of all the guide books I have used for Guatemala this has the most breadth and depth, coupled with ease of use.

When I traveled to Guatemala I found this guide invaluable. Particularly useful were the listings of hotels, the maps, and the information on bus routes; I always found them accurate. The book includes a plentiful amount of historical background that is essential to understanding this colorful and complex country.

Although this book is aimed at the independent tourist traveling on a budget, the wealth of information it provides would be useful for anyone whose full itinerary hasn't already been determined or who wants to know more about the people and culture he/she is visiting.

As we flipped through the Rough Guide to Guatemala 2002 edition about a month ago, we were really impressed with the layout and the backdoor feel that the Rough Guide had as opposed to the more conventional guide books. Our only hesitation was that the practical information like hotels and transportation schedules might be out of date because it was published so long ago. We found out that a new version of the Rough Guide to Guatemala was going to come out right before we left for our trip so we decided to hold out until it was published. We were so excited when it arrived and couldn't wait to get to Guatemala. When we arrived, however, it became immediately apparent that Rough Guides had not bothered to live up to their claim of reliability. The information in the guide was completely outdated. We ran into logistical problems at every turn. I understand that Guatemala is one of the countries that is in a state of constant flux but some of the hotel recommendations in the book had disappeared years ago. On the whole, the book was good for the ideas of what to see and do and the history of the country but logistically speaking, it left much to be desired. We ended up forgetting the book completely for logistical planning and asked the locals instead.

I traveled to Guatemala Dec99=Jan00. This book was great. Information was accurate and informative. In Chichicastenango I recommend the Hotel Chalet Buy this book.

While reading it at home it looked pretty complete and with good information. Once we were in Guatemala, I found that most of the places recommended were like the writer had not checked them himself or just written from what he had heard. I followed the writer's hints and checked it myself, like in some hotels I stayed. In some other cases, I found places that there were not included in the book and which should had been...
Certainly the guide is not updated at all.
Great dissapointment for such a highly rated book.

This book seems to miss the mark in several aspects. I used it for a trip earlier this year but ended up buying another guidebook once there. In terms of content, it either ends up giving you waaay too much information (to where it reads like an encyclopedia) or not enough, depending on the subject. It just wasn't practical and the information was often outdated, to boot. It's also marred by endless pages of text with nary an occasional black & white photo at the end of a chapter (usually overly dense in printing and uniquely uninteresting). True to its name, it was ROUGH and not very user-friendly. The poor layout causes you to strain your eyes while searching for needed information, especially on bouncy roads in a car or bus. It's like flipping through a phone book (some of the subject headings for local services are vaguely labeled as 'listings').
I'd wait and get the new Moon Guatemala and/or Lonely Planet Guatemala. I see both companies are releasing new editions in September. Insight Guides is the book for fantastic color images, though it's not as good for practical information. Note that most of the positive reviews for Rough Guide Guatemala pre-date the release of this latest edition when there were fewer options on the market. Bottom line: This may have once been an OK guidebook to Guatemala, but there are much better options now.
Moon Guatemala (Moon Handbooks)
Lonely Planet Guatemala
Insight Guides Guatemala, Belize And the Yucatan (Insight Guides Guatemala, Belize, Yucatan)

I just returned from 2 months in Guatemala.

I was a little disappointed in this guide, and would recommend any newer guide to take with you.

Things change quickly in that part of the world (roads, political climate, etc.) and the most up-to-date information is the best. Actually, the best guides I saw during my visit were guides from Germany; so I guess if you speak german, you're in luck. Guatemala and Central America are very popular places to visit for people from Germany and I met more people from germany than any other country.

This guide was generally helpful, but but outdated. Having spent most of my time in Antigua to study Spanish, I was disappointed to find many of the best restaurants were not listed, and only a few of the many travel agencies were reviewed (travel agencies are a must for arranging buses, etc. to travel the Central American region).

I would have liked to see recommended trips or travel paths for the country, like some other guides. Guatemala is kinds tricky when it comes to travel, due mostly in part to the many Volcanoes and mountains there, and the best way to see the country is definitely debateable. Looking at a map doesn't always mean you can apparently get from point A to B. Again, this is where travel agencies come in so handy - they are a wealth of information.

In addition to your guide, I would recommend as another source of travel information the Rough Guide website, were you can read (for free) about other peoples experiences there.

I have lived in Guatemala City now for 7 months. I recently spent a couple of weeks in Antigua and found the information in the Rough Guide (2006) about restaurants, cafes and things to see to be out of date and not complete. I saw a review from another person that said the danger warnings were too strong. I am glad that person had a safe trip, but regardless, Guatemala is dangerous. The criminals won't hesitate to shot a person if they resist giving up money or valuables. Don't let that stop you from visiting, as many come here with no problems. Most of the crimes are target of opportunity so be a smart traveler. That said, I found this book to have a good layout.