Customer Reviews

South American Handbook (Footprint South American Handbook)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Footprint guide definately gives the traveler a different itinerary than the typical Lonely Planet guided souls. Often, with the domination of Lonely Planet suggestions being taken by travelers, certain "Gringo trails" are forged and well trampled. Footprint gives the next best comprehensive review of traveling in South America, but makes the travler leave more to their own judgement instead of relying on a guide. I traveled with both my Footprint Guide and my partner's Lonely Planet. The LP is a better guide for nuts and bolts, but the prices are often inacurate because of the popularity increase, which rapidly rises prices in South America. But the Guide has its drawbacks. If you are extremely map based, then go with the LP. Footprint's maps are not nearly as good. Also, for specific suggestions on exactly what a traveler SHOULD do, LP is better. Bottom line is, if you can fit them both in, do it. Take the LP for those late night bus stops in a tiny southern Ecuadorian town, and take the Footprint for those days and nights when you want to make more judgements for yourself than the guidebook makes for you.

I am a budget backpacker. I owned and used the 2003 S.A. edition three years ago and must say that the 2007 S.A. edition is not as budget friendly when it comes to accommodations. I am in South America for 5 months and left the 2003 edition at home thinking that the 2007 edition would have the same listings along with new listings. Not so. For example, one of my favorite budget hostels in Argentina that still exists and was once in the book is no longer in it. When I asked the hostel why they are not in the 2007 Footprint book they said that one has to pay several hundred dollars to be in it these days. And that's just to have a few sentences about the place. I have just about found each city's budget accommodations (i.e. youth hostels) on the internet during this trip because the 2007 Footprint just doesn't cut it in this department.

Otherwise, the book does have good information in other areas. But I don't know if I'd be carrying this thick book all over the place for 5 months if I had known about its lack of budget accommodations listings.

My wife and I relied primarily on the South American handbook, now in its 77th year (the longest-running travel guide in the English language, apparently) during a 3-month period of backpacking through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina not too long ago, and along with other information we gleaned from a variety of sources (i.e. fellow backpackers, some maps and other material I had gotten off the internet) it served us extremely well. However, I can understand why some people might consider the book to be difficult to use in the sense that there's almost too much information and not enough informed opinion/recommendations about what the authors think you SHOULD do. In many ways, this book is information overload, and not opinionated ENOUGH! Some of the fun of reading guide books, I have found in my many travels, is listening to someone who has a strong (as long as it is well-informed) opinion, and then seeing for myself what I think. Also, SOMETIMES it's a relief to be able to turn off my brain for a while and just have someone TELL me what to do if I've got, let's say, just 3 days in a particular city.

But, the bottom line is if you don't mind/prefer to think for yourself, are not particularly into listening to other people's suggested itineraries for you, and are willing to wade through the vast amount of material provided in this guidebook, then you will be richly rewarded with the Handbook, which is truly an amazing creation, and obviously a labor of love! It sometimes seems, for instance, like the Handbook has a detailed street map on every interesting (and even not-so-interesting) town in South America! Plus, listings of hotels/hostels and restaurants in numerous price ranges. Plus, "Places of Interest", listings of museums, information on excursions, local festivals, archeology, culture, language schools, laundramats, and just about everything else you could possibly need!

This book probably should not be the main reference for those wanting to travel first class all the way (or to be led by the hand), but for the budget traveler it's great (Lonely Planet is excellent as well, and would be a fine companion to the Handbook). Just be prepared to use your brain while wading through a veritable jungle of information on South America! Don't leave home without the Handbook!!

From Planeta Journal - The Handbook looks better than ever. This new edition of the South America guide provides reliable information about general tourism as well profiles of national parks and reserves. Of special note is the "Responsible Tourism" essay that the book pioneered in 1992. This is a terrific guide. The format is easy to follow. Colorful pictures and maps compliment the text. Highly recommended.

Against my better judgement, I bought the South American Handbook 2000 instead of Lonely Planet's South America on a Shoestring, based on several of the reviews on this website which gave the Handbook 2000 a much more favorable rating. The only problem is that unlike the Lonely Planet books, the handbook gives very little information about prices of lodging, restaurants,etc.which I feel is very important as prices vary a lot. So while the Handbook 2000 has some good information, South America on a Shoestring (or one of their country specific guides) is more essential especially when you are looking for a place to sleep at night. I personally don't use guidebooks to do most of my planning for my trips. But in a pinch when you get off the bus late at night in some strange city and you want to know what hotel to tell the taxi driver to take you, you can't beat the Lonely Planet series of Guidebooks.

This Footprint guide definitely compares to Lonely Planet. It is laid-out very well and easy to follow. The only thing I miss is the actual prices for accomodations. Even though they change quickly, it is a better way to make comparisons.

To start with, this book is soooo much better than Lonley Planet. The best thing about this book is that it is based on peoples recomendations and not just hostels and guides paying money to a company (ie:Lonley Planet). This book goes into good depth on not only hostel and restuaraunts but also guides for the amazon, tour companies for Machu Pichu, etc... Without this book we never would have found Papa Rancon in the town of Borbon in the middle on know where. This book is a bit more exspensive but it is definitely worth it. The only draw back is that the maps are terrible. Real bad. But if you can hook up a good map before you go you should be all good.

If you are travelling through a few countries in South America, then this footprint guide just cannot be beaten. Has all the fun topics and places covered like some other common guidebooks, but much more history, culture, food and accomodation info, all wrapped up in the same size package. My travel companions all grew to rely on Footprints' accuracy, and appreciated the lack of sarcastic, put-down comments that one other common guide often had.

Although written more as a reference guide than the Lonely Planet equivalent, it is far more comprehensive in its list of available hotels and restaurants. It is very accurate too. Also, it does discuss areas to watch out for (i.e. crime) better than the LP. What you get in quantity and objectivity of information with this book, you lose in depth. The LP gives you more depth of the (fewer) hotels and restaurants it does list. They make good companions for each other, if you have the space in your suitcase/backpack!

I have only been in five of the fourteen countries covered in this handbook, but of those I have travel through, I found this all-in-one guide to be succinct, reliable and valuable. That said, it does not replace the comprehensiveness of a specific country guide. Basically, this handbook is a digested compilation of the specific country handbooks that Footprint produces. Thus, if you are only visiting one or two countries, buy those handbooks. If you are going to explore South America and want only one guide, this guide will be valuable.

Each country section is condensed, comprehensive and reliable. Though smaller towns will be omitted, the most important cities, towns and sites will be covered. Each country has been segmented into regions, as noted by the country's map, and within each region Footprint covers the top two, three or four cities or towns in a region. Basic travel information is given at the beginning of each country.

As with all Footprint Handbooks this guide has excellent color maps. In the back of the guide you will find ... exceptional color maps of South America. Also, throughout the book, I found the b&w maps of regions and cities to be very good.

Another impressive aspect of this guide is found at the beginning, in the 'Essentials' section, where there is a very good discussion of bringing and using a car/SUV throughout South America. This section also includes information on motorcycling and a section on cycling throughout South America.

Though each country section does have a 'futher reading & useful websites' section, this is very basic. The section on health/vaccination is bare bone basic.

On the "downside" I often found that the brevity of the restaurant and lodging remarks were so terse (or no remarks at all) that they were not helpful, i.e.,. Hotel Barros Arana (Chile):modern, or a restaurant remark: good not cheap, or a hostel: helpful. Also I find the intrusive paid advertisements for hotels, tour companies, hostels, calling cards and travel
services throughout the book (a half-page, a full-page, a quarter page) offensive. The purchase ... should be more than enough to make a profit, but Footprint chooses to afflict its readers with uninvited advertising to increase its profits.

For those using glasses, the small type that the publishers uses will cause you to strain to read in low or poorly lighted areas. Also, the pricing for accommodations is a cumbersome rating system that could be simplified. It is not user friendly. There is no pricing guide for restaurants.

That said, this is an adequate, to good, guide for those who are going to visit a multitude of countries while in South America. The information is current and reliable. Especially recommended for those that plan to motor through South America. Recommended