Customer Reviews

Venezuela, 4th: The Bradt Travel Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hilary Dunsterville Branch's guide to Venezuela is the best guide out there in the market. I've just got back from a month backpacking around the country and I wish I'd bought it before I left the States. As it was I was lucky enough to bump into a French couple that gave me their copy in Merida in the Venezuelan Andes. After three days traveling with Branch's book I dumped my Lonely Planet Guide in the trash. Not only does she give you the practical details on off the beaten track beaches like Choroni, Santa Fe and Morrocoy but she gives you the run down on the cheapest places backpackers can stay. The history was good and easy to read. She got me up to the top of Mount Roraima and her section on the Rio Caura is excellent. What can I say. Thanks to this guide I now know that a month isn't long enough to spend in this incredible tropical country. I'm going back again next year and I'll be taking Branch with me.

Venezuela is a long-overlooked paradise for backpackers, adventure travellers and special interest visitors like hikers, climbers, rafters and birders. The same size as neighbouring Colombia, but with half the population, Venezuela's natural environment is in good shape. The north of the country harbours 90% of the population, leaving the huge southern states of Amazonas and Bolivar with one of the lowest population densities in America. Indeed, without roads or railways, this area forms part of the world's largest tropical wilderness. Add to that the largest area under protection of any country in the Western Hemisphere, 43 national parks (two of them over 30,000 sq. km) and one of the top ten largest protected areas in the world (the 84,000 sq. km Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve) and you can see why Venezuela is an exciting place to visit.

It is fifteen years since the first edition of the "No Frills Guide to Venezuela", written by Hilary Branch and published by Hilary Bradt. Since then, this book has been at the forefront of travel guides to Venezuela. The key to its success is simple: the author lives in Venezuela and regularly travels to the places she describes. The book is therefore much more accurate - and more exciting! - than say the rival Lonely Planet or the Footprint Guide. This 2003 edition stretches to 538 pages, yet it is still compact enough to be portable. The text is succinct and readable. Hilary distils her experience into the every section of the book from an expanded treatment of Caracas to detailed information on hiking in Roraima and travelling up the River Caura. There are plenty of maps to help the visitor too. A strong conservation focus is welcome, with information about wildlife and habitats, environmental issues, conservation projects and NGOs. Definitely the book the discerning visitor should acquire for a successful trip to Venezuela.

The guide contains a lot of details on where to go and how to find things. Opening hours are not always as given in the guide. You might find places open at other times and closed at the times indicated.
Not many pictures but very good information on sites i.e. historical background, ...

I usually travel with Lonely Planet. This was the first time that I bought another book for my travel. But after reading the reviews on this site I decided to try. I have to admit that I was very sceptical, but.... the purchase was worth the money. I am very happy that I did't bought LP... I had the opportunity to compare the two books in Venezuela and I can say that this is deffinitly a better gude to Venezuela. For example LP doesn't even mention the port La Guaira. I usually travel with Lonely Planet. This was the first time that I bought another book for my travel. But after reading the reviews on this site I decided to try. I have to admit that I was very sceptical, but.... the purchase was worth the money. I am very happy that I did't bought LP... I had the opportunity to compare the two books in Venezuela and I can say that this is deffinitly a better guide to Venezuela than Lonely Planet. For example LP doesn't even mention the port La Guaira. Which is near the international airport.

I suggest to buy it.

This is a great guide with lots of information on everything. But the number of images could be higher to make it even better. Still, the best guide I had chance to use.

My wife and I have retired in Venezuela for two years. The Insight Guide has beautiful pictures and is great to read, like a paperback coffee table book. The Footprint guide is fair, but not always well organized. So when we really want information about something specific, we go to our Bradt guide.

This groundbreaking guide to Venezuela has now been completely revised, updated and expanded by Russell Maddicks, with up-to-date prices and exchange rates and new sections on Merida, the Orinoco Delta, Catatumbo Lightning, climbing Roraima, visiting Angel Falls, wildlife watching in Los LLanos and learning more about the cult religion of Maria Lionza.
Anyone travelling to Venezuela should make sure they have the latest Bradt Guide to Venezuela, available from Amazon and most good bookstores. Venezuela, 5th: The Bradt Travel Guide

This is a good guide, I suppose, but it was flat. There were no recommendations and no special details that would allow you to choose one hotel, one place to visit, or one tourist attraction over another. Having never been to Venezuela before, we really felt lost with the plain data, and decided to order a different guide in hopes that it would be a little more personal, or enthusiastic about something.

My review concerns the 4-th edition of the book published in 2003. I found that some (much) information in the book is no longer correct. Some hotels mentioned in the book do not any longer exist, many emails of tour operators do not exist, time schedules are not correct; where the book mentions 'a good restaurant' at the hotel it turns out that the restaurant is not there since 2002. And all this I discovered during only 2 weeks traveling... Things change fast in Venezuela. The book can be used for general info and to get some clues what you want to visit (therefore I gave the book 2 stars, but only for that) but it's much better to query Internet for this purpose. The book also lacks some very important practical info as for example where to change money on the black market - the only way to get Bolivars (official rate is far too low).
The point is the book does contain some information on the country but as travel guide it is almost useless. I cannot recommend this edition.