|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Handy compact guide for planning, July 15, 2004
I bought this guide shortly before embarking on a recent 7 month journey all around Australia, North and SE Asia, and Arabia. I can say now that I have returned (Temporarily at least) that weather is a crucial part of the travel experience. WIthout a doubt, places where I knew the weather would be more humid, etc... stood out as much tougher places to travel in. Needless to say, I minimized this by using this guide. In defense of "bad" weather - I will say that to get a true impression of places one should experience less than ideal (Or what most would think of as ideal) weather from time to time. In some places the changes can be dramatic - and it is different weather that forms a culture and people over time among several major factors. Certain festivals and/or animals also occur/appear outside of the most ideal touring weather. This guide has little simple maps showing the location of a country relative to it's neighbors. Also regional maps. Larger countries are broken down also - such as the USA, Brazil, Indonesia, etc...the maps usually reflect this breakdown too. Temperatures are given in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. The only failing of this book then is that global weather patterns are changing and that the "best time" to travel to a country is relative (Which the authors also note somewhat in the beginning). But, for what most would consider "ideal and easy" it is good. Improvements would be bar graphs (Like Lonely PLanet or a chart like in Rough Guides - though this might make the book much thicker) and more charts showing the time of year as it relates to such events as animal migrations - as the book has for Kenya. Alhough this latter improvement might change the scope of the book. Also, incorporating sunrise/sunset might be good. Lastly - I'm not sure if the alphabetical order of countries is the best method - sorting by regions might be more useful. FYI - there is a newer version of this book.
|