The Rough Guide to West Africa 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) O/P (Paperback)

by ROUGH GUIDES (Author) "The most straightforward - and usually the least expensive - way to get to West Africa is by air..." (more)
Key Phrases: main motor park, banco houses, gare voiture, West Africa, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A MARVELLOUS GUIDE, PACKED WITH HARD NOSED ADVICE AND INFORMATION, STREETS AHEAD OF ANY OTHER TRAVEL GUIDE

West Africa Magazine

Product Description
This guide to West Africa explores all the visitable countries in West Africa, from Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands in the west, to Niger and Cameroon in the east. The colour introductory essay highlights the regions attractions, picks out the various route and travel options and touches on some of the great range of cultural and scenic impressions that any visit will make. Each chapter covers the relevant country with attention to detail, including special attention to the practicalities of travel, thoroughly researched hotel and restaurant listings, and a carefully researched background on wildlife and the environment, culture, history, politics and music.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 4 Sub edition (November 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843531186
• ISBN-13: 978-1843531180
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #837,209 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Necessary but not sufficient, July 25, 2000

By	Ellen Winters (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to West Africa, 3rd (West Africa (Rough Guides)) (Paperback)

This Rough Guide offers thorough, helpful information for travelling around West Africa, including events, hotels, restaraunts, cutoms, traditions, safety precautions, language reference, etc. I especially liked the fact that each time CFA's or other currency were mentioned, their dollar equivalents were also calculated. The Lonely Planet Guide does not do this. Also, this Rough Guide is organized better and easier to read than the Lonely Planet. The problem with the Rough Guide, though, is that while it gives all the necessary information to get around, it does not offer any subjective advice that the naive West Africa traveller would want to know. For example, The Lonely Planet guide gives the same information as this book about a campsite in Niamey, but adds that it is ugly, with few trees, and many people have been robbed there. That is something I want to know. I certainly found all the necessary information in this guide, but it is still insufficient in many ways.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best investment, March 28, 2002

By	Andrius Uzkalnis (Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: West Africa: The Rough Guide, Second Edition (1995) (Paperback)

At the moment, there are two main contenders on the market with comparable books on West Africa: Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. Neither is perfect.

Rough Guide may feel a bit more professionally-made, and has been made on a bigger budget too, but it suffers from terminally boring writing style.

I said this before and I`ll say it again: if people who write guidance for your tax returns were to write guidebooks they would probably come up with similarly uninspired language.

The book does not offer the same level of self-righteous (and often annoying) rhetoric about evils of capitalism as Lonely Planet. I find this aspect commendable: some of us want the travel guide to give us facts and not explanations for whom to vote and what to think.

However, on balance, I have to admit that Lonely Planet is better resarched and more accurate, and also less bulky. If you have plenty of luggage allowance and money's no object, buy both, otherwise, stick with Lonely Planet.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for planning multicountry itineraries, January 4, 2006

By	James S. Dodds - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As most of the reviews point out, the battle here is between Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. I bought them both, as I usually do before a big trip, and after studying them both will take the RG. They are both good in terms of information on hotels and restaurants, I just found the layout of RG a bit better. Cultural and travel basics are better organized up front, the maps are larger and much clearer, and the references to the maps in the text easier to decipher. But for me the big plus is that the RG contains much better information about moving between countries, and information about specific transport options from area to area - boat, bus, train - is much more detailed. If you are planning a multi-country itinerary the RG is, IMHO, much better. They are both equal in terms of info, I think, I just feel like for me RG got the details right.