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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A definitive travel guide to Argentina, April 27, 2001
Danny Aeberhard, Andrew Benson, and Lucy Phillips have successfully collaborated to produce a definitive travel guide to Argentina. Indeed, The Rough Guide To Argentina features coverage of all the attractions of Buenos Aires; vivid accounts of spectacular and varied landscapes ranging from the jungles of Misiones to the windswept vistas of Ushuaia (the world's southernmost town); comprehensive reviews of the best places for every budget level to stay, eat, and drink; and background information on Argentinean history and culture. The comprehensive and "user friendly" text is profusely illustrated with color photography and more than seventy maps. If you are planning a trip to Argentina, start your travel planning with a copy of The Rough Guide To Argentina!
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall, a well-researched, well written and reliable guide., April 8, 2006
In the competitive world of Argentia travel guides this guide is one of the most authoritative, up-to-date and practical guides out. Rough Guide's direct competition is Lonely Planet (see my review) and, between the two, well it's almost a toss up - both have strengths and irritations, but the nod goes to Rough Guide.
This guide has very good accommodations recommendations for all of Argentina. You can find everything from a 5 star hotel to well run hostel. Note: for those going to Buenos Aires', hotel prices have skyrocketed over the past two years and most guides have not kept up with this immense price surge. I found hotels that were listed as $75 a night, now $225! Thus, the hotel's webpage is the best place to make sure of the current price. But this Rough Guide provides very few hotel webpages for hotels "outside" of Buenos Aires. Lonely Planet does much better in this area.
Rough Guide's recommendation for restaurants are reliable. Of those restaurants that I tried, about 90% were good to very good. Yet, for some perplexing reason, Rough Guide fails to tell you what you should expect to pay for your meal. So one eatery may be $4 and another $40 - not good. Also, the description of the restaurant is very terse and leaves one wishing for a fuller description. This guide does not give you the time or days when the restaurant is open; so take care and call first, especially on weekends.
Excellent is the information that this guide provides on Argentina's history, politics, wild life, environment, music and recommended books. Rough Guide is the best out in this area. Also, Rough Guide has excellent maps. All of its city maps are excellent, and far easier to use than Lonely Planets. Kudos.
The cumbersome "price code" system for accommodations, i.e. 1 = up to $25, 2 = $25-40, 3 = $40-60, etc., should be changed. It is so much better to use what Lonely Planet, and most other guides use, the cost in dollars. Duh.
If you are interested in the "economic meltdown" of Argentina in 2001/2002 do take with you Paul Blustein's, "And the Money Kept Rolling In", (see review).
Rough Guide is a very reliable guide. However, there is a new release just out you should also consider: "Footprint Argentina - 2006" - it too is a great guide! (See my review). This "Rough Guide" is Strongly Recommended.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Argentina Country Guide, November 11, 2006
The Rough Guide to Argentina (2nd edition published in January of 2005) is the best guide available for the entire country. I phrased it this way because Time Out Buenos Aires (published July 2006) is by far and away the best guide for the city of Buenos Aires.
If you are a little leery of purchasing a guidebook printed almost two years ago I would recommend purchasing Time Out Buenos Aires as well because it seemed that only in Buenos Aires have things changed so rapidly that a newer guide would be necessary.
Having said that you certainly can get away with just having The Rough Guide (just know that prices have gone up - which happens with all guide books).
When comparing The Rough Guide to Argentina to Lonely Planet Argentina (the only real competition since Fodors, Frommers, and Bradt just don't compete) I can easily recommend Rough guide over Lonely Planet. The Rough Guide simply has more information (it has 372 MORE pages than Lonely Planet has). A few times I found that I'd read about a very intriguing and little known attraction in the Rough Guide only to find it missing altogether in Lonely Planet. I know that most guides are striving to also highlight the off the beaten track activities as well as the major ones and The Rough Guide achieves this in a much better way than Lonely Planet.
I don't fault Lonely Planet for this because they produce good travel guides (especially in Europe), but it seems that they made the decision to not go as in depth as The Rough Guide has in South America (since I also found the same to be true with the Chile and Peru guides).
The maps are very easy to use and more intuitive than Lonely Planet's, but it would be nice for Rough Guide to copy LP in printing the elevation and population of cities and towns.
All areas of the country are represented well in the guide. Some are a bit more heavily detailed but it does not come at the expense of others.
The "Basics" section is very detailed in highlighting entry requirements, transportation, health and safety issues, etc. There is also a lengthy discussion on the history of Argentina, it's peoples, culture, political system, food, etc.
You will definitely not be disappointed after purchasing this guidebook.
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