Editorial Review

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.

Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut. ... Read more

Reviews

It Gave me a New Appreciation for TR
Anyone who enjoyed Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage or any other tale of exploration and hardship will love River of Doubt. Candice Millard's new book chronicles the expedition of Theodore Roosevelt and his Brazilian co-commander, Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, down one of Amazon's last unexplored tributaries in 1914-the River of Doubt. The 400-mile river trip tested every ounce of the ex-president's intellect, courage, and physical stamina. Millard's book, therefore, is more a tale of survival than adventure.

Roosevelt and his American companions were woefully unprepared for their journey. They brought boats too large to be of use on a shallow river, and had to rely instead on Indian-made dugouts-canoes designed more for local transportation on flat water than long-distanced descents through rapids. The American and Brazilain members of the group often had to portage these heavy, waterlogged boats around rapids, which cost the group both time and precious food supplies.

Food proved to be one of the most vexing problems of the journey. Much of the canned food shipped from the United States was too heavy to be carried to the expedition's launching point in the Brazilian highlands, and had to be discarded. Instead, Roosevelt hoped to augment his increasingly meager rations with game shot along the way. Unfortunately, the rain forest did not offer much bounty and the group ended up eating monkeys and piranhas to survive-creatures far more difficult to kill than deer and antelope.

If that were not enough, disease plagued the expedition at every corner. Kermit, the son of President Roosevelt, fought malaria for most of the trip and Theodore almost died when he contracted a deadly bacterial infection from a small flesh wound. Author Candice Millard does an excellent job of describing the numerous hazards confronted by the group without getting too bogged down in rain forest ecology. The book's moderate length and circumscribed subject matter make it much easier to plow through than a typical biography. With that being said, some historians may be disappointed that the book does not shed much more light on Roosevelt's political philosophies or his quest to preserve public land. Was Roosevelt an early environmentalist or simply an avid hunter and adventurer? This book does not answer that question.

It does, however, show us a side of Theodore Roosevelt's character often lacking in traditional biographies of the man: his humanity. The author describes how the ex-president shared in the work, dangers, and hardships of the journey. In one scene, she shows Roosevelt washing the clothes of his companions and in another, the sick ex-president giving away his rations to one of the expedition's "more productive" Brazilian laborers. In short, readers will walk away from this book with new-found appreciation for President Roosevelt and his undaunted courage-something often lacking in today's breed of politicians.

Fascinating
When I saw River of Doubt it struck me as a fascinating story and I immediately put in my order with Amazon. As I waited for it to arrive, I began to worry that I might have been too impulsive. Afterall, a fascinating story can be as limp as milk toast in the hands of a mediocre writer. I wondered if the author would bring Roosevelt's Amazon journey to life without adding so many extraneous details about Roosevelt himself that the real adventure was lost. Or, on the other hand, not supplying enough details about the central characters to allow me to understood the true context in which the adventure occurred.

After I got the book and started to read, all of my concerns were put aside. Completely. I know next to nothing about T. Roosevelt. Millard gave me what I needed to know to understand why he would take such a dangerous trip, at such a late age, in the first place.

She was equally masterful with all the other participants (many fascinating characters in their own right). I think Millard was near perfect in giving the background of people and why they ended up on this diasterous adventure while keeping the story moving at a fascinating and absorbing clip. One really gets a sense of how people were feeling when they started with what they thought would be a casual adventure and found themselves descending into one of Earth's strangest hells. It's a spellbinding story delivered by a very competent writer and researcher.

I've always enjoyed true stories of the Amazon River. Miller's River of Doubt is fascinating, informing, and gripping and stands with the best of them.

T.R. Survived, But was Never the Same Again
After narrowly losing the 1912 Presidential election to Woodrow Wilson (how history might have been different if Roosevelt, who despised Racism and was Pro-British, had beaten the Racist Wilson), Theodore Roosevelt decided to embark on a long journey into an unknown tributary of the Amazon River - The River of Doubt, hence the title of this book. Roosevelt was confident, cocksure, - after all this was a man who advocated "the strenuous life", had built himself up in the Badlands of the American West and had explored the deepest, remote regions of Africa. After all, a river in Brazil couldn't be much different, right?

Well, unfortunately for Roosevelt, wrong. The jungles were full of poisonous snakes, of Anacondas, of malaria-ridden mosquitoes, and other parasites, and his expedition had not prepared adequately for the task of exploring this dangerous region. In short, most of the expedition became ill quite fast, and even the former President, stricken with dysentery and a festering leg wound, urged the expedition and his son, Kermit, who was with him, to go on and let him die along the banks of the river. Indeed, Roosevelt was ready to take his own life, but Kermit Roosevelt, ironically not as fit as his brothers Archie, Quentin, or Theodore Jr. - who weren't on this dangerous voyage - refused to let his father die an inglorious death, and managed to bring him out of the jungle.

Yes, they survived, but the experience completely shattered what was left of the Old Lion's health - after all, he had been shot in the chest only two years before in the Bull Moose campaign against Wilson, and had gone blind in one eye. Susceptible to infection that weakened his heart, Roosevelt died but five years later, at a relatively young 60. In many ways, this is as much the story of Kermit Roosevelt, who accompanied his father to toughen himself. The experience proved to be the opposite, as he never recovered from his father's death, and would plunge into alcoholism, infidelity, and finally suicide.

The author, a National Geographic well-traveled veteran has written a fairly detailed, incredible book about the preserverance of T.R. and of the region, aptly named the River of Doubt, that he explored.

The reader might also consider "The Lion's Pride" by Edward J. Renehan. While the passage on the ill-fated journey is short, there's much about the Old Lion's relationship with Kermit, and Kermit's subsequent, unhappy life in it.

Roosevelt's Adventures on the Amazon
There is a spate of books concerning Theodore Roosevelt's life: his New York years and first marriage, his cowboy days in the Dakota's, the Spanish-American War phrase and his presidency. Until last year, there were few books about his retirement decade until Patricia O'Toole's "When Trumpets Call." His dangerous exploration of the Amazon rain forest covers a mere 7 pages in Ms. O'Toole's biography. That exploration is the subject of "The River of Doubt."

Does this brief three month trip of discovery on the Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt) warrent a full scale book? In Ms. Millard's superb account of the near fatal expedition, the answer is yes. The former president was an adrenaline junkie who needed to forget his loss in the 1912 campaign for the White House. He found all the adventure he would ever crave on the Rio da Duvida, for he was way in over his head. If not for their guide, Colonel Candido Rondon, no one would have made it out alive -- Roosevelt's disappearance would have top Amelia Earhart as the mystery of the century. This adventure yarn focuses, not on the political animal, but on a man who would never quit and never did.

History comes alives in a riveting adventure
I shall be brief; for it is better to spend any free time that you might have reading or listening to this extraordinary book. It actually is three books in one. It offers every bit the insight as the historical writings of Ambrose, MuCullough or Ellis. It involves you every bit as much as the adventurous writings of Krakauer and certainly offers every bit of the fascination of the natural history narratives of Burroughs. I would suggest you listen and read along with this story. While at home you will not be able to put it down, so be advised to listen during your commutes. Almost as interesting as the story is the author herself and how she came to find the story. Near the end of her writing project, she herself had to draw upon the insipration of the expedition. But that is a story you will need to find on your own if you so choose. The bottom line is that this a superb book on so many levels, and destined to become a classic and, hopefully, a film. If you enjoy presidential history, natural history and adventure there is absolutely no reason you will not fall in love with this book as I did. I suspect as well, you will be reading passages aloud to your friends and family...sometimes to their dismay of the subject matter, perhaps. Also, one note of warning: it may bring a tear or two to your eyes as it winds down. I give it my highest recommendation.

Fact, More Thrilling Than Fiction
Candice Millard tells the riveting true story of an obscure event in the sprawling life of Theodore Roosevelt. Had this story been a work of fiction, it would have seemed less believable than a made-for-television melodrama. But fiction it is not; it is fact, more thrilling than fiction.

Millard's meticulous attention to detail, coupled with her page-turning writing style offers the reader a story hard to put down. Add to that the fame of the leading character, the father-son connection, the multiplied harrowing situations, and you have an adventure tale of epic proportion. It's hard to fathom that this month-long death march was so unknown, until now.

Though certainly not "preachy," Millard's accounting conveys a clear message of indefatigable courage. The River of Doubt became for Roosevelt, his adult son, and their traveling companions, a torrent of hope. Their darkest journey converted into the light of perseverance, sacrifice, team-work, and survival.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

Incredible Adventure Story
Although I'm something of a history buff, I had never heard of Roosevelt's journey down the River of Doubt. Candice Millard does a great job of describing the harrowing trip through uncharted areas of the Amazon rain forest. Although Roosevelt's journey was much shorter than Lewis and Clark's, the story reminded me a lot of Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," which is high praise for Ms. Millard. Ms. Millard's writing is certainly up to the drama of the trip.

The expedition's difficulties were almost beyond belief, and even after finishing the book, it was difficult to imagine how Roosevelt or anyone else survived the ordeal. No wonder that some critics were initially skeptical of the expedition's success.

The expedition included a number of colorful characters, and Theodore Roosevelt is clearly the celebrity of the group, but other characters, including Roosevelt's son Kermit and the Brazilian frontiersman Candido Rondon, are portrayed vividly as real people, not just bit players in Roosevelt's great adventure. One of the most fascinating elements of the book is the interplay between the characters as the extreme hardships of the journey brought out the strengths and weaknesses of the participants.

Besides being a really superb chronicle of the journey, the book is full of fascinating information about rain forest dynamics, which explained why the expedition had so little success in finding food along the way. After reading River of Doubt, I have no desire to go wandering around in the Brazilian jungles!

A really good, well written adventure story that I recommend to anyone. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death.

The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave.

How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.

Reviews

EXTREME ADVENTURE IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES, July 30, 2000
An amazing tale of courage, fortitude, and a desire to live, despite dire circumstances. The author, Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, ascend a perilous section of the Peruvian Andes. Near the summit, tragedy strikes when Joe, up over 19,000 feet, falls and hits a slope at the base of a cliff, breaking his right leg, rupturing his right knee, and shattering his right heel. Beneath him is a seemingly endless fall to the bottom. Simon reaches him but knows that the chances for Joe to get off the mountain are virtually non-existent. Yet, they fashion a daring plan to to do just that.

For the next few hours, through a snow storm, they work in tandem, and manage a risky, yet effective way of trying to lower Joe down the mountain. About three thousand feet down, Joe who is still roped to Simon, drops off an edge, and finds himself now free hanging in space six feet away from an ice wall, unable to reach it with his axe. The edge is over hung about fifteen feet above him. The dark outline of a crevasse lies about a hundred feet directly below him.

Joe couldn't get up, and Simon couldn't get down. In fact, Joe's weight began to pull Simon off the mountain. So, Simon was finally forced to do the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He cut the rope, believing that he was consigning his friend to certain death. Therein lies the tale.

What happens next is sure to make one believe in miracles.

The Odyssey of Joe Simpson, June 30, 2001
This is not primarily an adventure story about climbing. It is an account of one man, not just facing the abyss but being in the abyss and having his very being stripped to a raw struggle, not to survive but to want to survive.

Simpson and a climbing partner in an excess of youthful bravado planned a new route up a monster Andean peak in Peru. The area was remote and civilization was somewhere else. After an arduous ascent, Simpson fell and broke his leg while descending. The reader gradually realizes what a chilling horror has befallen the pair. They have no possibility of rescue; the mountain was almost unclimbable for two superb athletes with two good legs. How can they possibly get down when one of them is unable to walk?

Partner, Simon Yates, ropes Simpson to himself and tries to guide Simpson down who is forced to crawl, slide, and inch himself forward. Then Simpson goes over the edge of a cornice and is dangling with only the rope holding him over the void. Yates heroically digs in, but gradually he himself is being inexorably drawn to the chasm. He finally, with shuddering reluctance, cuts the rope, and Simpson falls many feet into a crevasse.

The rest of the book is Simpson's six-day excruciating journey down the mountain: his thoughts, hallucinations and agony. Simpson is a powerful writer without a trace of self-pity. He doesn't try to impress us with his stoicism - far from it, at times he is almost mad with fright. There is nothing lurid here; the book is exhausting, but thought provoking. You won't forget it easily, and you cannot help but wonder what it is like beyond the edge and into the maelstrom.

This is a griping story of survival and human endurance., May 16, 1999
How far can the human body be pushed before total collapse? What can the mind endure before succumbing to what seems like inevitable termination? Joe Simpson's tale of survival after what should have been a fatal mountaineering event begins to explore the limits of human capability. Readers in our book group felt the prose was not first rate but written well enough that few wanted to put the book down. This book is good enough to become canon in mountaineering literature. For those with no mountaineering experience, some of the climbing aspects and descriptions may be difficult to envision. Nonetheless it is an amazing story. Our group read this in conjunction with Caroline Alexander's book "The Endurance", another incredible story of survival against unbelievable odds. While Simpson's ordeal occurs over the span of a few days, the story of Shakleton's group living on the ice for nearly two years explores the other spectrum of what it takes to survive - the two stories seem to compliment each other in the scope of human endurance.

A mountain tragedy with a difference....., January 15, 2000
A good many books and short stories have been written about mountaineering accidents and tragedies. Every bookshop worth its salt will have at least one or two to chose from, but if this one is on the shelf - get it! This is a tale which will grow on you as you turn each page, compelling you to read on and on to its breathtaking conclusion. Simpson nearly died the first time, but there was worse to come. The author has made no attempt to glorify the story, nor alter the facts to shed a kinder light on his own thoughts and words, or the actions of his partner. This book is not just an account of a human tragedy on a mountain; it is a journey into the depths of a man's soul. It is as much about philosophy as it is about mountaineering, but don't let that put you off - it's a real heart thumper!

The Bandwagon Rope-Trick, December 22, 2003
This might not apply to American readers (or it may, I don't know) but there's a huge misconception in the UK as to what this book is about. I work in a bookshop and we're selling this by the dozen, which infuriates me not because I do not believe it should sell well and be widely read, but because people are buying it for the wrong reason.

Touching the Void is, simply put, the story of the human spirit's ability for survival against all the odds. There are many occasions where both Joe and Simon could have given up; many moments when it could all have been for naught; but they kept going, and both lived to tell the tale. Simpson's writing is, as ever, vivid and visceral, putting you up on Siula Grande with him. We vicariously experience his time in the crevasse, his efforts on the glacier, and then his crawl back towards the camp, wondering if there will be anybody there even if he does make it. You know all along that he survives, but when he reaches safety you want to cry out because he describes it so painfully well. This is what the book is about.

With the impending release of the movie, and widespread radio coverage in the UK featuring interviews and editorials, a terrible misconception has crept in. Almost everyone who has come into the shop and asked me about the book has said, "I heard about this book on the radio. It's about a climber who cuts the rope on his friend. Do you have it?" By focussing on Simon Yates' cutting of the rope, it seems that everyone is missing the point. Far from a cold-hearted act, everybody fails to acknowledge that had Yates not lowered Simpson down several thousand feet of the mountain, a non-stop feat of incredible courage and fortitude, Simpson would not have survived, period. Simpson himself does not blame Yates for his actions, and this is the lead we should be taking. All these people who have never been on a mountain in their lives saying, "Ooh, he broke the code, he shouldn't have done that," just have no idea.

I'm glad the book is selling well, and deservedly so, but I wish it could sell for the right reasons and not because people want the inside story on The-Man-Who-Cut-The-Rope.

Bone crunching, nerve freezing drop into the edge of life and death., September 27, 2005
This is a true story of a mountain expedition in the Andes where two British partners take risks acceptable to experienced and fit climbers. But here they draw a spectacularly bad hand - first with Joe having a terrible bone crunching accident that leaves him scarcely able to move, and then with rapidly deteriorating weather. Partner Simon attempts the impossible and begins an inventive, courageous one-man rescue operation, but half way down the mountain he is forced to make a ghastly choice: stay roped to Joe and both will perish, or cut the rope and make a desperate bid to reach the bottom.

Simon chooses the latter, and the result is horrifying: with Joe plunging into a deep crevasse with no way of climbing up the sheer ice.

But of course this memoir is written by Joe so we know that somehow, against all odds, our author will also get himself to safety. How he does so, and how he skirts around the very edges of death provides the book with its extremely powerful human resonance.

I read this after seeing the excellent movie, and Joe's reflections, at the end of this book about the experience of helping make the film and reliving the horror (he and Simon are played by actors in wide shot, but the climbers provided all the close-up technical shots)- provides additional and unexpected depth and humanity.

There's another reviewer below who was bored by this book. They must have been having a really bad day because Joe's writing takes you right into the heart of his ordeal. This is a stunning story. Five stars aren't enough.

Words cannot express..., March 19, 2007
`Touching the Void' is the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates who climbed the West Face of Siula Grande, a mountain in the Peruvian Andes. After an accident Simpson has a broken leg and little chance of getting off the mountain alive. Yates lowers Simpson off the mountain quickly (as they do not have enough supplies to stay on the mountain) and unknowingly off a cliff face. Simpson cannot beck up the rope and Yates cannot pull him back up. Seconds before being pulled off the face of the cliff himself Yates cuts the rope and Simpson falls off the cliff and down the mountain. Yates, leaving the mountain the next morning, thinking Simpson dead, leaves Simpson to crawl off the mountain with his injuries.

In the best portions of the book you get both Yates's and Simpson's thoughts about the accident, where they were and what was happening step by step in the days following the accident. You feel the pain, guilt, fear, and panic in both parties and get the idea that something fantastic occurred on Siula Grande.

I say you get the feeling because in the poorer portions of the book you do not understand why one `crevasse' is worse than another, why a `pear shaped cornice' is a bad omen, why it is hard to place a `friend' in a secure position on the mountain, and why a `bollard' is dubious. In Simpson's words one portion of the mountain blends into the other and you have to be told this portion is scary, or that he is making progressing, rather than seeing why he is scared or how he is making progress.

Simpson admits as much in the Epilogue to the book when he says `I simply could not find the words to express the utter desolation of the experience' and to be fair Simpson was not an experienced writer at the time of this book (he has written six since then). However, you are certainly left wanting for a description you can understand, and emotion that stands out from the rest, and a story you can grasp on to instead of feeling that `you needed to be there'.

Worth reading as well as watching, December 21, 2004
A few weeks back, in search of something good to watch at the video store, I picked up Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void documentary from the shelf. As I was skeptically reading the back of the DVD case, the fellow standing next to me said that it was a "really good movie." I took him on his word and later disovered a movie that I have since been raving about to all who will listen. It is a riveting story in which an injured climber is left for dead on a Peruvian mountain and manages to crawl his way off. It sounds like fiction, but, as is often the case, this true story is incredible beyond what a writer could believable construct. So, when I found out that Joe Simpson (the climber left on the mountain) had written a book, Touching the Void about his harrowing adventure, I knew I needed to read it.

The movie and the DVD extras take the viewer on an emotional path where one at first dislikes the arrongant and impetuous Simpson, while his climbing pal Simon Yates seems more sympathetic. However, as the movie continues and especially if you watch the Return to Siula Grande DVD extra, it becomes hard not to empathize with Simpson's reaction to returning to the place where he had faced so much trauma and to, in contrast, find Yates cold and unfeeling, as if the experience they shared so many years before no longer affected him personally. The end of the movie leaves one with the impression that Simpson, although understanding at what Yates did, does not really like Yates and does certainly not consider him a friend.

The book, written several years earlier, certainly leaves a more positive impression of Yates. While Simpson admits to having written the book in part to clear Yates's name in the climbing communitry, his storytelling takes the reader beyond a defense of Yates's actions. In fact, Simpson's description of Yates's attempt to lower the injured Simpson down the mountain portrays an act that is nothing short of heroic. It is clear that his cutting the rope was a last, desperate resort to end a situation in which there was no way out.

While the book and the movie both tell very closely the same story, reading the book and seeing the movie is neither a redundant experience nor an exercise in detecting differences in the two plots. In fact, the one enriches the story in the other. The maps and the first-person telling in the book complement the documentary-style script and the sweeping vistas caught on film.

Incredible, November 15, 1999
Ive done some climbing, traveled and climbed in the Andes and read many climbing books and this book is outrageous. I guess there are not many tales being told from that close to the edge (the authors tend not to survive). Stay alive Simpson and give us more of your writing. You are absolutely no bs.

(congratulations on a spectacular first ascent)

the title is right- it is pretty harrowing, February 26, 2007
I like this type of story a lot. In old Outdoor Life they used to be called "THIS HAPPENED TO ME.." (caps intended). I always hate it when they take some hardship like being stuck in the car for a couple of days without water and make each tick of the clock seem like the end of the world. This book is the linear opposite. The hardships come through, but the writing is almost never sensational- it is understated if anything. It begins at a leisurely pace, much like the journey of Joe Simpson and his climbing partner Yates. As the tension increases we know the big Accident is around the corner, but when it finally happens it seems routine, and Simpson makes evident how fragile life can be- that a pretty simple turn of events can have disatrous consequences. I suppose it's no spoiler, since we know he wrote the book, to let it be known that he survives a broken leg and a 100 foot drop above 19,000 feet, and manages to crawl his way back to camp when everyone thought he was dead. For a first-time author he does a tremendous job of relating this story, and it is even more realistic without the touches of a ghost writer or heavy handed editor.

It's hard to find a real weakness, other than the story itself doesn't seem to totally capture what must've been the sheer horror of the journey, and the dialogue and characters are not quite as sympathetic as one would expect, probably due to some first person modesty. In any case, this is a minor complaint, and I highly, highly recommend this book for anyone who likes adventure/outdoor literature. ... Read more

Editorial Review

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Reviews

bogus reviews, December 21, 2010
Interesting that the book is by J. SMITH, All of the 5 star reviews are by someone named SMITH from TEXAS except for one, which is from Cowboy from TEXAS! Talk about bogus reviews! You just convinced me not to buy this.

This is the original Best Seller Learn Spanish Book, September 15, 2010
This is the original Best Seller Learn Spanish Book. I was happy with it. However there is a revised version that has the table of contents hyper-linked and formatted better, but you have to pay a couple of bucks more, so it depends on what you like as to which one of these versions you would want to buy. Check 'em both out, same best selling book, try it out...The new edition will have the orange star-burst on the cover.

Text to speech is useless, November 10, 2010
The book may be good, but I bought it to test the text-to-speech. I was curious to hear if the Spanish would be pronounced in Spanish or in English. It's pronounced in English. Perhaps a Spanish version of the Kindle is needed to hear text-to-speech that pronounces in Spanish.

Simple Fast Learn Spanish for Kindle Course, August 3, 2010
Simple Fast Learn Spanish for Kindle Course. If you need to learn spanish fast this is a must course. No fluff. Not a bunch of garbage spanish words that you are not going to use. Teaches you spansish fast.

Good spanish learning book, November 14, 2010
I would say this book is good, not great. The revised version is much better formatted but for the price this one works. There are a few spelling errors but if you speak English already you know what it means.

Learn Spanish Fast with this., August 4, 2010
Great no fluff, to the bones spanish language book that I could use and helped me learn all the basic words fast. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn it fast and only what you need to get by. Good learn spanish book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

The only way to really understand what made T.R. tick., April 12, 1999
Outstanding! This book is a tome of philosophy, adventure, intrigue, and above all, inspiration. Notwithstanding these encomia however, the reader should beware before making a hegira into its noble pages that this autobiography does not follow the traditional structure of a "biography." Rather it can be described as being a compendium of T.R.'s philosophy on life. The true strength of its pages being found in how T.R.'s experiences and actions staunchly uphold and support his 'vigor of life' and probity which he so often addressed as being fundamental to all good Americans. Accordingly, I suggest a first-time reader of T.R. would be best served by initially reading a more "objective" biography of T.R. (I suggest Nathan Miller's Theodore Roosevelt, A Life) in order to become familiar with the events and time frames involved. This will allow the reader to more appreciate the nature, values and beliefs of the great man as told in this book by the ultimate authority, himself.

Along with being completely inspired by a man of such high moral values, the factual anecdotes related in this book comfort you in the knowledge that this hero practiced what he preached. In a speech by his own hand, T.R. embodied his own life; "The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;...who strives valiantly...who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."

T.R. was a naturalist, legislator, cowboy, businessman, soldier, author, conservationist, U.S. President, world explorer, and above all an inspirational "doer of deeds." This book eloquently tells the reader why he felt he needed to perform these deeds and what was going through his mind all the while.

The Mother of All Presidential Memoirs, June 30, 2004
Witty, quirky, profound, lyrical--this is one of the great American memoirs. The 1999 Modern Library and National Review rankers of the 100 great nonfiction books of the 20th century missed the boat on this one.

A Great Chronicler of His Own Life and Times, September 29, 2009
Having read several books about TR, I have heard a lot about his writing. Other than reading some of his letters and quotes in books, I had never read any of his work but picked his autobiography up from a used bookstore. I was looking for the Naval War of 1812, but ended up with this instead. I was not disappointed. Some parts of the book definitely dragged and if your patience for legislative maneuvering prior to 1900 in the New York legislature is limited, you might want to skip to the back half of the book. But what comes through in the book are TR's passions: books, the outdoors, conserving the outdoors, and the Navy.

The first half of the book is essentially told chronologically. But when TR gets to his presidency, he tells the tale thematically. There are chapters on conservation, trust busting and other industrial issues, and two chapters on international affairs. Unfortunately, the book ends with his presidency and does not go into TR's world travels or his comeback bid in 1912. TR's dislike for his hand picked successor, President Taft, permeates the presidency chapters.

As with any autobiography, especially a presidential one, TR views himself as always right and his opponents as always wrong. His views on Taft are a good example of that. But that can hardly be viewed as a failing of the book, since that is a standard characteristic of these types of books.

If you want a first hand view of the man in the arena, what he tried to do and how he tried to lead his life, read the book.

Brilliant, September 11, 2007
Easily one of the best books ever written. Roosevelt is an exceptional writer who lived an amazing life. This book not only shares his tale, but shows you the ideals and ethics which drove him. Very inspiring as to the way in which we should all live our lives.

A last Renaissance man, March 24, 2008
I've loved Theodore Roosevelt since my wonderful 11th-grade American History class 10 years ago. This great President was quite possibly one of the last true Renaissance men: politician yes, but scientist, conservationist, businessman, soldier, and, heavens yes! writer (he published, I have heard, nearly 50 books on many different themes). TR belongs to the end of an era when one could actually aspire to "doing it all," and he succeeded brilliantly.

Teddy's _Autobiography_ is a fun, conversational read. The formatting for the Kindle is good, but not great, and a table of contents would be greatly appreciated.

I really enjoyed it, December 21, 2009
This autobiography covers Roosevelt's life well. His determination and hard worked proved to be the key to overcoming all obstacles in his way. Roosevelt's life was entertaining from his childhood to the presidency. Roosevelt is considered by scholars as one of the greatest United States Presidents.

A great man with great insight, May 20, 2009
It is a very long time that I have not read any biography and memoirs, however this book raises my interests in reading biography and memoirs again because this is a great man who can do so much in his life and this book shows some deep insight into politics although I am not familiar with the political figures during that time.

Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt, November 1, 2009
An incredible leader and character at the right time in our history! I wish we had more like him. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Completely updated every year, Frommer's Costa Rica features gorgeous color photos of the lush rainforest, the amazing array of wildlife, and the spectacular beaches that await you.

Personally researched by a longtime resident, it's the only truly up-to-date guide that gives you such in-depth coverage of this fast-changing country, with recommended accommodations in every price category.

You'll visit rugged wilderness preserves and sleepy beach towns, spectacular orchid gardens and mineral hot springs at the foot of a steaming volcano. There are adventures here to suit all ages and abilities: swooping from treetop platform to treetop platform on a canopy tour, taking a dip in a jungle swimming hole, spotting playful spider monkeys as you hike through lush foliage, windsurfing on Lake Arenal, or watching endangered sea turtles nest on the beach.

With Frommer's in hand, you'll experience the wonder of Costa Rica's amazing biodiversity, as we point out the best places to see hundreds of unique, colorful species of animals and plants. You'll even get a color fold-out map!

Editorial Review

Waterproof and rugged road and travel map of Costa Rica, San Jose plus zoomed detail maps of the most popular destinations. Updated annually - over 4,000 km of research travel verified hundreds of kilometers of recent pavement and improvements for the newest edition (2010).

2 sided, 39 in. x 26.25 in. (4.875 in. x 9 in. folded)

Roads are clearly differentiated by color and line width for classes from limited access divided highways down to 4WD seasonal tracks. Now improved and even easier to see at a glance which is the main route to your destination.

Locations and easy to read indexes are included for cities and towns, National Parks and other natural areas, beaches, rivers, peaks, volcanoes, waterfalls and the best hotels, restaurants and activities.

Exclusives
o The only street level map in print for the entire Central Valley from the international airport to San Jose.
o Detailed maps of Arenal Volcano/Fortuna, Alajuela, Escazu, Heredia, Manuel Antonio/Quepos, Monteverde/Santa Elena, Playa Jaco, Playa Tamarindo/Langosta, Puerto Jimenez & Puerto Viejo de Talamanca.
o Every waterproof map location, restaurant, hotel, resort, lodge and even campground is searchable and geocoded on mapcr.com wher you can read detailed descriptions from the author of The New Key to Costa Rica (the number one bestselling guidebook over the past three decades).
o Proprietary symbols for distinctively Costa Rican attractions like zip-line and hanging bridge canopy tours, butterfly gardens, canyoneering, rain forest horseback rides, SCUBA, deep sea fishing, golf, white water rafting, trails and many more. See at a glance what to do where.
o Driving distance table and mini map for calculating trip distances and estimating drive times.
o A few dozen useful English to Spanish phrase and word translations are provided in an inset. You will appreciate having 'What is the best way to get there?' and 'Can you please show me on the map?' at your fingertips if you need to ask directions. ... Read more

Reviews

Buy this map and go!, April 6, 2005
Ok, so you might need a guide book and a bird book as well but this map goes a long way to provide a Costa Rica map and guide book wrapped into one. I would have paid $100 for this map twelve years ago just for the information about paved roads, something that most map makers are reluctant to include since those roads change so quickly in a place like Costa Rica. Indeed, I headed off to San Jose in March of 1993 with my bike in a box and only a vague idea of road quality around the country. My trip went fine and I discovered some pretty interesting unpaved roads as well. But you are always at an advantage when you have current information. And this map has it as of January 2005 (and should be good for 3-4 years). Besides current road quality and surface status Krueger-Koplin has included detailed listings and locations of beaches, parks, reserves and refuges, butterfly gardens, canopy tours, fresh water fishing locales, surfing and scuba schools and more. How many times have you found yourself trying to plot all these locations on a map from your guidebook? This already has it done for you. As far as I know no other Costa Rica map goes this far.
Headed out on your bike or bird watching in the cloud forest? Not to worry. The "polyart" (plastic) this map is printed on will withstand afternoon downpours, morning drizzles and bike grease as well. This map isn't perfect but I've not seen anything comparable for the active traveler to Costa Rica. Just wish I'd had it twelve years ago. . .

Practicality and Utility, April 27, 2005
I went to Costa Rica with two maps in hand and hopes of backbacking around the Pacific Coast. Like Vermont, Costa Rica can be rather wet. Within two days of hiking, the first map was torn and soggy. The second map was like it was out of the box. I can't stress the importance and practicality of a waterproof map enough. I found this one to be accurate, detailed and above all, higher quality than I've ever experienced. It was a pleasure to order from Toucan guides as well and I've purchased an additional map for my brother.

The BEST map of Costa Rica, October 15, 2005
Once in a while one comes across a product that really stands out. Something that tells you "someone really gave some thought to this." This map is one of them. It is a comprehensive and well designed map with more information than just highways of Costa Rica. Every time you unfold it, it shows you a complete section of information. Because of the material used, it always folds back correctly unlike paper maps. The map can even be used as a momentary rain shield during one of the many unpredictable rain showers that can come at any time in Costa Rica. Having seen many Costa Rica maps, this one in my opinion is the best one. Great use of detail, color and icons. A MUST if you are going to drive in Costa Rica. The maps from the rental companies lack detail or are non existent. I have been using mine for over a year and I would not go to Costa Rica without. It's the first thing I pack....

map has pluses and minuses, January 19, 2006
I hate to be the only person to not give this map 5 stars but I do have several critiques.
First the pluses.
Map has good scale. About 1 inch = 7 miles
Natural features as rivers and mountains are named.
Map is sturdy and mosture proof.

Now the minuses
No milage table between cities. I thought all road maps had this. Why this one does not is beyond me.
Symbol reference is on the reverse so you have to flip the map over to find out what the symbols mean. Very inconvenient.
No index to natural features as rivers, so if you are trying to find out where Rio Frio is, good luck.
Not all small towns are noted on the map.
A third of the map is devoted to tourist attractions. Well ok I guess I might be able to understand doing this. But I am more interested in finding Rio Frio.
One of the major land marks that I am aware of is not noted on the map--cerro de la muerte. It is at km 89 on Pan Am hyway and it does not show on the map.
Almost every map I have ever seen has a milage ruler at the bottom. This map show only that it is 18 km between grid marks.

A must-have!, July 4, 2007
I have lived in Costa Rica a few years ago and I have around 10 different maps of the country, but there is not one which is as good as this one!
It's a very detailed map and the structure (water proof) is very usefull when you are travelling there. In fact it is the most clear and detailed map of Costa Rica that I have ever seen!
A must have if you are going there!

Liesbeth - Belgium

Great map in a country of no maps...or signs, February 8, 2008
We did not come across anyone with a map any better than this one. Costa Rica is known for NOT marking streets and NOT marking forks in the road. This map is very accurate when marking all paved/unpaved roads...we did not travel any seasonal roads. We traveled successfully from the airport in San Jose to Montezuma (Nicoya Peninsula), Montezuma to Monteverde, Monteverde to Volcano Arenal and Arenal to Alajuela via the Poas Volcano. Some roads were parked unpaved but have since been paved, which was a nice (although rare)surprise. Every fork we came to was on the map, although sometimes it was hard to determine if we were at a fork in the road or if one of the options was just a long driveway. Use your guide books for city maps, as this map will not allow you to navigate cities like Alajuela.

Excellent Map of Costa Rica, April 14, 2010
I purchased the newest version of this map (2010) before my trip to Costa Rica. In addition, we had a GPS Costa Rican map (for a US Garmin) for our trip and brought several other maps that we had been loaned. This map is awesome. On our first night, we drove from San Jose to Arenal in the dark. Once we arrived, the loaned maps were re-packed. The GPS would sometime say we were off the road and on a different road, and we could easily find our location with this map. Not going to lie, we used the GPS most of the time, but whenever there was a question (which there frequently was) we could use logic to figure out our heading with this map. We did ask for directions twice, but that was not because of the map, but because the roads in Costa Rica are poorly labeled. I drove over 900km (~560 mi) over paved, unpaved, and 4x4 trails all over the country, and I have to say, without it we would have been lost several times. It was well worth the small price. The 12 liters of fuel you burn if you get lost in Costa Rica will more than pay for the price of the map. It is durable and easy to read. Bonus: I contacted the publishers with a question, and they immediately responded. Their website is packed with information that is referenced in the map. Buy yourself a copy before you go, whether you are driving or not -- the map also has up-to-date information about hotels, points of interest, etc.

Costa Rica Lifeline, December 14, 2008
This Costa Rica Map is one of the better maps I have used, and it is waterproof. I think the roads shown will be easy to find due to the clarity of the printing, and the phrases printed on the "outside" of the map could be lifesavers off the beaten path. Just the phrases are worth the money for easy help when you are getting lost. Good Product....

This is the Map Everyone Else Wanted, November 22, 2008
Once they saw this map, everyone on the birding trip to Costa Rica were disappointed in the maps that they brought along. More than once I heard, "This is a great map. Where did you get it?"

Review from a local, December 22, 2010
This is hands down, by a long shot the best map of Costa Rica. I live in Costa Rica and drive the country regularly due to my job. I have a Toucan Map in both of my vehicles and rely on it more often than my GPS, which is often mistaken in San Jose with one ways or wants to take me on the "most direct route", which often is wrong because most roads are unpaved.
The most important thing to consider when purchasing this map is to buy the current version, which is available when purchased from the seller. This is a developing country and new roads are being paved every day. On the flip side, land slides are known to take out stretches of roads, which can take years to be rebuilt. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Nobody knows Argentina like Lonely Planet. Whether you want to tango though the night in Buenos Aires, climb glaciers in Patagonia, gallop with gauchos across the Pampas, sample Malbec in Mendoza or savor the world’s best steak, our unbeatable 7th edition will show you how – and make your journey unforgettable.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Inspiring color highlights section introduces the best of Argentina
Stylish city coverage with the best eating, shopping and nightlife
Full-color outdoors chapter with hiking, cycling, skiing and more
... Read more

Reviews

Mi Querida Argentina, January 24, 2009

A Must have Guide for Anybody Heading to Argentina, February 9, 2009

Argentina Lonely Planet (Country Guide), February 26, 2009

Make sure you get the new edition coming out Sept 2010, August 25, 2010
I just returned from a month-long trip to Argentina in July 2010. The newest Lonely Planet Argentina isn't coming out until September 2010 so we travelled with the older version. Although the guide has a warning about price increases, I was shocked to find almost every price quoted in the book to be about 40-50% higher than written. I do understand that prices in Argentina have skyrocketed in the past 10 years, but perhaps Lonely Planet should have researched a new edition sooner. The huge increase in prices almost doubled the budgeted cost of our trip.

That being said, I do feel the place and attraction descriptions were accurate and it was a good source of basic information from which to start researching where we wanted to go. The maps and addresses were accurate.

It has a HUGE Buenos Aires section, but we didn't spend much time there during the month so I can't honestly evaluate that section. We did have significant difficultly making reservations in Buenos Aires because at least 5 of the places listed in the book were full.

This guidebook also has a significant, more accurate, and well-written section on Uruguay. Although I am not sure why they didn't name it "Argentina and Uruguay" since Uruguay is another country, not a region of Argentina. My friends in Uruguay were quite insulted by this and felt it was "typical arrogant Argentine behavior". The information in the Uruguay section was more accurate that the info in the Argentina section.

Lastly, I felt the lodging and attractions listings were mostly geared toward travellers ages 18-25. We are a family travelling with two children, and often felt it hard to find affordable places to stay that weren't party hostels among the listings in the book. We even made reservations and paid a deposit at a place in Iguazu and found out once we arrived that they don't allow children! It would have been nice to read that ahead of time in the book. And I felt that there were very few activities and things to see that were geared toward families. Surely they exist!

Good general guide with great maps, July 11, 2009
Argentina is a huge and very diverse country and a guide book is very handy to have. The many maps are extremely helpful, and the how to get there and away sections are great. This book is also filled with lots of helpful hints like dangers and annoyances, interesting places to go, and history. Most of the hotel recommendations have been helpful, but be aware that many people read this book, and the recommended hotels can often be full. I have also met some of the authors, and their tight budgets and time schedules do not allow them to check out all the options. I would recommend buying this book, but keep your eyes and ears open. Many of the best hotels and restaurants that I have found have been from word of mouth of other travelers, or roaming the streets. Restaurants and bus schedules often change, so it is best to observe them for yourself. Dancing on the Edge of an Endangered Planet

Alternative Views, Not Always Reliable, February 18, 2009

August 2010 edition, November 17, 2010
We relied on the August 2010 edition for our 3-week visit to Argentina in October 2010. We met travelers from Canada and Ireland with the same August edition! It's packed with facts, very good comments and advice. Our trip went as planned, with no major surprises. Prices were higher than listed.
The maps have fine print, black and white, and are hard to use. Buenos Aires has several neighborhood maps that are good to locate something in a neighborhood, but the neighborhood fragments are hard to assemble into a unified city view.

Nicely Practical Travel Guide, September 12, 2010
Once again Lonely Planet provides a highly useful guide to that exciting destination of Argentina. This book is nicely practical and highly informative without being wordy or difficult. Lonely Planet provides solid information on culture, geography, affordable lodging and travel hostels, restuarants, long-distance bus transportation, etc. Wise travelers study this book (or certain sections) in advance regarding what they'd like to see and do. As this book shows, city buffs can savor world-class food, nightlife, and shopping in Buenos Aires, or slightly calmer locations like Cordoba or Rosario. Outdoor types may choose to enjoy Mendoza, the Andes Mountains, the Lake District, whale watching in Puerto Madryn, the waterfalls of Iguazu, etc. Many vistors travel between the often-distant destinations by frequent, comfortable night busses. As the book advises, when applicable pay a few extra pesos for cama class or cama executivo and enjoy on-board dinner, wine, and a roomy, fully-reclining seat - while avoiding the cost of a hotel. Travelers that can speak some Spanish may find Argentinians surprisingly friendly despite their rapid accent and mild reputation for arrogance.

This books states that prices may be higher than listed due to inflation and currency fluctuations (it's nearly four pesos to the dollar at this writing). Also, temperatures during their winter (June-September) range from chilly to mild, Buenos Aires has some homeless, and the offer useful advice on avoding dangers and annoyances - although Argentina is generally pretty safe. I do wish they'd give the approximate number of hotels & inns in smaller cities when they cannot list each location. Still, this is a nicely practical guide for novices and experienced travelers. As they say, don't leave home without your Lonely Planet.

VERY detailed. . ., March 19, 2009

You Can't Beat A Lonely Planet Guide Book...., January 19, 2009

Editorial Review

Nobody knows Costa Rica like Lonely Planet, and our 9th edition helps you build the perfect itinerary. Whether that’s whitewater rafting down the Río Reventazón, sunbathing in laid-back Montezuma, quetzal-spotting in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, or swaying to reggaetón at an open-air bar in Cahuita – you decide.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In this Guide:

Essential highlights chapter showcases the very best of Costa Rica
Tailored itineraries for easy trip planning
Unique Green Index helps you step lightly on your travels
... Read more

Reviews

Necessary to know what to avoid, March 8, 2004
Just got back from Costa Rica (2 wks), and had a good time, though it wasn't without serious disappointment.

While there we noticed that almost all the guidebooks people were carrying around were Lonely Planet (LP). But everywhere we stayed that LP raved about was very disappointing, and the few places we stayed that were very understated in LP were excellent.

My theory is that so many people are using LP that if a place gets a rave recommendation the business just pours in. They jack up their prices, sit back and rest on their reputation, and the facility and service deteriorate. But the money keeps pouring in because of that great LP review. Meanwhile the underrated places have to work their butts off to get business. Even though LP CR is only 2 years old, the prices of the highly rated hotels were off by as much as 50%, whereas the ones with understated descriptions were right on.

Generally, I like using LP, but for CR I would say that too many people do. Grab a different guidebook and cross-ref it with LP. If it has a nice sounding place that's not in LP, stay there!

We also used Frommer's even though it doesn't have much of a selection of budget places. Frommer's descriptions are so much more colorful and accurate. You get the impression that they only write about places for which they have first-hand knowledge. Plus Frommer's 2004 edition is new and the prices were exactly right. But, it's not sufficient by itself because it just doesn't list enough places.

Our rule of thumb for LP CR: If LP writes more than half a column about a hotel or lodge, avoid it! It will be overrated by now, with ridiculously high prices, and an inattentive staff.

Next gripe related to the advice in this guidebook: all the concerns and warnings are grossly exagerated. The roads are bad, but they don't swallow cars and break axles. There may be some crime, but there aren't people learching in the shadows to flatten your tires every time you stop. The busy season doesn't fill every hotel -- in fact without reservations, we got our first choice of hotels every night. I wonder how much more fun my trip would have been if I hadn't let this book make me so defensive!

Here's a tip for Costa Rican hotels: it doesn't matter how expensive the place is, the showers are lousy, with very little hot water and terrible water pressure. So don't pay $45 for a place just because it has hot showers when the place next door is only $25.

Conflicted author may depress you, July 10, 2007
While I agree with the conservationist spirit and general distaste for overrun tourist traps expressed throughout this guidebook by Matthew Firestone (one of the book's two authors), I found his relentlessly negative tone to be extremely off-putting. While the sections written by the other author (Mara Vorhees) are more neutral, informative and generally reflect the high quality I've come to expect from the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks, Matthew Firestone's sections have fully succeeded in dampening my enthusiasm for a trip to Costa Rica before the trip has even begun.

While it may be that the beach at Playa Tamarindo "is full of blubbery North American and European holidaymakers who spend most of their time frying in the sun like beached whales" turning their complexion "from a pasty white to a rosy shade of skin cancer," and while that description does indeed sound like a scene I would rather avoid, I find the author's consistent haughty tone and overriding negativity to be out of place and offensive in a book that is intended for - after all - tourists.

I am still planning what I fully expect to be an exciting and fun vacation in Costa Rica, but now I have to do so in spite of the author of this book's overbearing negativity. It's true, I'm sure, that Costa Rica was once better to visit than it is today, but this book is not for people who knew and loved the country years ago. It's intended for people who have never been there before, and since Mr. Firestone couldn't put aside his sour gripes and focus on what's great about the place rather than bemoaning what's been lost, his words and advice won't be making the trip with me.

This book has been my first disappointment in the Lonely Planet series.

Great Guide; Excellent vacation, October 20, 2001
I ended up a few weeks and travelling through parts of Central America. This travel guide is one of the ones I took with me, and I highly recommend it.

This guide proved to be invaluable, and saved me a lot of headaches and money. Traveling solo, I rarely make reservations or plans until I actually get there. This is what I did when I got to Costa Rica.

Thanks to this LP guide I can report the following highlights: $7 per night hotel room in San Jose, watching a live volcano (Arenal), spending time in the hot springs at the base of a live volcano, visiting a coffee plantation, hiking through Cloud Forest, and seeing several breathtaking waterfalls. Travelling through Nicaragua to Tortugero to watch the endangered turtles lay eggs was definitely a worthwhile adventure.

A few words of advice: If you are going to visit the rain forest, bring a poncho. It rains in the rain forest. A lot, especially during the rainy season. Perhaps that is why they call it a rain forest. Secondly, visit the local tourist offices in San Jose. I went in looking for some free maps, and got a lot of good advice. It never hurts to have some extra advice about where to go to supplement the guide.

A little dense, it becomes hard to visualize places when planning a trip, but the real value is when you are the ground and moving. Highly recommended.

The only one you'll need, January 4, 2007
As usual I bought a few guide books and took them all with me. I had the National Geographic, the Tico Times book (Exploring Costa Rica) and the Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet was the bible. All the rest were fluff. As my trip progressed I put the others in the glove compartment and eventually deep in my luggage. The only time I needed anything else was consulting the map (I had a waterproof detailed Costa Rica map which I also recommend) and once when a phone number was misprinted.

As for the preachy tone, yes, I agree, there was a huge element in the book. A lot of it I tended to agree with (I personally think zip line tours are a terrible idea and would make more sense over Manhattan skyscrapers than in one of the world's most precious cloud forests and I also agree that Tamarindo is a hole) so it didn't bother me as much as some of the other reviewers. I wouldn't lower my score by more than half a star for that so they still got 5 stars.

Least helpful travel book I've ever used, January 18, 2006
I bought this book before a trip to Costa Rica, based on the "Lonely Planet" name alone. Lonely Planet usually publishes the best travel books, but not in this case. We found that the directions to many of the establishments were incorrect, as were the descriptions. Some of the locals even pointed out parts of the book that were blatantly incorrect, such as certain restaurants or bars that were in a different part of town than stated in the book. This particular book could have used a better fact-checker. I will not be taking it with me on my next trip to Costa Rica.

Outdated, sorely lacking, get Tico Times in-country, June 1, 2006
I bought this book for my Costa Rica trip (8 weeks w/ a class, 3 weeks w/o), and replaced it within the first week. Most of the hotels are priced above what is listed, if they even exist anymore. Same with the restaurants. Also, LP over-emphasized many extreme tourist hotspots without giving enough info about smaller towns (don't miss Cauhita!), lesser-known forests (check out the Children's Eternal Rainforest), getting around by bus, super-budget hotels or border crossings. My advice: wait until you get into Costa Rica, then get the Tico Times guidebook, updated EVERY YEAR, written by the local english newspaper. It's easy to find and so much more relevant, with maps of every town, bus schedules, local festivals (where and when), border information, updated hotel + restaurant info, and how to find the information you can't find anywhere else.

Find a new author Lonely Planet, January 16, 2008
If you want to enjoy traveling to Costa Rica I would recommend another book. If you want to spend your time lamenting about how Costa Rica has changed, how Americans are annoying, and be afraid to take your valuables out of your hotel safe than I recommend you check this book out. I would often read passages out loud to different people I was traveling with. You would think that Jaco is similar to Jersey but with more crack and lots of prostitutes from reading this book. In fact, when I went it was mostly families, a little sketch, but man get a grip. I read the chapter on San Jose and was to afraid to take my camera to the central market and downtown. What a regret! The people everywhere in Costa Rica were so nice. Downtown was crawling with tourists with their cameras and police. It wasn't even remotely sketchy. We could only get reservations in Tamarindo for Christmas day and I was terrified that it was going to be like Myrtle Beach on Spring Break. Yes there were lots of condos but it was still Costa Rica! Dirt Roads. you could walk from one end of town to the other in less then 10 minutes, everyone was nice, the beach was pretty. I just couldn't understand why the authors seemed to hate travel so much and be so hateful towards places where we were going.

Also, the book didn't give a lot of key information about how to get around without a car. We wasted so much time in La Fortuna trying to figure out how to get to the different places we wanted to go. It turns out there isn't a bus, there are only guided tours. They are all expensive. We finally hitchhiked which worked out well but I never go to go on the hanging bridges. I loved Cahuita (it wasn't dangerous) and Dominical. I loved Costa Rica. I am ready to go back.

I just wanted to warn people to stay away from this book. I love guidebooks. I am the kind of psycho that gets them from the library and reads through them even when I am not going anywhere. This one was the worst.

I'm sure it was good once upon a time..., December 22, 2001
I have used Lonely Planet guides for the past 8 years during my travels everywhere from Cambodia to New Zealand to Japan, and they have yet to disappoint... until now. I'm sure that this book was once good, but it was written nearly two years ago, and Costa Rica has changed so much since then.

With the recent real estate/construction boom, this book is simply too old. I spent a month in Costa Rica (Nov./Dec. 2001) and found that in many towns HALF of the hotels and restaurants mentioned in this book no longer exist or are under new names/ownership. Also, there is a large number of new lodging places that have been built in the past years that LP excludes. Many of these are the best deals in town.

For the ones that it does include, prices are slightly outdated (although not horrible). Bus schedules are less than accurate (understandable for a two year old book). Especially in remote places like Corcovado, this book was of little help and in certain cases genuinely misleading about ways to get around and the distance of certain extended hikes.

Like I said, I use LP books all the time and they are usually great. I'm sure a 5th edition would fix 90% of the problems with this book, but until then I would strongly recommend a different publication. My friend had the Moon Handbooks guide (which I had never used before) and it was significantly better than the LP in all aspects but maps. My recommendation would be to get that book (or a different one if you know that it is newly printed) and a DETAILED map of the country. That should treat you fine until the 5th edition LP comes out.

Enjoy your trip!

Lonely Planet Costa Rica review, July 8, 2002
We used this book when traveling through Costa Rica as well as the Explore Costa Rica by Harry Pariser. The Lonely Planet Guide was a little out of date. It seems like many places and events have changed in Costa Rica since the book was written. We found that Pariser's book was much more complete, fun to read, and accurate. The in-depth ecological commentary was greatly appreciated. Lonely Planet can sometimes be overrated.

A Good Second Choice, March 1, 2004
In preparing for a four-week trip to Costa Rica, I bought both the Lonely Planet Guide and Moon Handbook to Costa Rica. Although both were very good, I would give the edge to the Moon Handbook which provided more detailed and personalized descriptions of places to stay, eat, and visit.
I have used Lonely Planet books in many parts of the world and have long considered them my travel Bible. However, I have noticed that they seem to have lost some of their spark and have become more mainstream and institutionalized in recent years.
For those planning an extensive trip to Costa Rica, I would suggest buying both Moon and Lonely Planet guides as each provides information and insights the other lacks. But I would give Moon the edge if you are planning to purche only one. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Nobody knows Peru like Lonely Planet, and our unbeatable 7th edition gives you the key to its legendary past and exciting present. Watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu, shop at colorful crafts markets, puzzle over the mysterious Nazca Lines and sample sublime ceviche. We'll take you there - and beyond.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Full-Color Outdoors chapter features hiking, climbing and surfing
Extensive coverage of Lima's world-renowned culinary scene
Fascinating full-color chapter reveals Peru's ancient sites and cultures
... Read more

Reviews

Disappointed with this Guide, November 23, 2005
This is the first Lonely Planet guide my wife and I have ever been disappointed with. We were in Peru in November of 2005 and relied on this guide to plan hotels, excursions and restaurants in Lima and Cusco.

The big problem with this guide was with the information on Cusco -- prices and information were out of date, and we were constantly surprised to find that things the book lists as free cost money, and the costs of tours, trips, and entrance fees were much more than what the book stated. I would go as far as to say that the book was wrong more than 80% of the time. Consequently, we eneded up spending much more money that we had anticipated, and ended up not going to several sites to avoid blowing the budget we set for this trip. An added drawback to this book was, when walking around Cusco with it in hand, having guides and other tourists go out of their way to tell you what a bad guidebook this is. (I wish I was making this up.)

I also found that the information on hotels in Lima was not very good. The hotel I stayed at was excellent and not even listed. However, the hotel next door, which was not nearly as nice, was listed and given high marks. I would have been upset if I relied on the book and stayed at the place next door.

I believe these problems are all because this guide has not been updated. And until it is, I wouldn't recommend relying on it to plan a vacation.

The Least Helfpul Lonely Planet Guide, October 18, 2005
I swear by Lonely Planet guides since 1999 and found their books to be superior in many destinations, but the Peru book is an unfortunate exception. I hope that the publisher puts it for a complete re-write like they did with LP Bolivia. Anyway... I have traveled in Peru for 2 months and the following are the problems with the book: in each city I found that many addresses and locations marked on the maps are incorrect and represent either private residences, closed establishments, or a few blocks off; the information between sections does not jive (the book gives different travel times to/from Arequipa, depending on the chapter you are reading even though the cities are the same); the book gives BAD advice on what to do - in Lima it suggests a bicycle trip to Pachakamac ruins, which is a suicide mission because it involves first cycling through the slums of Lima and then many miles on the shoulder of Panamericana w/o a cycle lane, pretty much sharing the road with speeding trucks and buses; the book skips on the choice destinations and activities by locals - I was amazed that LP did not even mention Lares hotsprings near Cusco, which is not only the finest hotspring in the region, but also a spectacular trek, and the choice of local residents to visit when they have time off; many establishments, such as restaurants, mentioned in the book no longer conform to the description either due to change of ownership or just being spoiled by listing in the guide... There many other misc inaccuracies in the book as well. Alas, I can't recommend this guide book for travel in Peru. I ended up getting most of my intel from the South American Explorers club or just talking with the locals.

Practical advice, cultural perspectives, good maps, March 4, 2005
I never visit a country with just one guidebook. For Peru, with its diversity of places and wildlife I got several. However if I really had to pick my favorite for Peru, I would chose Lonely Planet. The city maps are fairly good for the larger, more visited areas. The sections on history and culture are interesting and insightful without being too lengthy.

I particularly liked the section on health issues. This guidebook did a better job with altitude sickness, and some of the jungle diseases than any of the other guidebooks I have read. To my chagrim, I read that the two most commonly used medications for altitude sickness were contraindicated for me. I found out that I would have to plan well before my trip so that I could get all of the the proper immunizations for the jungle part of our trip. Based on the book, I decided to get a travel medicine consult--a very good move that probably saved me a lot of potential problems.

The sections on social customs and conveniences were helpful. You wouldn't buy a guidebook just because it has a section explaining Peruvain toilets and toilet paper, but things like this are really really useful if you are traveling with kids.

The climate charts for different sections of Peru only occupy a page or two, but are actually quite helpful in planning vacation dates.

I would have liked for the guide to include more information on the beautiful and remote Manu National Park. I had to buy another book and go on the Internet to get much information on that area.

Just got back from Peru, and my LP guide was heavily used, June 8, 2000
My finger oil and dirt are all over the pages of my LP Peru book... I used it a lot, and it was accurate, informative, and reliable (or at least as much so as possible when accounting for the constant changes in the dynamic 3rd world). I stayed mostly in 2-star hostels or hotels, and all described in LP were accurate. I even managed to avoid getting sick from food while eating at many of LP's recommended eateries. (I would strongly recommend, however, to heed the warnings about altitude sickness.:) ) When they said a hotel or hostel was a good value, it was certainly accurate. I found LP Peru to be the best of the 3 LP's I used on the trip (Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil). Most maps are good, but sometimes street names are mentioned in the text and one has to search the maps street by street to find it (a minor complaint). Overall... its certainly a recommended book for Peru-bound travelers.

Great Guidebook!, April 3, 2000
This book is well organized, presenting important and useful information in an easy-to-read format. Facts about the country and guidance for travel within Peru are included in the first four chapters in the book. The next several chapters are neatly organized by area within Peru. The colored tabs are a great help in finding the different sections of the book. The map of Peru inside the front of the book is in color, giving instant information to the reader about the elevation of the area, along with a brief description of the highlights of the area. Great book!

Usefull, lots of good advice and accurate guides, June 10, 2010
Bought the 2010 edition of the Lonely Planet Peru right when it came out, just weeks before my trip to Peru. Before leaving for Peru I also read the Moon Handbook and Eyewitness Travel, but this was the only book we carried. We did a typical trip from Lima to Cusco, Pisac, Ollanta, Machu Picchu, and then on to Puerto Maldonado & the Amazon Basin. The only issue we ran into, that wasn't the fault of Lonely Planet, was that the major flooding in early 2010 that wiped out the railroads for several months from Cusco to Aguas Callientes (Machu Picchu) caused a lot of unknowns when dealing with Perurail. This edition was not without its inaccuracies though. For example, at the time of our visit, you could not buy entrance tickets at the entrance to Machu Picchu; you had to buy them below at the MP ticket office in Aguas Callientes (which is only a recommended option by Lonely Planet). They should also point out that the ATM's in Aguas Callientes seem to never have cash, so have enough beforehand.

We tried several of Lonely Planet's "picks" for restaurants and hotels, and definitely agree with their recommendations. Price guidelines for hotels and food were useful and fairly accurate too. Knowing what a bus or cab should cost before getting onboard was very helpful. The book also had some good recommendations for hikes and side-trips that I didn't see in the other books I read. I will say that the Moon Travel book has a lot of good recommendations that we took as well. Traveling in Peru is not very complicated, but we made good use of this guide and I would recommend it. Peru is an amazing place to travel and the 2010 Lonely Planet guide helped a lot.

The New Lonely Planet leaves out the shoestring travellers, September 16, 2005
I am so dissapointed that the Lonely Planet Guides are changing their format and leaving out the budget traveller. This was evident in the Peru guide, the first of these new Lonely Planets I have used. The voice has really changed, and many of the suggested sites and so forth no longer speak to travellers on a small budget or travellers wanting to get off the beaten path. The clarity of the guide remained intact. The maps were great, and many of the essential details I found deficient in the Rough Guide were included in the Lonely Planet. But without the Rough Guide, I would have missed many of the great experiences I had in Peru.

A big disappointment., September 14, 2000
I'd used Lonely Planet several times in both east and west Africa, and was impressed by the breadth of their coverage. So when planning a trip to South America, I bought their guide to Peru, as well as their books to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. The plan was to start in Quito and spend six months en route to Tierra del Fuego. Well, I'm in Cuzco now, and just steps from Machu Picchu, I've dumped all four at a book exchange. The Ecuador book (last written about eight coups and one currency ago) was a joke. Some of the museums I tried to visit had disappeared or moved, years ago. Many of the railways I tried to ride had been crushed in mudslides. The restaurants they recommended? Some never existed at all, according to townspeople. But it wasn't until Peru that I really lost all patience. The transportation information is a joke, and some of the information about jungle trekking near Iquitos is downright dangerous. The most infuriating thing about this is that this was a brand-new edition--it came out right before I left. Yet I really don't think they updated a single thing in the book--I've compared it with other travelers' old editions, and the two are identical; basically, Lonely Planet slapped another cover on the same old coverage and re-released it. I wouldn't recommend Lonely Planet's South American books to anyone. __________________________

Another great hit by Lonely Planet, December 27, 2000
This very recent guide published by Lonely Planet in year 2000 is an indisensable and wonderful tool to take to Peru with you. As always, LP has explored the country, giving you advice on places to stay - from top 5-star hotels to low-budget accommodation - as well as restaurants, transport, etc. There is little or nothing which you won't find in this book, because this guide has it all... Including indispensable advice on local customs, how to deal with people, what to buy, etc, as well as historical, social and political overviews, all up-to-date ! A small piece of luggage, but well worth the weight and the price.

Very useful guide to Peru, August 10, 2005
I've been travelling to Peru regularly since the mid 1990s and lived in Lima for a year in 1996 to 1997. My wife is also a native of Lima, which is one of the reasons I'm back so often.

The Lonely Planet Peru guide is one of the books we continuously refer to for ideas and advice about trips and excursions around the country. The data regarding the different regions of the country is accurate and descriptive, the categorization of hotels and restaurants is as up-to-date as can be expected for a guidebook, and the overall format is easy to follow from section to section.

One thing to remember when using a guide like the Lonely Planet is that it is not a substitute for an encyclopedia or local knowledge, and cannot possible contain limitless information on every square inch of the country. But, it will help you navigate from place to place with relative ease and within a reasonable budget. I would recommend that once you reach a destinatation, hire a guide recommended by the book or take a city or town tour. Don't worry about looking like a tourist. The local already know your not from there!

Finally, Lima can be somewhat intimidating initially as it is a very large and busy city. But Peru is a very safe country and the people are friendly, and as a guest you should simply take the intelligent precautions to ensure that your trip goes smoothly. Using the Lonely Planet can help, and I would also recommend the South American Handbook, especially if you plan to visit more than one country on your trip. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Nobody knows Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands like Lonely Planet. Our 8th edition gives you the tools you need to create your own adventure, whether you want to browse colorful handicrafts at Otavalo's Saturday market, climb active Volcan Cotopaxi, swim with the Galapagos penguins or relax in chilled-out Vilcabamba.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Dedicated Outdoors chapter: hiking, biking, surfing and kayaking
Insightful, respectful coverage of Ecuador's rich indigenous cultures
Green Index identifies sustainable options
... Read more

Reviews

Pretty good guidebook, July 10, 2010
I spent two months in Ecuador (including about a month in Cuenca) with this guidebook and was overall pretty satisfied with it. In general, the hotel recommendations were good, and there was good information about interesting things to see and do. Even places that aren't super touristy, I was generally impressed with its coverage. It failed to note several interesting festivals that I attended, so I think that coverage of events could probably be improved. On the whole a solid four stars.

Self promoting at times, September 20, 2009
My problem with this particular LP is that it felt like many of the hostels recommended or written up were only done so because the writer had a personal stake in the hostel. It could have also better warned of the danger areas nearby to the walking tour in Quito as I was mugged at 4:30 in the afternoon only a short distance from the directed path. However, like other LP's it has nice maps of cities and does a good job of orienting the reader when entering a new city.

The book almost every backpacker carries in 2010, June 9, 2010
I just returned yesterday from a month in Peru and Ecuador. This new edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Ecuador is the one more backpackers carried than any other guide. Even though it is a new edition, many backpackers had used their book so much it looked like it had been used for a couple of years.

It is a thin volume. That is good and bad. It is good for weight, but is light on food and housing options in some of the smaller towns. There are many gems not in this guide that may be even better values.

I am a college professor who usually goes for the moderately priced housing options. This guide is good for that. This guide along with Trip Adviser will help you plan a great journey at a reasonable cost.

Ecuador lonely planet, December 21, 2010
I was surprised that this book took over a month to reach Hawaii. It just arrived yesterday so I have no idea how helpful it will be. I found that your request to rate this purchase was strange since I just got it, and that I cannot submit my review without rating it.

Indispensible travel guide, June 25, 2010
Downloaded the Kindle version of this book a week before leaving for Ecuador and read it cover to cover before arriving in Quito. It was absolutely indispensible! We used it to guide our choices on Hostels, restaurants, the best modes of transportation and how and where to arrange for them, which coastal cities to visit and skip and must-see attractions. It was right on the money with it's hostel recommendations (although some of the quoted prices had changed, but that's to be expected) and the places we visited all lived up to their Lonely Planet reputation. My friends on this trip all agreed that this guide helped us get the most value and enjoyment out of our trip to coastal Ecuador, Quito and Guayaquil.

Love it!, May 16, 2010
I like Lonely Planet guides. In fact, I have a huge shelf of them. This latest edition continues to meet expectations! A true winner over the more recently published Footprint guide (you can read my review there, but basically, they are now selling ad space in their guide like the more commercial brands).

Great reference book, April 26, 2010
You can't go wrong with Lonely Planet Guidebooks. This is the 3rd. Ecuador title I have purchased. Needed to keep updated.

Seems to be a good guide book, June 29, 2010
I have not travelled to Ecuador yet but this book seems thorough in what I've read. ... Read more

Editorial Review

"Graced with bounteous natural beauty, a stable democratic government, and friendly citizens, Costa Rica has become a popular destination for travelers from all over the world. Birds play a prominent role in attracting visitors, too. The shimmering quetzals, gaudy macaws, and comical toucans only begin to hint at the impressive avian diversity to be found throughout this small country."--from the IntroductionThis is the one field guide the novice or experienced birder needs to identify birds in the field in the diverse habitats found in Costa Rica. It features descriptions and illustrations of more than 820 resident and neotropical migrant species found in Costa Rica, all in a compact, portable, user-friendly design. The detailed full-color illustrations show identifying features--including plumage differences among males, females, and juveniles--and views of birds in flight wherever pertinent. Additional features of this all-new guide include:

o 166 original color plates depicting more than 820 species.

o Concise text that describes key field marks for positive identification, as well as habitat, behavior, and vocalizations.

o Range maps and texts arranged on opposing pages from illustrations for quick, easy reference.

o The most up-to-date bird list for Costa Rica.

o A visual guide to the anatomical features of birds with accompanying explanatory text.

o Quick reference to vultures and raptors in flight. ... Read more

Reviews

I feel lighter already..., May 13, 2007
For 95% of the traveler's going to Costa Rica, you'll want to take this book.

For readers interested in natural history, I think it's important to understand what this book is - and what Costa Rica needed. The new Garrigues and Dean field guide, The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide (henceforth the G&D field guide) will not be the new barometer for definitive field guides. Lucky for us, it doesn't need to be. The earlier Skutch and Stiles Field Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (henceforth the S&S field guide) is a great field guide in its own right, but has no need to be duplicated. On the plus side, the earlier S&S guide has buckets of information about behavior and ecology, and it is highly informative about general natural history as well as birds. The problem has been that for nearly a decade now, the S&S field guide was just too much for nearly every traveler. The limitations become greater with every passing year. It suffers from an extremely heavy weight (especially when wet), has no visual range maps, and has color plates that are small, sometimes dark, and sometimes poorly placed.

Costa Rica simply doesn't need a bird field guide to compete with the S&S guide (who wants to compete with Alexander Skutch!). It needed a guide to solve the aforementioned S&S problem - a lighter weight, better plates, and good range maps. This book, by Richard Garrigues (Author) and Robert Dean (illustrator), solves that problem. It's easy to call the book "excellent" because of the overall mission. It didn't have to be the best ever ... it had to be the most useful for travelers (and, yes, birders) going to Costa Rica. Clearly the authors knew exactly what they were out to accomplish.

The weight and the range maps of the new guide will become obvious right away to those who have walked and used the S&S field guide for so many years (I'm now in double-digit territory on the number of times I've been to Costa Rica). The color plates, however, are a comparison thing. One will have had to have had the S&S guide to appreciate the change - but it's there. So for these three challenges, mission accomplished. Done. Solved.

To get to the proper weight, the G&D field guide had the good sense to remove the ecology, habits, and behavior of all the birds. Adding that information would mostly just duplicate the S&S field guide anyway. The G&D guide concentrates on the physical characteristics needed for identification - just what most of us are looking for. I like the habits and ecology of the birds - but I don't need to lug that information into the field. That's the kind of information I'll look up later. The new G&D guide also eliminates some rather unnecessary pelagic birds and concentrates specifically on what most travelers need... the land birds.

The range maps, thankfully, are large enough to look at without squinting. I would have liked to have seen the maps break down the regional borders, but it's hard to quibble when you've never had a visual range map before. (for the record, I have not looked at the accuracy of the maps. Someone will need to chime in later on that one).

The plates were the biggest challenge. Dean has done an admirable job by making the plates bigger and cleaning up the rather flat, dark, images that occasionally plague the S&S guide. There are fewer images per page, and if anyone has tried to deal with the hummingbird plates on the S&S guide, you'll immediately appreciate the improvement. Finding the right text for the right species for that guide required some visual gymnastics. I also agree with the reviewer who said the images in the new G&D guide seem a little dim sometimes. They do. But after seeing images that were too dark for so many years, I don't feel any room to complain. I'm convinced it's not Dean's plates, but the printing itself. In North America we had a similar problem with the rufous and red colors in the Sibley field guides. Hey... it happens. Still, the detail of the plates is significantly better even if the color isn't as lively or as rich as it should be on some species.

In all, most everyone will likely end up with this as their primary bird field guide. That's really a shocking statement to make and I didn't expect to be making it. That's a real tribute to the author and illustrator. The S&S guide will still be in the suitcase of course, but thankfully I won't need to drag its fat, warped body around with me anymore. Researchers and students may opt for the older S&S guide because of the informative text, but most birders and passive visitors will want the lighter, more useful G&D guide. It's a great addition.

Sweet New CR Field Guide, May 2, 2007
This is a great new field guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Although not as comprehensive as the venerable Stiles & Skutch, it packs over 820 species into a pocket-sized guide. The illustrations by Robert Dean are beautifully rendered and seem quite accurately done (experts on CR birds can chime in to confirm or refute this assertion). I also love that the illustrations are large in size, instead of the tiny pictures that are sometimes packed into neotropical field guides.

The layout of this guide is also different from most large-format Latin American field guides. Instead of a couple of dozen separate color plates in the center of the book like Stiles & Skutch, this new book has illustrations on every right-hand page (166 plates in all), with a short description of the bird on the facing (left) page. The descriptive info is brief, but often includes important field marks, habitat, and vocalizations. I also love the inclusion of range maps on the same page, a cool feature missing from most of the other Costa Rica field guides.

Overall, this book does not have the comprehensive scope of Stiles & Skutch, but it delivers what it promises -- a pocket-sized (well, 7.5" x 5" x 1"), beautifully illustrated field guide focusing on field identification. I have three bird field guides for CR, and already this one is my favorite.

Beautifully compact, May 11, 2007
I got my copy today of this new FG to the Birds of Costa Rica. As I also own the older book by Stiles and Skutch, the first impression was how small this new field guide is, compared to the older one. Very unusual for a FG of a tropical country. The old book weighs in at 895 grams, whereas Garrigues & Dean is a mere 557 grams. A considerable difference for any traveller. It is clear that this comes at a price: There is VERY little text for each species. Not as little as in the ill-reputed Birds of Peru (Clements & Shany), though. The book's text is patterned more along the lines of Birds of Argentina & Uruguay (Narosky & Yzurieta) which I had come to appreciate very much on a trip a bit more than a year ago. Key characteristics are printed in bold face for a very fast orientation. There is some information on habitats, elevation, frequency and size. In some cases, voices are mentioned as well. Most welcome are the decent, i.e. not too small range maps. The general arrangement for each species follows well proven lines: text and range maps are facing the plates. There are usually four to six species per page. In general, there are two or three illustrations per species, often male and female and/or a flight picture. The plates, to me, look a bit inconsistent. Mostly, that is due to some faded looks of some of the plates (e.g. many, but not all of the hummingbirds, ovenbirds, and antbirds). This is why I give this book only 4 stars. I do not know whether this is due to the originals or whether these are printing problems. E.g. in my book, the Emerald Toucanet on the cover is considerably darker than the same species on page 153. If I recall it correctly, the cover is closer to the true bird. But it is too long since I have seen it in nature. Overall, I can't judge the accuracy of both text and range maps as well as the plates. I'm sure we will get some info on this in due time from others. Personally, there are species where I prefer the pictures in the older field guide. But overall, I think this book will be the one any birder visiting the country will now want to take along.

Best Costa Rica Birding Field Guide Available!!!, December 12, 2007
WOW!!! What a great new field guide. If you're a birder and planning to go to Costa Rica, then this book is for you. I've been a frequent traveller to both Central and South America and have purchased numerous field guides to the birds of those regions. This guide establishes a new standard which I would like to see emulated by future guides. It is compact, beautifully illustrated, and arranged in a logical and easy-to-use format. No longer is it necessary to remove and laminate the plates from the larger Costa Rica guides because Robert Dean has managed to put all the birds of CR in your pocket- literally. This book should really be called the "Dean Guide" because, let's face it, a lot of us buy a field guide primarily for the illustrations. Dean has done an incredible job of creating great illustrations without the need to cram them all together in a limited number of plates. Instead of having to sort through 20+ species of hummingbirds or tanagers on a single plate, Dean has expertly illustrated an average of 5 species per plate. The "Dean Guide" also remedies another complaint I find with most neotropical field guides- he illustrates ALL of the birds. Take warblers for example- instead of illustrating only resident warblers, he illustrates all of the migrants one might expect to see as well. No more having to sort through multiple field guides to identify similar species. I love the placement of the range maps and Garrigues' concise and to-the-point descriptive text. The Birds of Costa Rica establishes a new benchmark for neotropical guides.

The new Costa Rica bird guide - perfect for the field!, June 5, 2008
Written by the two foremost authorities on the subject, and long the standard field guide, A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (Comstock) is now almost 20 years old and showing its age. For the past decade, there has been a clear need for a new edition of the book to incorporate recently recorded species, modernise taxonomy and bring distributional information up-to-date. And since most visiting birders take issue with weight, preferring to carry the excised plates alone (despite the relative strength of the text), any attempt to reduce the size of a new edition would have been welcomed.

Here we have not a new edition of Stiles & Skutch, but what the author prefers to call an alternative. The first feature most visitors will enjoy is the reduction in bulk. My old guide weighs about 1kg (2.2 lbs) and needs to be carried in a pack, whereas Garrigues & Dean is just shy of 600g (1.4 lbs) and will fit in a medium-sized coat pocket. Secondly, the plates face the text, so there is no need to flip between the two. Maps are provided along side the text, reducing the need for the detailed range descriptions that are often so confusing to the visitor. The text itself is more concise than the earlier guide and emphasises identification features - something that Stiles & Skutch did not do. As for the plates, they are a marked improvement on the old illustrations. They have clearly been painted with care and diligence and are much more useful in distinguishing similar species than the previous artwork - all credit to the artist! Boreal migrants, such as shorebirds, thrushes, swallows and warblers, are illustrated which means that one can for the first time just get by without a North American field guide - though given the difficulty in identifying these groups, it would be wiser to carry a North American guide too. And, of course, the guide is pretty well up-to-date on bird names, following AOU taxonomy.

Does the new guide supersede Stiles & Skutch? Not really, but perhaps that does not matter. This is now the guide that most birders will want to take in the field. Well organised, portable and with accurate illustrations, it is the guide that birding visitors and general travellers have been waiting for all these years. Nevertheless, for the moment at least, birders and naturalists will also want to have a copy of Stiles & Skutch, even if it stays back at the hotel - or even back home. The text of Stiles & Skutch contains so much diligently compiled and fascinating natural history information that it remains far from obsolete.

At a time when so many neotropical avifaunas are treated in two volume works - a "field guide" and a "species accounts" or "distribution" tome - one might view Birds of Costa Rica in the same light. Garrigues & Dean is the field guide, while Stiles & Skutch provides the non-essential detail. Both will be accompanying me on my next trip to Costa Rica in a month's time.

Chris Sharpe, 5 June 2008. ISBN: 080147373X

A new benchmark for field guides, March 24, 2009
We already had the Stiles & Skutch field guide, but like many other birders, didn't enjoy carrying it in the field. The task that Garrigues and Dean took on was to create a guide for birders, not ornithologists. They made several design decisions that, after use, I came to appreciate: First, they did not include a lot of descriptive information that isn't needed to identify the bird. Most birders want to ID the bird; some will research it further, but that can be done back home in the comfort of the home library or computer office. Second, they chose not to include the pelagic birds - a great choice, because they are covered so well elsewhere, and not many people I know travel to Costa Rica to bird in the open ocean. Third, they put ALL the information for a given species in one spot - illustration, description, and range map. This has been the downfall of many a guide, usually because of printing costs for color plates; apparently the market is now strong enough to allow printing every page in color.

Finally, the book is laid out well, with big family tages at the top, open space around the illustrations, and very high quality artwork. It is a delight to use. If you are going to Costa Rica, buy it! In fact, buy it even if you're not, to see what a well-designed field guide should look like.

Best field guide, July 24, 2007
We recently returned from Costa Rica. After receiving Garrigues' new book, I left the Stiles & Skutch at home. The only Stiles I saw there were broken into only the center plate section, it is just too inconvenient to carry that volume.

This is a great field guide: 6-9 illustrations on the right side with descriptions, habitat, calls, scientific name and range map on the left side. Updated comments include where and how common a species is --and which time of the year it occurs there.

You can find all the information about one species without flipping from page to page.

Colors are generally quite good, you could quibble a bit about shading but printing is always that way. And a few more of the birds could be depicted in flight.

Perched birds are drawn to the same scale on a given page.

The book is cargo pocket size, a little too large for regular jeans, and not too heavy. I think the pages are less waterproof than Sibley and I did slip a plastic jacket cover over the outside because of the cloud and rain forest precipitation.

This is what a field guide should be today. It rates 4 or 5 stars.

I'd love them to do the same thing with the area north of this: Mexico-Guatemala-Honduras.

Nice compact field guide from a great publisher, August 1, 2007
I like the layout of this book, having the illustrations of each bird, a brief description and the range map on the same page. Obviously, it doesn't have the detail of the Skutch & Stiles field guide but it weighs alot less. The text is all about identification and the plates are nicely illustrated and the range maps are very welcome. If you are looking for details on each bird, go with Skutch & Stiles' tome, but if you are looking for more of a true field guide that can easily be slipped into a backpack, this book is the way to go. I haven't used it in the field yet so I can't give a very thorough review at this point. We will be traveling to Costa Rica very soon so we'll see.

I have to relate a very pleasant story about my experience with this book. Initially my review contained one negative - the copy I received had a duplicate set of pages inserted into the book which was a little confusing. A couple weeks after posting my review, I got an email from the production manager for Cornell (the publishing company) who apologized for the problem with my copy and offered to send me a new copy. She told me that they checked their stocks and my problem seemed to be an isolated one. She then offered to add another title of my choice to the package so I asked for their Mammals of Costa Rica field guide. Knowing that we were headed to Costa Rica tomorrow, she overnighted the package to me so we'd have it in time! I'm really impressed with the way she and her company stood behind their product like this. (For some reason I am unable to edit my star rating to go from 4 to 5 stars, but I'd like to give it a 5 star rating now.)

Thorough, easy to carry., October 13, 2009
I was very glad I had this book when in Costa Rica this summer. It was fairly light (fit in my cargo pants pocket), had good pictures and was easy to use to identify species.

Great for Birders, January 30, 2009
I was not going to get this book initially, but after reading many reviews of this book I felt it was truly the better book to take on my trip. It is smaller and more compact, without too much information you may not need at the time. I don't like the illustrations as much as the Stiles field guide,and that is why I did not give it 5 stars. I have not used the book yet in the field. Once I have, I will comment more. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In Patagonia is Bruce Chatwin's exquisite account of his journey through "the uttermost part of the earth," that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome and Charles Darwin formed part of his "survival of the fittest" theory. Chatwin's evocative descriptions, notes on the odd history of the region, and enchanting anecdotes make In Patagonia an exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia remains a masterwork of literature. ... Read more

Reviews

A Vivid Imagination and a Powerfully Bracing Landscape Makes for a Superb Travelogue, August 11, 2006
Published back in 1978, Bruce Chatwin's seamless mix of fact and fiction is still among the most enthralling of travel books. Prompted by a piece of reddish animal skin he found in his grandmother's curio cabinet when he was a child, the author ignites himself on a flight of fancy about its origin. This leads him to an expansive area of wild beauty, Patagonia on South America's southernmost tip. I have been lucky enough to visit this part of the world myself about four years ago, and I can confirm from my travels that Chatwin does an amazing job of capturing not only its physical splendor but its colorful inhabitants. However, this is no linear travel narrative, as the author breaks his stories down into mini-sections, ninety-seven in total.

Several of the episodes deal with his own experiences on the road and the individuals he encounters like the gauchos on the pampas, the Welsh-originated villagers, a French soprano, and a hippie from Haight-Ashbury looking for work in the mines. Interspersed with these accounts are snippets of history, real or imagined, such as an unknown connection between Magellan's expedition and Shakespeare's "The Tempest", the whereabouts of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after they left the states, and a 19th-century European lawyer who convinced the local Araucanian Indians to elect him their monarch. Chatwin shows particular gift for culling whimsical trivia into a greater storytelling context that is hard to resist as long as the reader is aware that little of it is verifiable. He inevitably ends the book the way he started - by finding the source of the animal scrap. Few writers have shown such a vivid imagination and a powerful sense of imagery as Chatwin has with his splendid travelogue. This will make those with an extreme case of wanderlust want to book their flights to Punta Arenas, Chile, right away.

A unique portrait of a unique land, March 4, 2005
In December 1947, Bruce Chatwin began a journey through Patagonia, a "vast, vague territory that encompasses 900,000 square kilometres of Argentina and Chile." As he wandered, Chatwin recorded the stories of the people he met and those who had gone before him; "fugitives of justice, regime change, or simply 'the coop of England.'" The result was In Patagonia, an instant classic that was described as "a law unto itself."

Thirty years later, I landed in Puerto Montt, Chile at the northwestern edge of Patagonia and started my own journey through that windswept country. I toted In Patagonia along with me as I traveled through Patagonia; resolving every few days to read it, only to put in down in favor of more entertaining books after the first few pages. Despite the book's inability to really grab my attention, I had this unshakable notion that if one has a book titled In Patagonia and one is, in fact, in Patagonia, one should read the book. (This was coupled with the fact that I had used precious cargo space to haul the book 6,000 miles from home and I was damn well going to make use of it.) It wasn't until the end of the journey, while bussing it across Patagonia, that I packed all of my books *except* In Patagonia in the backpack that was stored underneath of the bus. Upon arriving in Punta Arenas ten hours later, I still didn't like In Patagonia, but I had read over a hundred pages and felt honor bound to stick it out for the rest of the book.

Paul Theroux best sums up what I didn't like about In Patagonia: "How had he traveled from here to there? How had he met this or that person? Life was never so neat as Bruce made out." In Patagonia isn't Chatwin's account of his travels through Patagonia so much as it is a collection of biographic narratives of people who have nothing in common except their inhabitance in Patagonia. There is no sense of cohesion to the book. Chatwin bounces from the story of two long-dead bandits to the possible existence of a Patagonian unicorn to the struggles of an Haight-Ashbury Flower Child stranded in Argentina to a traditional Argentinean asado then returns to further exploits of the outlaws, leaving me slightly bewildered and lost.

Nor does Chatwin dwell on most of his tales. A few accounts, such as the self proclaimed King of Patagonia and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, earned multiple chapters, but most stories were no more that a brief sketch, confined to no more than a page. I know this was a conscious stylistic choice of Chatwin, but the snippets left me feeling unsatisfied and wondering what their point was.

While I wasn't overly impressed with Chatwin's style, the main reason I continued the read In Patagonia was because in between the snippets, there was some fascinating stories. In 1859, a French lawyer called Or�lie-Antoine de Tounens declared himself king of Araucania and Patagonia, a kingdom that stretches from Latitude 42 South to Cape Horn and still maintains a court in exile in Paris. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to Patagonia to avoid arrest in the States, but reverted to a life of crime and pulled off several successful robberies before they supposedly died in a shoot-out in Bolivia. In Patagonia reveals "the Patagonian origin of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Darwin's theory of evolution, Shakespeare's Caliban, Dante's Hell, Conan Doyle's Lost World, Swift's Brobdignagians, Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Even the Patagonian origin of Man himself." These stories propelled me through the dull bits to the end of the book.

Furthermore, my original assessment, that I should read In Patagonia while in Patagonia, was correct and there were times when I found myself nodding and agreeing with Chatwin's descriptions and assessments. In other parts, the thirty years between Chatwin's trip and mine had wrought profound changes and Chatwin's account and mine didn't remotely match up, demonstrating the political upheaval of South America in the latter part of the twentieth century.

There is also something thrilling about reading the story of town you're currently in or have just left. During my bus journey home, I changed busses in Puerto Natalas and spend the hour between my arrival and departure wandering around the town. I stopped at the town plaza as I walked back to the bus station. In the centre of the plaza was a raised dais with a train engine sitting atop it. Back on the bus, I read Chatwin's account of his trip to the town, which included the origins of the train:

"Puerto Natalas was a Red town ever since the meat-works opened up. The English built the meat-works during the First World War, four miles along the bay, where deep water ran inshore. They build a railway to bring the men to work; and when the place ran down, the citizens painted the engine and put it in the plaza - an ambiguous memorial."

Nicholas Shakespeare, who wrote the introduction to my copy of In Patagonia, described Chatwin saying, "Bruce Chatwin was always attracted to border countries: to places on the rim of the world, sandwiched ambiguously between cultures, neither one thing nor another." I am very much the same way and despite the negative aspects of In Patagonia, Chatwin did capture the wild, untamed abandon that is my Patagonia.

An old favorite., September 29, 2008

This is a re-read for me. I actually gave my copy to my partner years and years ago when we were in that relationship stage where you try to prove your meant-to-be-ness to each other by sharing books and music. I figured that since we both loved travel writing and we both had a dream of visiting Argentina, then Bruce Chatwin was a safe bet. (He's been a favorite writer of mine since falling in love with his work through the film version of Utz.)

I couldn't have been more off-base. He read it all right, but he really didn't like it. I think that I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that it actively irritated him. Since then he's tried a couple more times to read Chatwin, each one a failure. That remains the Dividing Line of Travel Writers for us-- I like eccentric people who talk about characters and odd history. B. wants to read about the beauty of the landscape and the things that a person can do while visiting. We have an awful lot of Meant-To-Be-Ness in other ways, but not travel writing, apparently.

Anyhow. I loved it. As I loved it the first time. I like the character of Chatwin as he meanders across the scene. I enjoy the way that he meditates on the people and on the history that affects their and his lives. I find that the loose way that he ties everything together works very well for me. I love and share his love of walking, and what that teaches you about where you are.

We have not yet made it to Argentina as a couple, but when we go, I'll be clutching this book under my arm. Recommended.

For Those With Wanderlust, January 5, 2009
My passion for travel and discovery made this man and his writings a great addition to my library. In Patagonia is a great introduction to Chatwin's style and stories of exploration, and the delivery is pleasant. He goes beyond the tourist venues to become immersed in local culture, and then shares his experiences in such a way as to make me grateful he did.

What makes his writings more than simply a travelogue is the ability to make culture and perspective not only accessible, but fun!

For those that want to go everywhere and do everything, Bruce Chatwin is a great example: he did. He did, and his writings are a beautiful tribute to that passion to go off the beaten track.

Another view, June 10, 2009
Chatwin's "In Patagonia" continues to sell well and is widely appreciated as good writing, widely quoted, as if the book had some sort of value as a proper work on the history of the region. "In Patagonia" is great writing, some say, where style and entertainment are more important than the veracity of the content. And therein lies one of the curious issues surrounding good travel writing (though Chatwin reportedly did not like to be called a "travel writer.") Author Dan Buck was charitable when he wrote of Chatwin's book, "He narrated, but he was not necessarily telling the literal truth in every instance...." Writers from the region superficially visited by Chatwin often describe his work as something on the order of "full of inventions, but good writing." For tourists visiting Patagonia it may be sufficient to be amused and entertained by Chatwin's famous book. The caf�s of Puerto Natales seem to be full of tourists reading and quoting from Chatwin's book as if it were the emblematic work on Patagonia. Fact-checkers, on the other hand, will seek other sources.

The Best Travel Book Ever Written, November 19, 2008
Of all the travel books I've read over the years, this is the one I always come back to. It's an extraordinary work: a brilliant mix of journey, revelation, history, people of another land, another time. I marvel at Chatwin's gift of language, his insights into the ways and means of how the people in this ancient land of South America live, and have lived for centuries. There's a kind of authenticity to the storytelling techniques that Chatwin employs: it makes everything personal, almost private. And as a reader, you're drawn into his world, his engagement with the locals, with their roots and the richness of their history. The book is, quite simply, a masterpiece.

-Tom Maremaa, Author of the Forthcoming Metal Heads: A Novel from Kunati Books in Spring 2009

In Patagonia gets better with time, September 14, 2008
I am enjoying every single one of the short, sometimes very short, ninety seven stories of Bruce's In Patagonia. I do not miss at all the lack of a threading narrative giving unnecessary details of how he got from one town to the next. Perhaps in this era of short attention span and infinite linking our minds have morphed into absorbers of high density language only, and In Patagonia is all wheat and no chaff.

I must admit that Bruce's credibility was enhanced by the mention of some names like Te�filo Breide: I went to school with another member of that arab family with expansive land possessions near Epuy�n. But beyond the actual names, Bruce's description of places, character, circumstances and attitudes is so accurate, so masterly perceived and conveyed that his prose invariably conjures up the scene in my mind, and I re-read to savour every sentence, at times a single word, as if sipping expensive wine.

If you have never been to Patagonia, reading this book is next to knowing Patagonia well. I am fortunate enough to enjoy both privileges.

In Patagonia, July 4, 2008
Bruce Chatwin in 1974 was an unknown British journalist with no books to his name. Seeking the life of a nomad he flew to the southern part of South America and severed ties with his newspaper and former life with a single-sentence telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." For the next 6 months he walked and hitchhiked around this remote region keeping a diary which became the basis for the book. According to the The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (2002) it is one of three most important travel books of its era: "[its] laconic and elliptical style, in its ninety-seven short sections averaging little more than a couple of page each, seemed to finally bring modernist aesthetics to a fundamentally nineteenth-century genre..[it was] a landmark in contemporary travel writing." The narrative does follow a geographic route, but the included map does not show it, the reader has to piece together where on the map Chatwin is next. There is almost no narrative about actual travel, each of the mini chapters starts in a new place with Chatwin already arrived. The people he meets and stays with have no background or reason why he is there. Throughout is interweaved chapters on Patagonian history, often highly esoteric and in some cases true original research by Chatwin he solves some puzzle or mystery of history: Chapter 49 is as good an etymology on the word "patagonia" as will ever be found.

Subsequent revelations showed some of it to be fiction; some of the people Chatwin wrote about later came forward and denied things happened, or who were characterized incorrectly. Chatwin never denied this but explained that his work did not so much change reality as augment it, sort of like how political cartoons can bring out a hidden truth.

Chatwin, who died age 48 of AIDS (he was bi-sexual and one of the super-star AIDS victims in the 1980s), went on to write other well known books and is recognized as a skilled stylist. His travel writing is very literary and the book is credited with reviving interest in the genre as a legitimate form of literature. It is full of great poetic imagery, I just picked a page at random and found this quote: "She was waiting for me, a white face behind a dusty window. She smiled, her painted mouth unfurling as a red flag caught in a sudden breeze. Her hair was dyed dark-auburn. Her legs were a mesopotamia of varicose veins. She still had the tatter of an extraordinary beauty. She had been making pastry and the grey dough clung to her hands. Her blood-red nails were cracked and chipped."

genius or attention deficit disorder?, November 2, 2008
Befitting of a genius with an active and wide-ranging mind, Bruce Chatwin has a charm and intensity that might lead you to believe he has attention deficit disorder. Drifting from one narrative thread to the next between chapters (each just a few pages long), he delves deep into the story of each person he meets, and substantiates these stories with literary and/or historical references. Though a few themes recur (e.g., the search for the lost mylodon and the story of Butch Cassidy's escape to Argentina), this is a book that is easy to put down between fragmented sections. And yet, it is still overall an enjoyable work.

Travelers are far more likely to go to Patagonia to avoid people than to learn about them, but Chatwin gracefully pulls of this challenge. Selflessly, he leaves himself out of the story- though Nicholas Shakespeare's introduction notes that Chatwin had a noteable love affair and was arrested in Chile. Unfortunately, Chatwin's narrative is short on dialogue and his description of people is typically terse and short on details, which prevents characters from coming to life. However, Chatwin shows traces of poetic brilliance ("music ghosted from the piano as leaves over a headstone"), an eye for metaphor (noting that in the obscure Yaghan language the word for depression is the same as the word for a crab's vulnerable phase after sloughing off a shell), persistence (evidenced by his uncovering of the origin of the name Patagonia), and bits of dry humor ("The Indian settlements were strung out along the railway line on the principle that a drunk could always get home.").

not what I expected, October 20, 2008
For a long time, I wanted to get familiar with Bruce Chatwin's work. I managed to get "In Patagonia" as the first of his books I could read.

The beginning was very promising. The narrator (writing in author's voice, in the first person), as a child, finds in his grandmother's dining-room cabinet a strange piece of leather covered with thick, reddish hair. His mother tells him it is a piece of brontosaurus brought by his grandmother's cousin, Charley Milward, from Patagonia. This piece of information fed his young imagination and led him to go and explore the South American wild land on his own.

In many short chapters, written in eloquent prose, Chatwin describes his encounters with Patagonian people, interchanging his quasi-travelogue with historical notes and anecdotes, and the tracing of Charley's footsteps. The impressions and anecdotes are freely mixed and he comes back to subject he abandoned before. This results in a strange read. I could not connect with this book at all and it took some effort to persevere with reading. I liked the historical oddities he found, the story of the self-proclaimed king, Orelie-Antoine, the notes on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their adventures in South America, or Thomas Bridges and his dictionary of Yaghan. Chatwin's impressions from his journey and his observations did not move me at all.

I have still two more of Chatwin's books, "What I am doing here" and "Songlines" and I intend to read them, but I hope I will like them more than "In Patagonia". ... Read more

Editorial Review

• Full-color guide • Make your trip to Costa Rica unforgettable with 54 maps, illustrated features, and over 250 color photos.
Customize your trip with simple planning tools • Convenient overview of each region and its highlights • Practical advice for getting around • Easy-to-read color regional maps
 
• Explore Manuel Antonio National Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Tortuguero National Park, and beyond • Discerning Fodor’s Choice picks for hotels, restaurants, sights, and more • “Word of Mouth” tips from fellow Fodor’s travelers • Illustrated features on snorkeling and diving, canopy tours, and best beaches • Best surfing, birdwatching, and game fishing 
 
• Opinions from destination experts • Fodor’s Costa Rica–based writers reveal their favorite local haunts • Revised annually to provide the latest information ... Read more

Editorial Review

Whether you are planning to visit a city, a region or a country, DK's foolproof 'Eyewitness' approach makes learning about a place a pleasure in itself. All the traditional guidebook subject matter is covered-descriptions of sights, opening times, hotels, restaurants, shopping, entertainment, phrase books etc- but, with the help of specially commissioned illustrations and maps, DK makes essential information easy to access and quick to absorb. No other guides explain the history of a place as clearly in words and pictures. DK Eyewitness Travel Guides-the best guides ever created.

Argentina's vibrant, wonderfully idiosyncratic capital, Buenos Aires, is the third largest city in Latin America, yet it is a resolutely human kind of place. Famous for its tango, football and European-style architecture, it also holds hidden gems, including picturesque cobbled neighborhoods, sophisticated shopping and some of the best and most varied cuisine in the whole continent. Cinemas and art galleries, jazz clubs and theatres, atmospheric cafés and antiques markets abound, while exercising or just lazing around in beautifully landscaped parks filled with subtropical vegetation are part of the dynamic yet laid-back porteño lifestyle. ... Read more

Reviews

Great for what it is., June 19, 2009
I think this guide will be very useful for determining where you want to go in Argentina, but I don't think it will help much once you get there. The lodging and restaurant section is nearly non-existent and what is there is not for the budget traveller or backpacker and most of the rest of it is just pointing out the tourist sights. However, it is very helpful to have so many color photos. There are at least 3 or 4 pictures PER PAGE!!! I wish it had a bit more info, but the pictures really make it worth the money to me.

Excellent guide!, January 11, 2009
As usual, Eyewitness does a terrific job with their latest addition - Argentina! Very informative and detailed, colorful with many photos, maps. All helping you decide where to best spend your time and, if applicable, your very valuable US dollar. What Eyewitness needs though is to come out with a CITY guide for Buenos Aires. There is MORE THAN ENOUGH in the city to spend on an entire book. I would say this was the only lacking feature. Still a great buy and even a great gift for the arm-chair traveler!

Argentina Guidebook, January 17, 2009
This Eyewitness Argentina Travel Guide is excellant. This book gives you tons of information about the cocuntry. It is not a guidebook for locating restaurants or hotels, hwover it is an excellant guidebook that gives you a lot of data and interesting locations for the country.The quality of the paper and the writing in the book makes it an excellant buy in my opinion.

Awesome book that covers a truly stunning country!, April 16, 2009
GET THIS BOOK if you are even marginally thinking of visiting or moving to Argentina. In fact, if you read this book, you may decide to change your life's plans and move to this incredible country!
Super writing, great pictures, well designed layout of the book, easy to use maps and as informative as anything that I have read in years.
This book scores an A+++.

Best of the Guides, November 16, 2009
Very accurate, concise descpitions, with 'right on the money' restaurant picks. A well constructed (glossy) durable guide that is not bulky, fits nicely into a rucksack, and contains an abudance of clear and relevant photo's. We found it very handy as we traveled throughout Argentina.

Very helpful!, June 2, 2010
The pictures are beautiful and the information is helpful. I can't wait to go to Argentina!

Don't leave your hotel room without it!, March 30, 2009
This book is GREAT! It has pictures, maps, dining recommendations, etc. This book was put to work when I went to Argentina. ... Read more

Editorial Review

For 30 years, Lonely Planet has been the backpackers' bible for South America. Whether you're trekking the Andes, gliding through the Amazon or joining a wild festival, our unbeatable 11th edition is your key to adventure.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Full color highlights chapter with top picks from other travelers
Detailed itineraries help you decide where to begin
More maps than any other South America guidebook - over 200!
... Read more

Reviews

Fine, but there are better, December 5, 2006
Used this book for a three month trip through Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. A friend who travelled with me had Footprint's guide to South America. While Lonely Planet had far and away the better maps, everything else about the Footprint book was better -- more information, more current information, and most importantly, broader coverage! There were many small towns that were not even included in the LP book. Even in the major cities, Footprint covered more sights and did so with more detail. If you are picking up a second book for a trip, by all means get the LP. But if you are only buying one, go with Footprint until LP seriously expands this edition.

Must have companion ..., January 9, 2006
A travelers life support system. The consistency of the LP series across various continets is amazing. Some information in the SA edition is a little dated, but the locals indicated that small hostels and food places go in and out of business faster than the book can keep up. I particularly liked Argentina section (I just came back from a wonderful trip), the information was very correct and some of the prices accurate to the decimal. Needless to say, the maps and orientation information was extremly helpful.

Some readers have indicated that it is for gringos and doesn't cover small cities at all. I think a 700 odd page book devoted to a massive diverse continet can only cover so much. Books dedicated to a specific country are very very detailed and should be be able to satiate anybody's wanderlust. This book is supposed to help you with a basic map, transport information and budget accomodations. Once you've arrived and have sorted out the bearings, the book should rest in the backpack.

Eat with the crowd, follow the young locals for the best watering holes after dark and catch the morning bus back to the hostel.

Must have for people with itchy feet ...

Practical but imperfect travel guide, April 21, 2007
This is a useful if flawed guide for backpackers and other budget travelers. This thick book (1,150 Pages) covers lodging, conditions, airports, regulations, and other vital information for 13 countries. The information is practical, useful, and substantial, and one can travel South America with this guide. But in trying to cover 13 countries the book is unavoidably limited on information for any one nation, city, or place, and the maps are at times less than adequate. There is also some out-of-date information (Argentina's Peso is NOT equal to one U.S. dollar) so travelers are advised to check other sources.

If you will be traveling to only a couple nations in South America you would be better advised to buy a travel guide for each country. However, if you will traverse through many countries in this fascinating continent, this book is still a valuable reference tool.

one backtrack mind, February 27, 2006
this book was extremely helpful and informative. its history and description of the culture and landscape was a great precursor to my visit. my only complaint is that "shoestring" can be so objective. i didn't want to stay in hostels but still was interested in budget options. unfortunately, there just weren't many good suggestions for this level of travel. i think i'll need to write that book . . . "South America on a Cheap but Classy Budget!"

Just OK, January 18, 2010
I'm a huge supporter of the Lonely planet series having purchased and thoroughly used (and enjoyed) a wide assortment of these books to travel the world. This book however was a severe disappointment that unfortunately can't be justified by simply saying it is out of date. There is much more missing here and the out of datedness is easily forgiven as prices go up, hostels close down, and new places spring up.

I found the section on Colombia to be the biggest joke with many basic details wrong, important areas of interest not included (Luckily Colombia has fantastic tourist information centers), and is rather thin in comparison to say Peru. This is such a pity. Yes, the book is covering a huge area but come on stating for the 8th time that the septic system can't support toilet paper being flushed down in the beginning of each country's section is a flat out waste of space- space that could have offered perhaps a little more information on off the beaten towns, food, or a larger city map (including the bus station please). I also realize that this book appeals to a wide audience from youngsters, families, and hip older folks who make traveling their mantra however this is a SHOESTRING edition, which means a unification of a common penny-pinching bond. Including splurge sections on hotels costing $80 or luxury wildlife retreats at $300 for 2 days is also a waste of space. Get rid of the chichi mid-range hostels; leave it to frommer's or the country specific LP books to include these. There is also a lack of information on how to do things on the cheap such as more creative alternative routes to Machu Pichu. I also became frustrated when towns were mentioned but not included on any maps or no maps included for significant tourist destinations such as Tiwanaku or the Chachapoyas region.

Overall the most comprehensive sections reviewed (that i visited) were Peru, Argentina, and Ecuador with Colombia and Bolivia sections on the thin side. Hopefully some of these issues are remedied in the new edition. I did enjoy the LP humor such as buying a guinea pig roaster as a gift for mom. If you are reading this review and considering travelling South America, I would recommend you hold off on buying this book. Pick up an LP of the specific country you are going to spend the most time in then find your hostels through hostelbookers or hostelworld and pick up free maps along the way such as at your hostel or tourist information booths (which are plentiful in S.America and always give out lovely free maps). Ask locals where the eating is good, the drinks cheap, and check local papers for stuff happening in town. Your $24 is better spent on traveling and trust me- your backpack will be much lighter without carrying this whopper.

Cheers,
Laura

Good for solo backpackers, October 29, 2006
Just traveled South America solo, glad I had it for those times I arrived at 3AM to a strange town and didn't know where to stay or how to get there. Other times, I just met people who told me where to stay or went with me as a guide. Overall I used the book about 15 times in 60 days but was glad to have it at those times. Not very detailed but overall enough to help. Of course, since 80% of backapckers use LP, you will constantly be around other people traveling which can be a good or bad thing depending on your goals. Fellow travelers call it the Lonely Planet route. I liked the route and felt safe the whole time.

Reviews are for wrong edition, June 14, 2010
After reading a bunch of reviews, I noticed that all the reviews were written before April 2010. Well, this is a page for the new April 2010 edition.

Why doesn't Amazon account for this??

BAD BAD BAD, November 21, 2005
Maps are good, that's all. After 1 year in south america with both Footprint SA and South america on a shoestring, I can say the first one in much better (exept the maps).
Not updated, the informations are not really useful...If you want to travel and to be just with gringos, buy this guide.

LP versus Footprint, February 18, 2009
I don't often take the time to review books, but I read other people's when making a purchasing choice - so having recently traveled through Central and South America I thought I'd try and give back a little and let people know that Footprint is a much better choice than Lonely Planet. But I see ever other reviewer has already done that! (We got ours as a gift, so I hadn't known!) So, I second those opinions, but also add that I wasn't mad on the LP maps. They miss out any but the bigger streets on city maps (which is fine if you mention you are doing it). Also, there are no area maps, so travelling large distances means lots of flicking about. We spent a fair amount of time hating our guidebook, but I concede we used it a lot when stuck. It provides some good budget options and honest opinions, so when you don't have time for a lot of chasing around it is helpful. All the travelers I met agree that you can expect to pay at least 1.5 and sometime 3 times the quoted price, but maybe that's just inflation. Also, EVERYONE has LP, so their recommended places fill up. Having recently tried the Fodor's Central America (worse guidebook in the world), this by comparison is a decent guidebook. Footprint is better.
... Read more

Editorial Review

Let this lavishly illustrated guide whet your appetite and show you where to start looking for the real Peru - with cutaways and floor plans of all the major sites, and special features on the ancient Caral and the Colonial splendor of the Spanish conquistadors.



Sample the flavor of the country region by region, with new full-color detailed maps of towns and regions and comprehensive listings of hotels and restaurants.



Find out all you need for sights, beaches, markets and festivals listed town by town, from a home stay in the floating village of Lake Titicaca to a morning flight over the magical Nazca Lines. And with the absorbing in-depth section on the Inca heartland and a step-by-step route of the Inca trail, this is a guide not to be missed. ... Read more

Reviews

Pros and Cons, December 27, 2008
I will start my review by saying I always buy the DK guides for everywhere I go. However I never just buy one guide for any trip and this is the first time I have done so and I have come to realize how lacking they are. this is not to say I will stop buying them and I will tell you why.

Pros: The pictures. Nothing beats these guides with the pictures. Trust me. when you go to Machu Pichu and someone says did you see the tres ventanas and you go "I hope so" well you won't hope so with this guide b/c this guide will show you what the tres ventanas looks like. In peru they have these HUGE churches. And each church has like dozens of these rooms of altars. but the most famous is "el negrito" maybe you are like me and just aren't into the church thing but want to see what the big deal is but don't want to miss the big must see with this guide you will make sure you won't. and in these churches you can't take pictures. so when you get back you can show your friends what you saw. brilliant.

The restaurant recommendations were excellent if a little pricey.

Cons: the maps suck. the map of lima was pretty good but there were none for any other cities. none of cusco and that is a major city! cusco is studiedly a maze, but some sort of map would have helped.

and it is short on information. it doesn't tell you how to get anywhere. I wouldn't have known to get a train from cusco to machu pichu that I couldn't take my suitcase on the train (or that i would be charged a HUGE fee to do so) how to buy tix for the bus to get up to machu pichu (which is sort of complicated) or that some places to climb in machu pichu are limited to 400 persons per day so you should arrive early (like 430 am early). This is important since this is the most major site of peru!

it didn't tell me about other ruins to see, or other cities, or give good itineraries, or how to travel around. Just that taxis were bad. Which they actually weren't.

I never realized how limited in info and scope in actually getting around these guides were when this was the only guide I took. I was lucky that I had a limited amount of spanish and people in peru were really nice and kind of directed me around told me what to see and what not to see.

bottom line: I still say to buy these books b/c I think they help you find what you are trying to see, but I also say check out the web and print out itineraries, information on how to get somewhere, or other info that you can discard so it doesn't weigh you down later! Happy Travels!

An excellent guide to a complex country, May 13, 2008
It's tough to pick the "best" guidebook for a particular destination, and the proliferation of free travel information on the web makes choosing "the one" even tougher. My wife and I always start with a copy of an EyeWitness guide for the destination: there are pictures on every page, and we find the images help us plan our trip: the guides are particularly good for architecture and art. The practical guides in the back provide a useful overview of currency, hotels and restaurants.

This guide to Peru is a particularly good example of the DK offerings: the images, paper, text, all are up to the high standards of other guides in the series. We returned from our trip to Peru two days after the Eyewitness guide arrived in the mail, so that we used two other guides during our trip. Reading EyeWitness at home reinforced our belief that the Eyewitness series is the best starting point for us.

Peru is a very complicated country, and Eyewitness does a superb job of describing that complexity in words and in pictures. Its treatment of Lima was particularly good -- we were lost in the details of the city as they appeared in the two other books we used on the trip, but Lima came to life clearly in the Eyewitness guide. (We thought that Peru Insight Guide (Insight Guides) was a very good guide for the reasons indicated in my review of that guide.)

Of course, you'll need more specific and detailed guides to many of the attractions: the Inca Trail if you choose to hike it, or Machu Picchu if you visit. But for a comprehensive and visually appealing overview, Eyewitness can't be beat.

Having written that, there is really only one page that usually matters in deciding whether to buy a guide book: the newer the guide the better. This book appeared in a fully revised American edition in May, 2008. That makes this guide very hard to beat for two or three years in our experience.

Note: DK maintains an excellent website at TravelDK , with updates on many of its guidebooks.


Robert C. Ross 2008

First decided what you want a travel guide to do for you., May 25, 2009
I have lived in Peru on and off since 1996 and have reviewed at least a dozen travel guides. I like DK for its layout, color or splash, but I would not get DK as a travel guide. Decided first, what you want your travel guide to do for you. If you want a guide to bring back to your friend to 'show' them where you have been via photos and country maps, then this is a great guide. But, if you need a guide that will help you find lodging, great restaurants, give you information on the country, customs & culture of the people, breakdown where to go with limited time, and explain the history of the country and the uniqueness of the sites that you will visit then get either Lonely Planet (for off the beaten path travelers) or Frommer's (for those staying on the tourist trail and want comfort). DK is recommended only for show and tell. Happy Trails.

BEST TRAVEL GUIDES, June 3, 2008
EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDES are the best guides you could find. I've bought every one they have published to the places I have visited, and always know where I want to go and what are the most important places to visit,
with the pictures and 3D images of the buildings and maps I don't get surprises as to visit a place not worth while. You optimize your travel time. I have about twenty of their guides, just hope they increase the places they review in the near future.

nice graphics, a good overview BEFORE the trip, May 31, 2010
Lots of graphics, like other Eyewitness series books, but not as concise as the "Top 10" series, and definitely not geared towards to help you find things. No maps. So read it before you go and not taking it with you.

ups and downs, December 15, 2008
This book should be used together with the Lonely Planet, that is what worked the best for me.
The places to stay and to eat are very accurate, but this book does not show how to get to a certain destination.
It also has a lot of pictures so you can have a better idea if you want to visit a certain place or not.
I wouldn't recomend this to be your only guide but to use it with another one it works fine. ... Read more

Editorial Review

About this Revised LEARN SPANISH Book:

Spanish Language Book - LEARN SPANISH in 12 DAYS - Speed Learning Course

This is the Revised Kindle Edition Version of one of the most popular and best selling Spanish Language Learning Books on Amazon. An Easier Hyperlinked Navigational Table of Contents has been added by Request.

Inside this book:

The Spanish Language Speed Learning Course Book for the Kindle will help you learn conversational Spanish in a very short amount of time. Are You Getting ready to travel overseas, Mexico, or Spain? Want to pick up Spanish as quickly as possible? This Book will get you on the fast track to speaking the Spanish language confidently and proudly in 12 days or less!
Learning a foreign language can be a frightening thought for many. According to them, it will just take up a lot of their time. They often disregard the wonderful opportunities that knowledge of a second language brings.

It can help you bond with people who speak the same foreign language as you do, create job opportunities and enhance your career, and impress your friends. Furthermore, engaging yourself in foreign language training actually adds self-confidence and broadens your knowledge.

That is why I extend my congratulations to you, as you have decided to improve your personal, intellectual, and social being.

Your decision to learn the Spanish language is another wise choice as it is among the most spoken languages in the world. You can never avoid dealing with a lot of its speakers some time in your life. Therefore, it isn’t really enough that you know simple greetings like hi, how are you, and basic vocabularies in Spanish.

Common foreign language trainings usually bombard you with thousands of words and phrases in their vocabulary and let you memorize them until you get used to speaking them out – without really knowing how they became that way.

The most effective way to learn a foreign language is through the linguistic approach – training starts from sounds, from which words and phrases are formed, until eventual construction of sentences using these words are made.

Did you know that…

* Sounds are among the fundamentals of one language because all through out language training, these sounds are used to speak out words and form sentences.

* Words should be learned one at a time according to the word category they belong to (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), as they have characteristics unique to the category only.

* Sentences are actually proper arrangement of words only. Hence, enough knowledge of words and their characteristics can create sensible sentences.

* Learning a new language involves being familiar with its greetings and most basic phrases, and actually knowing how they came to be.

Linguistics, the study of the structure of a language, is an area of knowledge that is very important and effective; but is never really exposed to many. Yet you could be one of those few people to benefit from it!

In this light, I have prepared a comprehensive report to help you learn how to speak the Spanish language using linguistics … in just 12 days or even less!

“The Spanish Language Speed Learning Course: Speak Spanish Confidently … in 12 Days or Less” is the best training material for you, as you will be held by the hand each step of the way - from the basics up to the complicated topics in Spanish.

With pronunciation guides, accurate glosses, and ample examples, you will never have any problem understanding each Spanish word and sentence you’ll be encountering, until you’ll be able to create your own sentences as well.

The best thing is …

You don’t need one whole school year or even a semester to train yourself in a language that more than 250 million people speak. 12 days is all it takes to learn how to speak Spanish!

Get Your Copy Today and Start Speaking Spanish with the Fastest Method Possible...
... Read more

Reviews

Easy to learn spanish in 12 days, November 14, 2010
This book helped me SO much in my spanish class. It was mush easier than my textbooks and easy to read, format, everything. I read the unrevised version first, then read this one and this is definitely the better buy. Anyone who is needing to learn spanish relatively quickly-read this!

Better Edition and Navigation to Learn Spanish, September 14, 2010
Better Edition and Navigation to Learn Spanish. If you want to go from chapter to chapter hyper-linked, this is the edition you want. If not the cheaper one is good as well.

Same Learning Spanish Book but Better Navigation, September 5, 2010
Same Learning Spanish Book as the original but Better Navigation. Everything is the same as the original best selling learning spanish book but the navigation is hyperlinked. For an extra 2 bucks it's worth it to be able to navigate the hot buttons and chapters in my opinion.

Navigation ok, but language learning a waste of time., September 23, 2010
The Kindle navigation of this program was certainly acceptable. But the problem was that the book itself was a waste of time. It is simple enough to get through in less than a day for someone who has some understanding of Spanish grammer. A beginner would have a hard time learning the grammer with the brief explanation the book contained. From a usefulness perspective, I did not find the book enough help to feel like I could speak Spanish any better than when I started. My three dollars could have been better spent on a gallon of gasoline!

Pronounciation, September 18, 2010
This book begins with very elementary lessons, such as how to say "hello", and the introductory note states that one can learn Spanish in a single day, should one be willing to go through the entire book in a day! However the real problem lies in the guide to pronounciation. E.g. pronounciation of the first syllable of illamas is listed as "lya": one could read this as if the 'ly' were a diphtong; or one could read the 'y' as a vowel - long 'i', or short 'i', or long 'e'. This is not a problem if one already knows how to pronounce the word, but it is useless when one does not know. For this reason, I found this book useless -- unless one only wants to know how to write the words.

Learn Spanish Best Seller, November 7, 2010
This has been a top seller for some time for learning spanish books. I read some of the reviews that were negative. They don't make any sense. Just a warning, there are obviously competitive reviewers, that have nothing better to do than write negative reviews for their competition. Two reviewers complain that this book says you can learn spanish in a day, what B.S. It says right there in the title, 12 Days, what part can't you read. 12 days, does not mean one day. Obviously bogus reviews. From then on,you can't believe a word they say.

Anyway, that being said, this learn spanish book has again been a best seller for a long, time, look at the preview, and then decide if you like it. I just hate it when someone gives false testimonials and lead people astray, but these were too obvious.

Where is the Active TOC?, December 7, 2010
I bought this Kindle book for my Android phone, based on the reviews and the hyperlinked Table Of Contents. I did not see any TOC, hyperlinked or otherwise. So I just spent $2 more for nothing! How can I return it? ... Read more

Editorial Review

Lonely Planet knows Mexico. Whether you want to climb mysterious Maya temples in the Yucat�n, eat nouveau Mexican cuisine in the capital, or simply stretch out on a honey-kissed beach at a Pacific coast resort, our 12th edition will guide you through the best of this amazing country.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Tailored Itineraries to help you get the best out of your Mexico trip
Color Highlights Chapter showcasing the top sights and activities
Unique Green Index makes ecofriendly travel that much easier
... Read more

Reviews

Very Possibly the best guidebook on the planet for Mexico!, December 10, 2010
I am a guidebook maven with a collection that goes back to 1909. I have used this series for Spain and Mexico and always find them to be up to date and on target.

2010 edition - falling down... via Ciudad Juarez, October 11, 2010
Lonely Planet finally exaggerated in my opinion. They tend to do "telephone" updates for many places that aren't really dangerous, but this is the furthest they ever went. Ciudad Juarez may not be a major tourist destination in Mexico, but it is visited but thousands of Americans daily. It is a dangerous city - no doubt, but the thousands (though many go to drink Tequila and get really drunk) almost always come out unscratched. Yet LP decided to update Juarez... over the phone, as the city is too dangerous? And they clearly state it! That's really exaggerating. It ain't Mogadishu - tourists rarely get hurt. And as Ciudad Juarez (as said a very often visited place by Texans & other Americans) is not covered in eighter Fodor's of Frommer's (which concentrate on the tourist attractions) it seems to me that this edition will be the last "bestselling guide to Mexico" by LP. Rough Guide (which also covers Juarez, and as of today doesn't do a "telephone update") should now be number one. The guide that was famous for not omitting the border areas (Tijuana/Mexicali & Juarez) now decides to practically omit one. Sad. Especially that the tendency to exaggerate danger seems to be weakening in LP. They have a new Colombia guide out which is not a desk update, they include places like Chad, DRC Congo, Burundi & the Ivory Coast as on the ground updates in their Africa guides... I bought the guide as a gift for my nephew who lives in Odessa, TX & Juarez is his usual contact with Mexico. He was furious at LP and also... couldn't stop laughing. Sad. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Big guide, but is focused on RV camping, September 11, 2010
Just so you understand my review, I don't think RV camping is camping. It's moving a house around. This guide is really for RV'ers, not for someone like me who wants to camp far away from RV'ers and the noise. I camp using my motorcycle.

Now, setting aside my bias, let me say one thing. WOW. This is a thorough, complete, huge guide. The dead tree version is hard to use (old school though) because there is just so much information. And I find how they organize the states odd. It took a while to figure out where California was located in the guide. Even me, who likes camping away from things, needs to find a more modern campground for showering, washing clothes, connecting to the internet. And this guide is good for that.

But the best thing is the CD which appears to be the whole book on one disk. Now this thing itself should get 10 stars. It's easy to search. It fits in a small area.

So, if you're into car or RV camping, this guide is perfect. If you want to find that secluded primitive campground in the Rockies, this isn't so useful. A solid 5 stars for the finding clean, modern, state of the art campgrounds. A solid 3 stars for those who search for the quiet place.

But that CD is just perfect, which I will carry when I need to find one of those modern campgrounds.

Woodall's is Woodall's, March 3, 2010
A great resource for trip planning, and on the road quick finds. We pick up a new Woodall's every 2-3 years, we bought this one because of the GPS address feature.

Woodall's North American Campground Directory with CD, 2010,, September 9, 2010
This directory is poorly organized. It didn't list all of the campgrounds in a area. It is sometimes impossible to find the town shown on the map in the directory itself. Since the directory is alphabetical, but looking for a campground is geographical, we found ourselves flipping between the map and among numerous pages within a state. It was even worse in areas bordering 2 states. We noticed many Forest Service campgrounds were missing.

Very poor, October 31, 2010
My wife and I find all the Woodall products geared to produce advertising revenue as opposed to serve the customer. Many many small or state campgrounds aren't listed merely because they wouldn't or couldn't afford the fees. Very poorly organized making it virtually impossible to find any campgrounds near where you are. Also, unlike previous directories, there are no charts or tables that provide an easy reference regarding ammenities.

We literally ended up throwing the book away in sheer frustration...

Woodall's North American Campground Directory with CD, 2010, May 26, 2010
An essential for RV'ers, campers and outdoors people. Contains all the information needed for a successful overnight trip in the outdoors. Received promptly and in stated condition.

LOVED THE CD, July 10, 2010
REALLY ENJOYED USING THE CD THAT CAME WITH THE BOOK. THE BOOK IS VERY THICK, BUT VERY INFORMATIVE. WE TOOK OUR LAPTOP ON VACATION WITH US AND IT WAS MUCH QUICKER TO POP THE CD IN AND SEARCH FOR A CAMPGROUND THAN IT WAS TO FLIP THROUGH THE BOOK. VERY IMFORMATIVE.

Disappointing, November 18, 2010
I purchased this directory to help find campgrounds while on the road when we didn't have internet access. I was disappointed to find that it listed so few campgrounds. It lists just a fraction of campgrounds that are available for any particular area. Very incomplete and not worth the purchase price.

Indispensible for RVers, November 10, 2010
When we first bought our RV 3 years ago, the dealer told us we needed Woodall's directory to help us plan trips. I rushed out to a book store and plunked down $30 for one, and it has been very helpful. On multi-state trips this year, we found much of the information in our edition was obsolete, so my husband remarked that we needed to check for a more recent edition. Imagine my delight to find a 2010 edition on Amazon for less than half the price I had paid for the old one. Although the book I purchased was listed as "used", it appeared brand-new, and we look forward to using it for a cross-country trip next year.

Woodall's North American Campground Directory with CD, 2010, June 10, 2010
Amazon sent us a previously purchased copy. The CD envelope had been ripped open, but it was still there. Very disappointing that the book was not in "new" condition. I had expected this rather large book to have all campgrounds in it. It does not. The states are not aligned correctly, with Wisconsin at the back of the book and no where near Minnesota, Illinois,or Iowa. What is handy to use are the state maps showing the campgrounds that have paid to be in this book. I would not recommend purchasing this book. Instead, go to your local library and get an older copy if they do not have the new one. The rest you can get off of the internet for free. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Barry Golson knows all about retiring abroad --he and his wife, Thia, have lived in six different countries. Now they choose expatriate-friendly locales around the world for their low cost and their high quality of living and explain how to investigate and settle in each country with minimum hassle and maximum pleasure.

Taking you step-by-step through the process of researching, testing, and finally living abroad, the Golsons' practical how-to guide covers all the major issues, including health care, finances, real estate, taxes, and immigration. Each location is profiled by an expatriate writer who has made that country his or her home and who knows how to answer all the questions about living richly and economically in some of the world's most beautiful places. ... Read more

Reviews

Should be Required Reading Before Retiring Abroad, December 22, 2009
Golson's book should be required reading for anyone considering retiring to a foreign country.

Essentially, the book is divided into three sections. The first deals with all the thorny issues (Why you might/might not consider moving, medical, housing, costs, and most importantly, your personal temperament) that should be taken into consideration if you are planning on becoming an ex-pat. The second and third sections are an in-depth look at the details of living in selected foreign countries. Section two deals with Latin American countries such as Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua and so forth. The third section is devoted to Europe with old stand-bys like France and Italy, but includes places one might not have considered such as Croatia.

In the two sections dealing with individual countries the details are not just the usual "let me describe the county, climate and people" treatment. An author who actually has lived in/is living in that country writes about each country. Therefore, each author is able to speak knowledgeably concerning culture, customs, living standards, government and bureaucracy, housing, cost of living, etc.

After the reader is lead through the facts of what they can expect in a specific country, they are then given an intimate view into actual life there through interviews with ex-pats currently living in country. These interviews are candid, giving the reader not only insight into the country, but into the psyche of Americans being interviewed. Golson does not attempt to censor his interviewees. What he does do is give numerous viewpoints from people who have varying perspectives/outlooks on their lives, their reasons for retiring abroad, their likes/dislikes about their "home," the people, culture, customs, and how they are managing in their new country, to name a few. In other words, these are personal "opinions," and should be taken as such. Learn to accept that if a person wants to rile against life, politics, or the number of dogs and cats in the U.S or another country, that it is "just their opinion." Forget being offended and move on because Golson has done what many writers of books concerning living in a foreign country have failed to do...giving the reader several unvarnished views, represented by a balance between good, bad and sometimes ambivalence. For instance, one couple he interviewed in Italy is struggling financially, but consider their life there as, "a dream come true." While another woman, from a couple who were also interviewed about Italy, will have the reader scratching their head wondering how anyone could be so naive as to think because she is of Italian descent, she would just naturally fit into a foreign country that speaks a different language, has a totally different culture, customs and history. Is it any wonder she is disillusioned and disparaging?

Having once lived for several years in Europe, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever considered retiring/moving/taking an extended stay outside the United States. If nothing else, it will get the reader to begin considering all aspects of a life in a foreign country, not just the picture-perfect-ones presented in most books dealing with living abroad.

Retirement without Borders, February 3, 2009
I found the book useful and candid. I don't agree with a previous reader about the "unhappy" expatriates quotes. To me the expats seemed overwhelmingly satisfied with their move abroad, but many were honest enough to point out the foibles--something you don't find in other rah-rah retirement books. Was it too "political"? Some of the people who move abroad are probably going to have more beefs with the U.S. government than those that stay on their home ground. Anyway, I enjoyed it, as I did his earlier "Gringos in Paradise," and was happy to see the author's friendly humor in the new book as well.

Just OK, December 26, 2009
Well written but not as good as his first book, Gringos in Paradies. It's more like a compilation of essays from others who have moved to different countries. Some of them are fairly negative about the US or have strong negative political points of view. Not really pertinent to the country they are suppose to be writing about. Some of the country reviews are pretty good. If you are interested, go to the book store and look through it before you buy.

excellent book, January 28, 2010
This book is well-worth its modest purchase price for Americans considering retiring to a warm climate in a low-cost area of the world, before the U.S. out-of-control $12+ trillion National Debt creates an economic disaster where hyperinflation allows your monthly pension check to purchase no more than half a Kit Kat candy bar.

Most of the countries listed in this book do NOT tax income from the U.S.A., including pensions, investment income or other passive income and some, like Panama, have better banking secrecy laws than Switzerland. The guy who said that "Death & taxes are the only way to escape the IRS" never read Golson's "Retirement Without Borders." :)

Even if you don't plan to move anywhere, the book gives you all the information you need to phantasize, in Walter Mitty fashion, about native gals in bikinis swinging palm leaves over your head as you relax on a warm, pristine beach in Pavones, Costa Rica, watching surfers looking for the perfect wave.

Informative and accurate, April 17, 2009
From my experience book seems pretty accurate in its assessments of various places. Little too much emphasis on Europe and too little on South East Asia.

Retirement without Borders, May 23, 2009
My husband saw this book promoted in Wall Street Journal and thought i might enjoy reading it, (though we are far from retirement age), since some friends and i are contemplating purchasing a ranch and having locals operate it. The book gives good info about purchasing a home or other non-commercial property as well as bringing out ideas to think through before moving to another country.

Retirement Without Borders, May 25, 2009
Unquestionably the most thorough and informative book I have found on retirement considerations outside of the USA

A Bit Misleading, July 30, 2010
I challenge the book's title, because the writers clearly maintained their political borders when writing the book. In 3 years as an expat, I have a completely different view of living overseas than those shared by the contributors to the book. It seems, whether intentional or unintentional, the selection of contributors was biased toward views held by those who might be categorized as "left wing" and seemed to have escaped the USA due to some political or religious persecution. No problem with that, and I feel sorry for them. Yet, there are an equal number, if not more, expats who like the USA, and politics played no part in their decision to move abroad. Some actually live overseas because it is fun and exotic. Their voices are largely left out of this book, so a good portion of the expat experience is not shared with the reader.

With quotes like, "we don't hang out with other expats," many of the contributors show a bit of chip on their shoulders. Most expats actually like hanging out with each other. That doesn't mean that they don't interact with the local citizens, it just means they are living without borders.

Additionally, the selection of informational sources seemed biased. Quoting the Vision of Humanity rating that shows the USA as being less peaceful than Mexico or Croatia is very misleading. Living in Mexico being more peaceful than living in the USA? Please. How deep do you need to look to find an organization called Vision of Humanity? I think adding these types of politically biased "surveys" was unnecessary.

Some people look to retire overseas because it is fun. Retirement should be fun, not political asylum. So, if you read this book, be warned that it is a partial picture of retirement outside the USA. And if you are looking for reading material that is objective and informative, remember you'll only be getting a partial view from this book.

quick, enjoyable read, August 19, 2010
I enjoyed the book for learning where I did not want to retire to as much as where I might want to retire to.

Great Retirement Idea Starter, October 26, 2010
A must read if you are seriously thinking about living overseas in retirement. Well laid out and thoughtful. We've bought additional copies for our friends (Hopefully we won't all retire to the same place!) ... Read more