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Title: South America (Shoestring)
ISBN: 174104443X
Author:
Danny Palmerlee
Publicate Date: 2007-03-01
Publish: 2007-03-01
List Price: $33.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $21.25
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $21.19
Amazon Merchant Price: $22.43
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Quite useless..
I am writing this review after visiting Peru, and using this book as a guide.
The book is very thick, but actually contains very little useful information. Most pages are simply full with senselessly long lists of restaurants, hotels, and other contact information. Such things are better found on the internet, or by simply walking around the city. Moreover, a lot of that information was already out of date a little more than 1 year after publication. So, about two thirds of the book is immediately utterly useless weight.
Instead, a good guide book,
1) would have a lot of pictures. There are none in this book!
2) would have a lot of maps. A few are available in this book, but are not sufficiently detailed, not well-prepared, not well-explained.
3) would talk about interesting things to do in A LOT more detail. Such information in this book is extremely limited, sometimes barely a sentence or two, and a short search on the internet would produce a lot more useful and insightful information. This leads me to question whether the writers even visited the places they are talking about. Given the recent news about how BBC's Lonely Planet Guides are being prepared, I'm going to have to say probably not..
4) would have the following important information: the flag of the country would be nice; the inflation and GDP per capita in the country in addition to money exchange rates, and estimates of average transportation, hotel and restaurant prices; the altitude, average temperatures and precipitation of each city (for instance, for Cusco some of these are quite important!). The climate of the country could be entirely discussed in one page in a few simple maps showing altitude, precipitation, and temperature; also population density.
5) would give prices in local money, instead of dollars. Just after a few months, all prices listed are already out of date, not just because of local inflation, but also because of the devaluation of the dollar.
6) would do a lot more justice to the history of the countries, and put the interesting things to see in a context.
7) would have some color. None in here, except the covers and a couple of pages. In other words, the guide should be more visual, and writing should be avoided when it can be. One picture is worth a thousand words or more..
Having said all this, I am not aware of a better guide book. So, I can only suggest to compare guides for yourself and then pick one, or just use information off the internet.
In short: out of the 120 or so pages on Peru, the useful information fills in about a third, and the rest is either out of date, useless, unrelated, or otherwise non-essential.
So: publishers, pay me half the money you paid these writers, and I will give you a guide that is 10 times better than this.
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2: Lonely Planet South America
Lonely planet is a great travelling guide - it gives you just enough information to get you by when you're in need, and leaves enough blanks for inspiration of your own.
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3: Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring
I was very, very disappointed in this book and would have returned it but I had highlighted one article before looking at the book completely. This is probably a good book for a college student who will stay in hostels but as for a book to help find hotels and sightseeing places, it missed the mark completely.
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4: Practical but imperfect travel guide
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.
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5: Fine, but there are better
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.
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