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Title: Guatemala (Country Guide)
ISBN: 1741044723
Author:
Lucas Vidgen
Publicate Date: 2007-09-01
Publish: 2007-09-01
List Price: $19.99
Average Customer Rating: 2.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $12.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $12.78
Amazon Merchant Price: $13.59
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1: Weak attempt for an easy country to review
I have used many different guidebooks in my travels and have never come across a more basic, substance-less work. Is the author actually contributing to the growth of this country with his job in Xela...or just hanging around the country like the bum, pothead travelers in San Pedro. Take this guide off the shelves and promise us better in the future. No Stars.
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2: Guatemala (Country Guide)
The book is written very well. You've got all the information you'll need. I was surprising, that almost on every page there is something about dangerous situations, but than I spoke to my friend, who lived there for 6 months and she said, yep, that's Latin America not Western Europe, you most be careful. So, anyway, I like the book, but I can't say yet, how useful it is, because I'm still before my trip to Guatemala.
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3: A Sad Day for Lonely Planet
I have been buying and recommending Lonely Planet guides on Latin America for 25 years. They have been indispensible for the budget traveler. I know I have saved probably thousands of dollars. I have pushed the books on many places on the internet including my own web sites and on Lonely Planet. Why? Love the layout. They are particularly good for someone arriving in new city who needs to get quickly and safely from their transport to hotel. The maps are generally accurate. LP editors have kept a consistency of design across the different books. The reader who is used to one will find using the others easy.
I also like the LP guarantee of integrity where LP authors do not accept free rooms, meals, etc. from places they review. I know the travel industry and this is not a universal practice.
Of all the countries in Latin America, Guatemala is my favorite. If you can only visit one, that's the place to go. I am saddened by what has happened to the latest volume. The other reviews here and on other sites point out omissions and places where the author has not updated widely known facts. That could be excused if taken in an isolated form. Anyone reading a guidebook must wonder how they check out all the places that are reviewed. But what concerns me the most is an apparent relaxing in Lonely Planet's standards of journalistic integrity. Until a short time ago, the author was the editor of a magazine and web site based in Xela, Guatemala called Xela Who. The magazine was a free publication that supported itself on the sale of advertisments, as did the web site. This is a direct conflict of interest. How can the author justify a review of an establishment that he sells advertising too? The author was directly involved in selling advertising. Any tourist related firm in Guatemala who receives a good LP review is bound to see it's business grow. How can they say no to someone trying to sell them ads in this situation? In a recent issue of Xela Who, the author, Lucas Vigden, was interviewed by a staff member as the author of the new Lonely Planet Guatemala. Never during this interview was it stated that Lucas was also the editor of the magazine. Numerous other readers and myself have contacted Lonely Planet and it's new corporate owner, the BBC about this situation. After several months there has still been no response.
Were this an isolated incident, in a vast publishing empire, one could expect Lonely Planet to reply and suggest a remedy. However, on a recent followup, the new LP Panama published a glowing review of a hostel. This place came in highly rated with the author proclaiming it their favorite. Reviews like that can double or triple an establishment's business. The problem: the hostel never opened. A Lonely Planet editor put it all off to an editing problem. One does not accidently write a glowing review of a non-existent at the time establishment unless some major conflict of interest is taking place. A concern amongst many long time LP readers is that now that the BBC, with it's well known journalistic bias, is in charge many LP authors will feel that since a concept such as integrity isn't maintained by BBC reporters, they won't have to either.
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4: Not much of an update for Pet??n
I have been a Lonely Planet fan for ages, but I am disappointed with this long awaited update. Keep in mind that my main interest is with Peten, so maybe the rest of it is okay, but I would not bet on it.
The author must have not been paying attention at Tikal or he would have noticed that there are just THREE comedors there [note my subsequent correction, but two of the names are still wrong; he does not mention Ixim Kua] among the former four. The existing ones are Comedor Tikal, Ixim Kua and old faithful, Imperio Maya. Earlier I thought there were just TWO, but near the end of Marxh 2008, my group came froom the north through Tikal and I double checked. I was clearly wrong about only two being there. Comedor Tikal is separated from the other two by two residences, but it is surely still there.
The author also missed that that there are two buses daily to and from Uaxactun, so that it is simpler to go there, especially from Tikal. There is a good discussion of the El Mirador ruin, but no hint of how to arrange a trip there. For this, google --- Mirador logistics.
The description of how to get to the Piedras Negras ruins has thankfully gotten away from it taking days through bandit-infested lands, but does not cover the most economical way, one that can be an overnighter, hint google - Willy Fonseca Vallescondido for that.
Unlike previously mentioned on my unedited version of this, I decided to NOT take the current LP with me and my wife for the Highlands only trip in December, so I can't compare that.
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5: An average book for the average traveler
I bought this book and Moon Guatemala (Moon Handbooks) (they came out at the same time) and decided to write reviews for both. Unlike the Moon guide, I found Lonely Planet's Guatemala guide extremely disappointing. I expected much more from a resident author.
Where do I begin? For starters, you'll see the tourist hordes in Guatemala sporting this book and the previous edition of LP all over the place. It's like standard issue for people who haven't the ability to discern quality or think for themselves. You can be sure that if your hotel, restaurant or language school is in this guidebook it will be packed with the Lonely Planet sheep going along for the ride. Strangely, the author acknowledges this phenomenon in a sidebar and encourages travelers to seek out new places on their own. Speaking of sidebars, these are mostly a series of superficial interviews with local people; a nice idea in theory but not very well executed. I think the most helpful sidebars tend to expand upon material covered in the main text, which this book does not do very well.
The book also doesn't go into nearly as much depth as some of the other guides in terms of helpful background info, history and the like. Worthwhile destinations covered over several pages in some of the other guidebooks are often glossed over in a one-page summary here. It's like the abbreviated version of everything. In this regard, I think both Rough Guide and Moon do a much better job of giving travelers all the information they'll need. I also noticed that it seems very little updated from the previous edition. I'd say about 75% of the material already exists in the previous edition, sometimes verbatim, though they are different authors. Finally, the writing isn't the greatest. It might be nit-picking, but it was seriously hard to read the poor writing sometimes and you won't find yourself wanting to read this book from first page to last.
These are just a few issues off the top of my head. I know some well-heeled Guatemala travelers and residents who absolutely hate this guidebook and could probably do a much better job of pointing out its specific flaws. But if you're just along for the ride then by all means be my guest, though I'd at least consider a back-up plan. You'll thank me later.
Consider Moon Guatemala (Moon Handbooks), which I gave 5 stars. Rough Guide The Rough Guide to Guatemala 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) is also OK as a back-up.
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