South America: On a Shoestring

5 Responses to “South America: On a Shoestring”

1. CHristopher M. says:

   July 23, 2010 at 10:39 pm

   I traveled around the world on backpack, and LP is the most comprehensive and user friendly guids for all the regions around the world.!! Well written, and eazy to navigate throughout the book.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
2. M. De Vries says:

   July 23, 2010 at 11:34 pm

   A must have four the traveler people! The go to South America
   Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
3. Kay Henneman says:

   July 24, 2010 at 1:40 am

   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 excellent 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.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
4. Taner Akgun says:

   July 24, 2010 at 4:27 am

   I am writing this review after visiting Peru, and using this book as a guide.

   The book is very thick, but really contains very small useful information. Most pages are simply full with senselessly long lists of restaurants, hotels, and additional contact information. Such things are better establish on the internet, or by simply walking around the city. Moreover, a lot of that information was already out of date a small more than 1 year after publication. So, about two thirds of the book is immediately utterly useless weight.

   As a replacement for, a excellent 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-clarified.
   
   3) would talk about appealing things to do in A LOT more detail. Such information in this book is extremely limited, sometimes barely a sentence or two, and a fleeting search on the internet would produce a lot more useful and insightful information.
   
   4) would have the following vital information: the flag of the country would be nice; the inflation and GDP per capita in the country in addition to money exchange excise, and estimates of average transportation, hotel and restaurant prices; the altitude, average temperatures and precipitation of each city. 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, as a replacement for 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 place the appealing things to see in a context.
   
   7) would have some color. None in here, except the covers and a couple of pages. In additional words, the guide should be more visual, and writing should be avoided when it can be.

   I am not aware of a better guide book. I can only suggest to compare guides for yourself and then pick one that works for you, but it is probably better to just use information off the internet.

   In fleeting: 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.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
5. Jason Krause says:

   July 24, 2010 at 5:55 am

   The book is fantastic, I cant wait to take it with me to South America in the fall.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5