Travel to Central America

Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring

Format: Paperback
Author: Robert Reid
ReleaseDate: August, 2004
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Rating:

Worked well for covering so many countries
However, I cannot speak to the Rough Guide, which some seem to prefer. Last summer, I found this book much more useful for visiting Central America than its Let's Go counterpart which was riddled with more inaccuracies and fewer maps. Overall, maps to the major cities are there, and the bus info is very helpfu. Where there aren't maps, navigating becomes much more difficult. For this reason, if visiting many countries, it may be best to pick up country guides along the way. They tend to include more of the details (and more out of the way places) that make getting around much easier.

Vastly overrated
I brought two guidebooks with me on my trip: this one and the Rough Guide to Central America. I recenty returned from a month long trip through Central America, during which I visited all 7 Central American countries, in this order: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. I soon found myself using the Rough Guide almost exclusively and this Lonely Planet Guide hardly at all. This was a surprise and a disappointment, because for the last 17 years I have consistently found the Lonely Planet guides to be the ones most consistently most useful for adventurous travelers. But not this one. Here are some of the problems I had with this guide:

--The maps are among the hardest to read and most unintelligible I have ever seen, anywhere. They are all in black and white, with shadings in gray. There is very little variation in font size. It is hard to find anything without poring almost microscopically over the maps.
--The book consistently focuses on the cheapest, most bottom end places, especially when it comes to lodging. Now I suppose I should have been warned by the title, but I honestly didn't expect the book to be so relentlessly downscale. So this is a book only for the truly impoverished. If you want to splurge a little, look in the Rough Guide.
--Like all LP guides, it is not well-organized, so a reader must take his time to get used to finding out where to look for information.

On ths positive side, it is chock full of information for overland travelers and those seeking to venture into the remote areas of the countries visited. But overall, this one is not one of LP's finest publication. Use the Rough Guide instead (see my review there).

Maps are useless - as are much of the comments
is a highlight - but try and find it on these terrible country maps - that have no ABC-123 coordinates - you spend hours scanning miserable maps trying to figure out where the "Highlights" are - and highlighting them yourself - and yes - they're in the same small font as the rest of the map. This has rotten country maps - then try to find the "Highlights" to the countries - like Tikal in Guat. And if you're gonna rent a cheap car and drive yourself - there's nothing. Acres of bus crap - no road info.

Related products:
click image or link for details on these Central America travel books.

	Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)
	Lonely Planet Mexico
	The Rough Guide to Central America 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)