Travel to Central America

Adventures in Nature: Honduras (Adventures in Nature Series)

Format: Paperback
Author: James D. Gollin
ReleaseDate: February, 2001
Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing
Rating:

Great book on Honduras
Adventures in Nature is by far the most worn. I spend alot of time in Honduras and own just about every guidebook for that country. It is a well researched book and provides countless ideas of places to go for the adventure traveler/tourist. I recently started running mountain bike tours in Honduras near La Ceiba and while setting them up last year and mapping out routes this book was always with me. If you're looking for a hotel, food, transportation, logistics, etc. book you may want to have another guidebook with you as well, but don't substitute it.

So is this a guidebook for people who never go to Honduras?
While Adventures in Nature provides an interesting read, it is almost useless as a travel guide. So just before I went to Honduras I bought Adventures in Nature, and you know what? I found myself borrowing the Honduras Handbook and the Lonely Planet guide left and right. For one, it has extremely limited coverage. For example, I was going to Comayagua and found *nothing* on this wonderful, fairly major colonial mountain town. It instead refers you to another publication put out in Honduras- which I certainly didn't have when I was planning my trip. Further, even for the cities and towns it does cover it provides you with only the very high end or the very cheapest hotels and eating establishments, and not a lot of them. Nor does it contain a listing of essential services, such as where to go in the event of a medical emergency for decent 24 hour care(pretty essential information which most Hondurans on the street cannot provide you with as I found out one Sunday evening), or the number to call if you need to get in touch with the local police, or other such services. It contains NO maps for the towns that it does include--including such biggies as San Pedro and Tegucigalpa. It also fails to provide you with decent information on how to get to one place or another without renting a car--that is where the various busses leave from and go to.

In short, Adventures in Nature may be just great for those looking wanting to read about Honduras, or who are looking to spend $100-300 a night in Honduras while staying in accommodations that make it just like the U. S. , but for those who actually want to go to Honduras and have a real Central American experience (or who simply travel/live on real budgets) it is a very poor choice. You can get more or less the same background material and a great deal better practical information in the Honduras Handbook or the Lonely Planet guide. Even being a few years out of date they were FAR more useful. I am only grateful that my travelling companions chose better guidebooks than I did.

A must for all travelers to Honduras
I was originally asked to write the Honduras guide, but declined on the grounds that I didn't know enough about the country to do a good job. I am the author of two other guidebooks in the "Adventures in Nature" series (on Belize and Guatemala) of which this is a part. I'm happy to report that Ron Mader and Jim Gollin have done a BETTER than "good" job. . . in fact the results of their combined efforts are excellent in all respects. Their intelligence and insight come through on every page, along with a genuine affection for the people and places of Honduras. I have been to the country twice in recent years, and my experiences are congruent with those reported in this book. I particularly appreciate the straightforward and honest appraisal of hotels, restaurants, and outfitters, as well as the indepth material about the natural wonders of this underrated and underappreciated Central American destination. Put simply, this is the best guide to the country I have ever seen. Buy it!.

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

	Lonely Planet Honduras' Bay Islands: Diving & Snorkeling (Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling Great Barrier Reef)
	Honduras
	Diving Bay Islands (Aqua Quest Diving Series)
	Open Road's Best of Honduras, 1st Edition (Open Road Travel Guides Honduras and Bay Islands Guide)