Travel to South America

Moon Handbooks Argentina

Format: Paperback
Author: Wayne Bernhardson
ReleaseDate: 09 November, 2004
Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing, Moon Handbooks
Rating:

MOON HANDBOOKS ALWAYS GOOD !!
They not only cover all the usual stuff you find in a guidebook, but also the unusual and out-of-the-way things you'd otherwise miss. Moon Handbooks have always been useful to me on any trip. Unless you stay in a condo or all-inclusive hotel and never leave, you should always take a MOON GUIDE with you!.

Uninspired, Out of Date. There are better guides.


Do not let the 2004 publishing date fool you. Moon is going head to head with Lonely Planet and Rough Guides and it losses badly. The information in this guide was gathered in 2001/2002. Buenos Aires prices have seriously changed since then and this guide has nothing about these changes. All of the hotel and restaurant rates in this book are irrelevant. Some prices have changed up to 300%! For example, in Buenos Aires, the NH City Hotel is quoted in the guide as being $97 per night. When I went there I was quoted $270 per night. A serious difference.

For all of Buenos Aires the guide lists only 14 restaurant recommendations. Imagine a guide for New York City with on 14 restaurant recommendations! Then, restaurant recommendations are poor selections in comparison to other guides. The writing about restaurants (and accommodations) vacillates between being trite and meaningless. For example, one of the 14 restaurants the guide recommends is a pizzeria (go figure) which says. . . "unchanged since the days of Carlos Gardel, whose photos line the wall. " That's it. From that you will make a decision?

Also, the maps in this guide are very difficult to use. Unlike other guides that give you separate maps for restaurants and accommodations, this guide crams everything on one map: hotels, restaurants, sights to see, etc. You spend far too much time trying to figure where something is . . . folks, there are much guides than this one. In short - avoid this guide.

If you are ONLY going to Buenos Aires, then, just for B. A. then take Fodor's `Argentina' (4th edition). Fodor's has very good maps of the city and it has great recommendations for accommodations. Caveat: only use Fodor's `Argentina' for Buenos Aires, outside of the capitol Fodor's crashes and burns. The best all around Argentina guide is Rough Guide Argentina 2005. This guide is Not Recommended. .

Preferable to other guides to Argentina
Moon lacks in maps compared to LP but it has much, much better content. I personally do not like the layout and style of Footprint nor Rough Guide, and the Lonely Planet to Argentina guide is way out of date. Just photocopy the maps out of LP, tape them inside the back pages of your Moon guide, and you're good to go. For both Peru and Argentina Moon really stands out as a great guidebook.

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

	Moon Handbooks Buenos Aires (Moon Handbooks : Buenos Aires)
	The Rough Guide to Argentina 2 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
	Moon Handbooks Chile (Moon Handbooks)
	Lonely Planet Argentina