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The Rough Guide to South America
by sun-is-shining
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I used the first edition published in January 2004
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I almost know this book by memory and it will my loyal travel buddy on my upcoming trip to South America. Unfortunately I'm not going to have the time nor the money to visit all of the countries described in the book ... but Bolivia, Argentina and Peru are high on my list.
I usually prefer the Rough Guide to the Lonely Planet - it's nothing I could point the finger on just a personal preference. Oh, I prefer the name. Come on, as soon as they publish a new Lonely Planet the place is not lonely anymore.
This time however I'm also using the Lonely Planet books. The RG South America is great to get an overview but it's not detailed enough to base your whole trip on it.
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Chapters
The Rough Guide is divided into the following chapters. The division is made by country/geographical area and is easy to understand/use - see page 3 for a map where to find which chapter.
-Colour section - this is my favourite as it contains '36 things not to miss'. It's great to see photos of places you want to visit and can offer you alternatives you never thought about before. Named as some of the highlights are 'Boat trip down the Amazon'; Ceviche (national dish of Peru) and seeing the 'Copacabana'
- The Basics - general history and geographic information, the approximate cost per day and helpful addresses/phone numbers (police/embassies etc)
- Argentina 65 - 195
- Bolivia 197 - 294
- Brazil 295 - 464
- Chile 465 - 584
- Colombia 585 - 643
- Ecuador 645 - 755
- The Guianas 757 - 809
- Paraguay 811 - 842
- Peru 843 - 963
- Uruguay 965 - 1006
and last but nor least
- Venezuela 1007 - 1076
- Languages - an introduction in Spanish and Portuguese with pronunciation help, useful words and phrase and a menu reader. The last one is always of great use - I would have been totally lost on so many trips without a basic menu reader.
- Unlike the single country RG this book does not contain an A - Z Chapter - these information is given in the appropriate country chapter.
They all share the same with practical and historical information at the beginning as well as the highlights of the region. This is followed by Accommodation, City and surroundings and how to get there and how to get away.
Here is an example of an entry for a GH in Lima:
El Balcon Dorado Jr Ucayali 199; 01/427-6028; balcondorado@hotmail.com. Really well located, close to Plaza Mayor, this colonial-style hotel is a very reasonable option. All rooms with private bath. Price includes breakfast. 4
Easy to understand with address, phone number and description of location and facilities. The only downside is the "4" at the end. "4" stand for the accommodation price scale - incredibly stupid if you ask me. It would be so much easier just to write 4$ next to it, no instead I have to look through the whole book to find the scale.
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Photo
I really enjoy looking at photos of places I want to travel to, they just put some meat on the bone. The Rough Guide has lots of high quality colour photos in the first section. I don't know why but I usually prefer the Rough Guide photos to the ones in the Lonely Planet.
My favorite is on page xx - the Capybare the photo of the Tango dancers on page xix.
There are many black and white snapshots throughout the book - but of course they are not as tempting as the coloured ones.
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Down-side
The only thing worth mentioning is that instead of writing the prices next to every GH/Restaurant they give you the accommodation price code which means looking back and forth through the whole book, especially because there's a different scale for each country. I'd prefer the prices!
The chapters about Paraguay and Uruguay were a bit short for my liking.
The paper used to print the book is really thin. That obviously helps to slim down the book which is good but if they get wet it's a big mess.
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Rating
As I already said above I value this book a lot and wouldn't want to miss it on my upcoming trip. The price is with 19.99 Pound normal for a travel book and you shouldn't have a problem to get it cheaper on Amazon.
But this book is only an overview, they pack over 11 countries in 1000 pages so it's understandable that it's not so detailed.
The Guide helped me very much to gain a first impression of the area I want to travel in but I still got separated Guide books for the countries I definitely want to visit.
An overall rating of 7 out of 10
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The Rough Guide to Japan - Jan Dodd
by ellesmellycat
This review refers to the 4th edition published in 2008
I have always preferred the rough guide series when traveling and this didn't disappoint, as always it's well written and very informative. I love the sections they do on History and Religion, beliefs and rituals and how it put the thing you'll se on your trip in to ... context.
Japan if you've never been before can seem like a very overwhelming place to visit, the 32 things not to miss is a great place to start planning your trip. While some of the suggestions seem a bit too far out of the way for a 2 week tourist, it reminded us that we'd left Sumo off our itinerary!
Each section has details on food, accommodation and highlights in the area, covering Tokyo; Around Tokyo; Northern Honshu; Hokkaido; Honshu; Kyoto & Nara; Kansai; Western Honshu; Shikoku; Kyushu and Okinawa. It would have been more helpful if the accommodation section was organized by area, but posit note helped us here. But all areas are covered fairly equally and comprehensively.
The basics section covers getting there; Getting around; Accommodation; Food and drink; The media; Festivals; Sports and outdoor activities; Culture and etiquette; Shopping; Traveling with children and Travel essentials.
Giving information on when the local holidays are-thus things are more expensive, when the best times to visit are, (avoid new year and Golden Week and try to see the cherry blossom-so beautiful)
This book is full of grownup things to do, so might not be best for teenagers traveling.
The small language section at the back is very useful covering grammar and pronunciations well, but remember that Japanese is written in a different alphabet so some people you ask for help may not understand if you just show them a book. I would recommend taking another language book as well.
Downsides; The maps can be a bit small and confusing,.
For the enthusiast there are sections on Manga & anime, but I can't comment on how comprehensive these are
If you don't want to spend the money the rough guide website has some of the books highlights.
Stuff you'll want to know...
About £12 from Amazon.
19 x 13 x 3.8 cm
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The Rough Guide to Thailand - Paul Gray
by kissy1
I bought this book as I was planning my gap year and I wanted to browse what I could do once I reached Thailand, it was great for helping me plane in advance. When I bought this book I was unsure of which route I would take around the country, what I wanted to see, and what to avoid. I found the book really useful for this as it gives ... top attraction, recommended routes, info on everything from what to see, where to go, what to do, and how to get around the country. I told me how to avoid being hassled by the men (they advised to carry a picture of me with a man and some children and claim they were my family, I used my brother and god 2 nieces, and it worked a treat!) The information in the book was really accurate, the prices were slightly out, but prices and exchange rates change, so we can forgive the nice people at rough guide for that!
The only downside I found to the book was that t champions certain hostels, hotels, restaurants, bar etc. So everyone goes to those ones, meaning they put their prices up, they get booked up quickly and may not even be the best places anymore. I saw one restaurant with a sign that read "we're not in rough guide or lonely planet, but try us anyway"
The book is well worth the money you spend on it, the only thing I would say is try to use the net as well, read other traveller reviews and don't only stick to the things in the book.
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