5 comments about Moon Puerto Rico (Moon Handbooks).

1. You could get a guide to the tourist destinations at the airport or tourist office free, but this book provides much more. I spent a week in PR in 2007 and almost everything I did was covered in this book, either because I read about it in the book or stumbled across it by accident, only to find it was already covered in Moon's book! Plenty of smart advice, one of the better travel guides I've ever used.



2. I went to Puerto Rico from July 12-16, 2007, and this book aided in making it the best vacation ever! I stayed at Wyndham's Rio Mar Beach Resort but went on daily excursions. All of the recommendations were very helpful and accurate. I went to many of the restaurants that were described in the guide book. This guide book includes excellent directions on how to get places, as well as awesome photographs. If you're planning a trip to Puerto Rico, it's definitely worth picking up a copy of this travel guide!



3. My fiancée and I recently took an incredible trip to Puerto Rico, and this guide was absolutely indispensable throughout. It has a helpful history of the island, plenty of restaurant listings (many different styles and costs, in all parts of PR), and a wide variety of ideas for exploring all that the island has to offer--from the rainforest to the nightclubs. Van Atten's writing is lucid, fun to read, and always well-informed. You really couldn't ask for more from a travel guide.



4. We just came back from PR yesterday and I must say the book was a wonderful guide during our vacation there. My husband spent much of his childhood in PR and at first he told me the book was unnecessary but he was the one who kept asking me to refer to the book. We spent two weeks in PR but we didn't follow the route written in the book...we went the opposite direction. We did make a complete circle of the Island using this book as our guide. The location of places were exactly as written in the book. We stayed at three different hotels in three different locations that are listed in the book and the phone number, the location and the review about the hotels were dead on. Last time we went to PR for family emergency, we stopped by to eat at a restaurant called La Boca in Salinas but this time we couldn't remember how we got there. We called family and friends and we were driving in circle. I told my husband that in the book most of the restaurants the writer reccomands are on the same road so we took 701 and there was our restaurant....the restaurant is not listed in the book but we love the seafood there. I wish I was eating the crab mofongo and a whole red snapper as we watch the fish swiming in the water. The information about getting to the port early to catch a ferry to Culebra island was true because it was sold out by the time we got there at 8am on Saturday. Better luck next time.



5. This has got to be one of the worst travel books I have ever purchased. The book is extremely vague. It is as though all the tourism companies and restaurants got together and had this book printed. Picture a typical travel magazine with a few informative articles on what to do and see, then filled with tons of advertising from companies that want your money. The book is good at telling you what, where, and when but does not elaborate on how to get there. If your an adventurous traveler like me and likes to find and do things the locals do or likes to do the tourist things without paying one of the local companies to guide you (they always want you to do and see things on there schedule) the book is worthless. The book tells you where the great beaches are and gives vague directions on how to get to them but doesn't give any mile (km in Puerto Rico) markers or landmark references. This a big problem because in Puerto Rico almost none of the streets are markerd once your out of the big cities and even in the cities your lucky to find a street name. I was looking for books by Andrew Doughty but he only does Hawaii. If you ever go to Hawaii looks for his "Revealed" series, he writes the most detailed travel book. On the other hand it gets two starts because it does tell you where the good stuff is and for those less adventurous it's a great reference guide to all the local tourism companies.

2 comments about National Geographic Traveler: Panama (National Geographic Traveler).

1. I purchased this book in anticipation of traveling to Panama in January. I was able to find every place we intend to go and also find a lot of useful hints for our travels. We have traveled to a number of countries and always buy some sort of guides to let us know what to expect and to help us plan our trip. This book gives a concise description of the areas without being too concise but also without being too verbose. I also have the Frommer's guide to Panama and much prefer the much more colorful National Geographic guide.



2. National Geographic is well known by the quality of their maps & their awesome photography; and this travel guidebook it's no exception. It's very informative without being too in depth. The pictures makes you feel like you're there (in my opinion). This one can complement the Moon's guidebook which focus is just the opposite. Well put together. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Dominican Republic (Country Guide).

1. I had only a brief five day visit to the DR in the Fall of 2006 for a wedding. Even though I was traveling with a local-speaking partner who had been to the DR many times, I still bought the Lonely Planet book and used it to help build an itinerary. I only had a chance to visit the Southeast corner of the country, as well as the city of Santo Domingo. The Lonely Planet guide helped me find clean and affordable accomodations for less than $50USD/night right on the beach where we rented a local fishing boat for two days to go diving and snorkeling in the local reefs. I'm looking forward to going back to explore other parts of the country. Rental cars were inexpensive, but driving in the DR is an experience as it almost seemed like a "free-for-all" at times. The main Interstate is well maintained, but a majority of the local roads are not. The Lonely Planet guide ~as always~ was accurate and helpful.



2. Lonely Planet has earned my loyalty through a lifetime of travel, but this guide is a glaring exception to their usual quality. Although it may be useful as a background read, it is so fraught with misinformation that it is worthless as an actual travel guide.
   
   In addition to pervasive map inaccuracies, misquoted prices, misprints, and overly generous descriptions, the book's major shortcoming is that the country has changed so much since this edition was released that many of the businesses reviewed no longer exist and newer businesses aren't mentioned.
   
   
   Do not buy this book until they come out with a new edition.



3. Excellent book for those planning to visit the DR but shun the resorts and want to see the actual country and people and do so inexpensively.



4. I did not even buy this edition based on the Amazon reviews. I bought the previous edition with Joyce Connolly's fine information that got me through my trip to Port-au-Prince. I hope Lonely Planet is able to correct their error and return Haiti back to good standing.



5. I bought this book for a trip I'm going on next week. While I have not used it 'in country' yet, I have traveled to many other places, using a Lonely Planet guide as my bible. I find them better than the competitor's guides primarily for their organization, and ease of finding the information you need, fast. The 'Sleeping' sections allow you to easily choose the best hotel option that fits you and your trip, and the 'Getting there & away' section not only tells you where transport is located, but the price, and importantly, the duration. Having this book in my hand next week will allow me to make easy, quick decisions, and concentrate on the most important thing - having fun.

5 comments about Panama Canal By Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising the Panama Canal (2nd Edition).

1. This will be packed and going on my upcoming cruise. It has not only the historical, cultural, political perspectives on the canal, but has all the Central America, Mexico, South America ports where you stop during the cruise. Wonderful maps, pictures, and discussions about the surrounding areas.
   I am enjoying studying it each night in prepartion for our cruise.
   Well write and easy to pack. This author did a tremendous job with this guide. I would definitely buy other guides from Ms. Vipond.
   Linda Canada



2. Our Holland America transit of the Panama Canal in May '07 included a veteran tour guide talking on the ships announcement systems. His description was very poor and the facts were just wrong. I knew that because I had read this book.
   
   I recommend you buy and read this book before making your transit.



3. Great coverage of the history and structure of the Panama Canal itself and a great deal of information about cruise ships in general. However, I was disappointed in the coverage of the ports. I would have preferred more details.



4. Purchased this book for my mother-in-law. She seemed to like it. They are taking a trip there, so it made a good gift. Have not read the book myself.



5. I bought this book prior to a Panama Canal cruise not just for the cruise information but also because of the extensive amount of history covering the Panama Canal, including how it was built and the political involvement in making it happen. The details and background on the canal are outstanding.
   
   What I didn't expect to find was not only information about the ports of call in Panama, but information about every possible port of call on a Panama Canal cruise. Whether you sail from Florida to California or any other path, your ports are covered in this book. Know what to purchase in Costa Rica, know where to sightsee in Cozumel, and know where the locals will be waving at your ship as you pass through the canal. A must have guide for every canal cruise, and a great guide for the Caribbean and Mexico as well.

2 comments about Caribbean Islands (Multi Country Guide).

1. At 800+ pages, this is too heavy to lug around, but it's perfect for planning a trip and deciding where to visit. After you've planned your itinerary, I suggest buying a more specialized LP (Lonely Planet) guide to take with you - a small price to pay for a successful vacation.
   
   Cuba gets the longest chapter (a whopping 59pp), followed by the Dominican Republic (48pp), Trinidad & Tobago (47pp), Bahamas (43pp), and Jamaica (42pp). However, the book's warnings about Jamaican crime will cause most travellers to rethink their itinerary. Haiti receives a token 18 pages due to the turmoil there. At the other end of the spectrum, the shortest chapters are on Saba and St. Eustatius (10pp each).
   
   I enjoy the LP writing style, and I like their emphasis on practical tidbits. For example, don't fly directly from Aruba to the U.S. because you'll be in line for two hours at the Aruba airport due to understaffing by U.S. customs officers (yes, U.S.) who handle pre-clearance procedures. This is the kind of nuts-and-bolts information for which LP is famous, and enables visitors to avoid vacation hell.
   
   Pet peeves: The chapters covering the 26 jurisdictions seem to be in random order - why not alphabetical? LP has always been famous for their maps, but lately their maps have been using one shade of gray for water and a slightly different shade of gray for land, which is tough on the eyes.



2. As usual, the Lonely Planet book delivers tons of information for travelers of all incomes. Especially helpful are tips on where to go to avoid cruise ship crowds. However, I had to skip the chapter on Cuba, because of the US travel ban. And the chapters on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic should probably only be used to decide whether or not you want to go to those places. If so, you should probably buy the Lonely Planet books dedicated exclusively to them.

5 comments about Frommer's Portable Cayman Islands (Frommer's Portable).

1. We love the book so far. Really helps us to plan when to go, what our best options are, and how to go about arranging the best plans. Great compact size, but still full of details about accommodations, diving, snorkeling, and transportation. I'd get a Frommer's Compact Guide to every place we visit if I could. My wife insists on Eyewitness Guides whenever possible, because of the incredible photos that help us know what we want to see, but this Frommer's book tells us how to practically do those things.



2. This little guide book is a good item to have if you have never traveled to the Cayman Islands before. It is a bit outdated but still a good back up. Don't atke all the recommendations to heart. They tell you to skip "Hell" the end of the island but I think the short trip is worth it, but the airport stores accually have better T shirts than can be had on site.
   Beware: The Caymans are VERY expensive to visit and with the US dollar only being worth .75 to each Cayman dollar, your money does not go far. Be prepared to spend over $1000 to eat for a week, for 2 people and you won't be eating very big!



3. This seems to be the best overview of visiting the Caymans that I could find out there. It does do a good job hitting all the major highlights. Good review of restaurants. The reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is in my opinion Frommer's could have included better maps and perhaps photos.



4. Very helpful guide on our recent visit, but THREE warnings that Hell is not worth the trip? It wasn't THAT bad, at least it's FREE, compared with $50 or $75 for the Turtle Farm.



5. With the recent news about travel book writers copying from others and not really knowing the places they write about, this is one in my opinion. Example, based on the recommendation saying Rum Point was one of the best snorkeling spots with rainbow hued fish, my wife and I took a day from our time on 7 Mile Beach and drove there (long drive on the island). The beach itself was fine, no better than the beach we left, but the snorkeling was awful. I gave up trying to find the good spot myself and went to Red Sail Sports who operate boat tours (and snorkel trips) from there and said I'd heard this was a good snorkeling place. They responded "only if you like sand, there isn't any good snorkeling here". Then they said guide books tout this place all the time and no one knows why, there is no good snorkeling. So is this another case, like I've recently read about in the news, where a travel writer doesn't experience the site itself and just copies from other books? Also one of the best things you can do here is Sting Ray City - covered in the book yes, but also not highly recommended by the authors - they are afraid of the string rays apparently.

2 comments about Frommer's Caribbean 2008 (Frommer's Complete).

1. Of all the travel books, Frommer's are the best. The Caribbean 2008 is a solid book, the information is updated with a number of handy hints. The Caribbean, in general, offers fewer insights than larger countries one can travel so it does not get the highest rating.



2. Purchased both the Frommers and Fodors books (same title). The Fodors book seems to provide more information and in a much more readable format.

5 comments about Frommer's Portable Aruba, Bonaire, & Curacao (Frommer's Portable).

1. This book was very helpful to me in planning my travel. The information is very current and complete. I highly recommend it!



2. Frommers provides the most detailed and accurate information on travel anywhere in the world. I used this book for information on the island of Curacao. I highly recommend using Frommers travel guides.



3. I found this book very helpful and easy to read. This was my first trip to Aruba and it provided me with a wealth of knowledge. My traveling companions were passing it around and reading it on the plane and once we got there. This saved us asking the front desk innumerable questions.I felt quite confident leaving the US to vacation in Aruba.



4. The title of this book is very misleading. I was primarily interested in the section on Bonaire. However, there is only 1 chapter (22 pages) on Bonaire and only one chapter (25 pages) on Curacao. Most of the book (8 chapters, 150 pages) is devoted to Aruba. So, if you are going to Aruba this book might be useful, but if Curacao or Bonaire is your destination there are much better guides available.



5. The biggest downfall to this book is the majority of the book is dedicated to Aruba. That is fantastic if that is where you are going, unfortunately we were going to Bonaire & Curacao. Information on Bonaire and Curucao is reasonable, would be helpful if more information on the restaurants was provided like hours and days closed, we seemed to have some problems with that.

4 comments about D & S Bonaire (Diving & Snorkeling).

1. We thoroughly enjoyed reading this guidebook, while on vacation recently in Mexico. Bonaire will be our next stop! Tim Rock is obviously a very accomplished photographer. The photos are beautiful. Each dive site has a description of the shore entry, depths where the best diving is found, commonly seen species, and notes about current, surf, misc hazards, etc. My only suggestions for future editions would be even more photos showing what the entries look like, and more detailed information about how far offshore the reef dropoff or mooring buoys are. Sometimes the description says "it's a long swim out", but I'd like to know what kind of distance we're talking about. And maybe a star rating for the dive sites? I know it's subjective, but it would provide a starting point when trying to pick from so many potential dive sites.



2. Tim totally "Rocks"! This is the most up-to-date, useful, and well laid-out diving guide when going to Bonaire. Tim's descriptions made it very easy to plan dives, especially shore dives (Bonaire has tons of them!). Combined with his great pictures, we felt like we had already visited each site before actually getting there! The only (very minor) discrepancies were on some sites which were classified in the (blue shaded) summaries as "Boat" access, whereas they were described in the text as shore dives also (and we confirmed this while there). We can't wait to try out Tim's guides to other locations. Thanks!



3. I brought this book to Bonaire and it was excellent for providing insight into the many, many dive locations around island. This book will enhance your experience on the island and is well worth the cost.



4. If you are a diver and going to Bonaire, this is a great book to have.

5 comments about The Rough Guides' St. Lucia Directions (Rough Guide Directions).

1. We're going to St. Lucia in April, so we haven't been able to check out the veracity of anything in particular in this handy little book. But I appreciate how readily the authors will say whether something is to any degree unsavory, unsafe or undesirable. If the book gives you one overall impression, I would say it is the idea that St. Lucia is a small, safe, slightly backward place with lots of overlooked nooks and crannies that you can explore, as well as all of the typical touristy comforts catering to cruise ship goers and retirees. We're looking to "rough it" just a little bit... hiking and lounging about mostly, and this book confirms our decision go to St. Lucia.



2. This was our basic guide for our vacation. It lacked details about some of the trails it pointed out, but includes one of our favortie restaurants that isn't in all the guides. Overall, a good purchase.



3. Although we won't be leaving for our first trip to St. Lucia for another week, I have to say that this guidebook had everything I look for when researching vacation destinations.
   
   Given that St. Lucia is a small island, there aren't the number of guidebooks out there that there are for larger destinations. I ordered three different books on St. Lucia but this is, by far, my favorite. My frustration with other guides is that some didn't even have color pictures! When I'm planning a vacation, I like to have clear, color pictures of different attractions and this book has quite a few. It's also more detailed than my other books as far as describing restaurants, resorts, and directions to attractions.
   
   I also love the pocket size of this guide so that I can take it along and utilize the maps, directions, reviews etc. without having something large and bulky to tote around. I feel this guidebook was the most informative and had the clear advantage of having more pictures.



4. I purchased this book simply because I needed to purchase one more item to qualify for free shipping. My husband and I are leaving for St. Lucia in a few days and have found this little book to be of great help. I love the maps that are attached to the inside cover (very convient). I also loved reading the restaurant and hotel reviews. I didn't have any expectations for this book being anything more than a quick read while on the plane, but I was pleasantly suprised. I couldn't help but dive right into the book when it arrived. It has a decent amount of colored pictures and lots of information. Definitly worth the few dollars :)



5. This book is great for planning, and would also serve as a useful guide and reminder of what to do, where to eat, how to get around and such when you're on your holiday. I'm leaving in July, and I'll be taking the book with me.