5 comments about Frommer's Portable Turks & Caicos (Frommer's Portable).

1. Frommer's has done a good job of telling the world what the TCI's are all about. Our island is well covered...Salt Cay. If you are interested in going..this is the guide to take.



2. This small, travel-sized book contains everything you need to know, but wouldn't think to ask! Especially helpful were the restaurant reviews and the information on how to get around the island. A must-have if it is your first visit to Turks and Caicos.



3. We loved the book. Great info included. I only wish a better map was included.



4. If you look around, you'll discover that there aren't a lot of choices when it comes to travel books on Turks & Caicos. That reflects TCI's lingering status as "Turks and Who?"
   Go into a bookstore, and you're more likely to find a book covering the entire Caribbean -- with perhaps 20 pages devoted to TCI. That means spending 20-plus bucks and toting around a lot of extra weight.
   Lonely Planet offers a TCI diving book, which has more background information than you might expect, but it doesn't have a tremendous amount of the bed-and-butter stuff on hotels, restaurants, etc.
   Amazon has some titles from little-known publishers. These may be perfectly good books. However, if you're like me, you're not inclined to spend money on what might be a crapshoot.
   Frommer's Portable Turks & Caicos is a good, safe choice. It appears to have slightly more information than is located in Frommer's Caribbean book, and it's far easier to carry around (very nice when you're walking the beach).
   This late 2006 edition is still mostly up to date, with one major exception: The Gecko shuttle service went out of business in February 2008, which means you're left only with rental cars or taxis. The book ought to point out that you really don't need a weekly rental on TCI -- a day or two at most works fine. This is one case where free pickup by tour operators makes a lot of sense.
   Most of the hotels, restaurants and attractions touted by the book still exist, but there are some omissions. It doesn't list Grace Bay Rentals, the only truly affordable car choice on the island ($40 for a Corolla). It also could use some refreshing to account for the changing Grace Bay Beach oceanfront, which is getting filled up with timeshares and condos. Other quibbles: The book talks about the lack of rain, but doesn't adequately discuss the impact of wind. We stayed five days, and about half the time, the stiff breezes made water activities quite problematic. It's the equivalent of SoCal winter rain -- stay only a few days, and you may have lousy conditions the whole time.
   The book is also bit lavish in its praise of TCI snorkeling. Cozumel/Yucatan ('04), Moorea/Bora Bora ('95) and Oahu's Haunama Bay ('86) were all superior. I also wish they'd been a bit more forthright about the relative lack of attractions on the SE side of the island. We went searching a small "kiddie" bay touted in the book, and it was a long wasted trip.
   Also, a more detailed map might have been nice, but since we're dealing with a pocket edition, I can understand why that didn't happen. They might also want to point out that walking Grace Bay Road is a lot faster than walking the beach (though not remotely as beautiful)
   Meanwhile, their restaurant recommendations were fairly spot-on (Hemingway's, for example, was a good choice).
   Overall, if you're only going to TCI, then the only reason NOT to buy this book would be to wait for the update. Otherwise, it's only $10 or so. Compared to the total cost of the trip, that's peanuts.



5. AS it turns out, Turks & Caicos is a really small place, so no real need for a guide. This one is good.

No comments about Fodor's In Focus Aruba, 1st Edition (Pocket Guides).

2 comments about The Rough Guide to Trinidad & Tobago.

1. This is not a very useful tool for travelling. Unlike many guidebooks, they do not put a dollar (or Euro if you prefer) amount on the restaurants, etc., so you are left with a VERY subjective view of cost. We got very tired of going to "inexpensive" and "budget" places and having the dinners cost US $15 to $25 per entree. Even some of the "inexpensive local food" was that much. Tobago in general is difficult in terms of finding budget food (which I define as US $10 or so an entree) and this guide just makes things worse. You are better off using mytabago website or just asking around. There was overall just very little useful information in this "guide". One of us would usually ask 'shall we bring the crappy guide with us?' As often as not, we didn't bother.



2. As a Trinidadian, who left the island as a teenager, and who now resides in the U.S., I wanted to learn more about the "attractions" of the country during an extended trip back. I found this book to be EXTREMELY helpful, and I made extensive use of the road maps provided. In particular, the maps in the guide give terrific details about where sites are located. In fact, they are more detailed than any other map that I was able to locate, while in Trinidad. In general, the book's material is very up-to-date, pertinent, and enjoyable to read. Hats off to the authors!

2 comments about Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion.

1. As we prepared for our trip to Prague, I ordered this book from Amazon.com but didn't get a chance to read until we actually got there. What a treasure! Each piece made some landmark or moment of history come more vividly alive than any of the standard guidebooks could possibly provide. The division of the book into corresponding areas of the city was a great idea.I always look to literature to gain insight into travel destinations. No single book has ever done a better job than this one.



2. Excellent collection of pieces from obscure writers and celebrated Czech authors. The book is divided into sections for each part of the city (Old Town, Mala Strana, etc.). I've lived in Prague before and it was so much fun following each author around the city again. I recommend this book for anyone enchanted by the idea of Prague or for those who miss it and want to spend some time there with a bunch of amazing tour guides.

4 comments about Top 10 Dominican Republic (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. I've read other books on the Dominican Republic from cover to cover and ended up with too much information. The top 10 book summarizes the major sections of the country in such a way that you can get a feel for each area.
   
   If you are looking for a colonial city, mountains, out of the way places, an all inclusive resort atmosphere or surfing areas then you can locate them here. If you know the type of vacation area you enjoy, this can be quite helpful to avoid centering your lodging base in the wrong section of the country.
   
   The book also has the top 10 highlights for interests in history, museums, Indian sites, children activites, sports, nature, beaches, quiet beaches, views, religion, festivals, local flavor, shopping, restaurants, bars, nightlife, food, plants and animals.
   
   For 6 areas of the country it additionally describes the top 10 cities plus includes two other top 10 lists that reflect the vicinities areas of interest.
   
   In the street smart section you'll want to review the summarized explanations and tips for planning your trip, arriving, getting around, driving, information resources, money and communications, security and health, things to avoid, budget tips, eating and drinking, special needs, tours, lodging tips and 5 different lists for hotel types.
   
   If you are trying to decide what country to visit, this book can give you the highlights in a concise fashion and save you a lot of time. The book can also assist you in confirming your decision to visit the Dominican Republic or prevent you from making a mistake. Once you do decide to travel here, you can leave this book at home. Instead, you may want to bring along along another book that includes larger city maps, schedules, price levels and other details.
   
   There is a surprising amount of information and colorful pictures in a such a small book. If you want to find out as much as you can about the country, you should definitely get a second book that covers more information in depth. However, don't overlook it as a valuable resource no matter what you do.



2. I have to say that I haven't been there to validate what the book contains, but from the looks of it I think it provides a fair assessment. It was helpful and has loads of categories so whether you're going all-inclusive or not it can help.



3. Very beautiful, lots of good pictures.
   
   On the negative side, a little bit hard to read, a just too little of information and not enough maps.
   
   In general, very good book.



4. I ordered this book for a recent trip to the Dominican Republic. It proved to be very useful! Great tips and great advice; it really helped out a lot while there.

1 comments about The Rough Guide to Cuba 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. This guide is not bad at all. It's up-to-date, but I found some inaccuracies in it (like the distance between Holguin and Guradalavaca). We used this guide as a backup for the Moon Handbook, which is a bit outdated, but is much more extensive and better written.

5 comments about The Naked Truth About Hedonism II (2nd Edition).

1. I have several friends that have been to Hedonism II (I haven't been there yet). They attest to the accuracy of the information in this book. It gives a lot of information that you would never find in a tourist review.



2. Ms. Santilli's book, The Naked Truth About Hedonism II, is a good cure for DIF (dreaded island fever or what you feel after returning home from the island).
   
   The Naked Truth evokes the island and especially the resort of Hedo II. If you're a newbie, it's a must read to help get your feet wet. If you've been before, it's a wonderful reminder of why you love the resort ... plus you may read about or see some friends.
   
   This is the must have book for those considering a visit to Hedonism II in Negril, Jamaica.



3. The book is excellent and a must read if you are considering a Hedo Vacation.



4. Even though the new addition states that it has been updated to include Hedo 3, there are only a few short paragraphs dedicated to it. The majority is about Hedo 2, to which I have never been. This book made Hedo 2 seem like it is old and dirty, and that the guests are an older and less physically fit sort than traditionally would go to Hedo 3. Perhaps this is true; but to me the author portrayed the resort as not very upscale which turned me off. (At this point I was very glad that I had made reservations to Hedo 3 instead.) Too much of the book is dedicated to showing Hedo 2 guests how to scare the folks at the nearby Sandals resort with various displays of nudity directed to the unsuspecting prudes. (Trust me, that's not what I would waste my time with when I'm at Hedo!) I have been to Hedo 3 with Wild Women Vacations, and I have to say that it was an incredible experience. After reading this book, I don't think I'd even try to go to Hedo 2 at all. It really turned me off. Don't waste your time with this book: go to Hedo 3!



5. We are planning a trip in November 2008 to Hedo III and we are currently researching everything we can so we "know " what to expect.
   This book tells everything there is to know about the atmosphere, the people,the drinks, etc - It mainly talks about Hedo II but I imagine it is much the same- and it gives a great insight as to the kind of people we should expect to meet.
   Great reading and interesting pictures too.
   Definately worth the read before you go.

5 comments about The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Schoolmates from Revolution to Exile (Vintage Departures).

1. This is a wonderful book that explores the historical and social background of the success of a communist regime on a island ninety miles from the U.S. The author reports extensively on the school that Castro attended, and interviews several of his classmates, but this is only a microcosm of Cuban society at large. He has done a lot of homework to capture the Cuban mentality and society, from the 1930's right on up to the present. After 48 years, I finally understand, thanks to this book, what the social and political factors were which resulted in this oppressive regime being so wildly successful in capturing the support of the majority of its citizens, us exiles notwithstanding.
   
   This is a must read for any Cuban expats, their offspring, and also anyone having any notion of setting up a business or any roots in Cuba after democracy creeps in.



2. As a graduate from Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami and a Cuban American, I really appreciated this book- specifically the very last paragraph as I lived it for many years. I have to say that this writer has impeccable writing skills and flawless journalism. His interviews are thorough and true to the facts. His descriptions of the street life in Cuba is well thought out. The information in this book on Castro's former classmates is priceless! A must read for anyone wanting to learn about the making of Fidel Castro and what actually went wrong and why we lost Cuba to this evil tyrant. This writers efforts are stunning!



3. One of the unsolved mysteries in this book concerns its undetectable plot. Another mystery is how the book got a NY Times review. Besides the absence of an identifiable theme, an important criticism is that the author fails to benefit from recent scholarly work on the illegitimacy of Castro (such as Serge Raffy's book, for example). The lasting psychological effects of Castro's childhood (his illegitimacy, his being raised in various foster homes, his unresolved conflicts with his parents), would seem fruitful areas of inquiry, especially since the author spoke with people who knew Castro as a child. On the other hand, one also wonders about the book's reliance on interviews with elderly individuals, since much research suggests that childhood memories can be quite unreliable.
   
   There are also many erroneous assertions, misstatements, and exaggerations. For example, at p. 10, the book states that "Belen had always been a sister school to Dolores, and the student bodies were intimately tied together." Belen's rival school was La Salle, in Havana. Very few Belen students ever even heard of Dolores and I suspect most Dolores students, especially those in the elementary and junior grades similarly had never heard of Belen. In the 1950s, Belen and Dolores, just as Havana and Santiago, were separated by much more than 750 miles of really bad roads; they were separated by an entire world.
   
   In typical hyperbole, the book also contradicts itself. At p. 5, it refers to Dolores as the "richest gathering of the richest part of Cuba, a school of the chosen few." When did Santiago become so rich and powerful? In spite of this, at p. 298, the author then concludes: "Not everyone at the Colegio de Dolores came from wealth, or even the middle class. ('The Jesuits,' Roca said, 'if someone qualifies, they wanted him. So there were the sons of Bacardis, of industrialists, but also of barbers, and of tailors')" So, which is it? Besides, the sons (and daughters) of the Bacardi's lived largely in Havana.
   
   The author also gets the Spanish lisp wrong. At p. 59, he writes about a "lisped 'Que patha?'..." In fact, the "s" is pronounced the same way in Madrid and in Havana, as an "s." It is to the "z" (hard) and the "c" (softer) where the Spaniard's "lisp" applies, and not to the "s," as in Que pasa...
   
   Cuban history gets equally confusing, and just plain wrong, treatment. The history section is all of two pages. Various attempts at clever writing turn out to be obnoxiously awkward ("At 746 miles long, Cuba was unmeasurable. The landmass, a long and recumbent crocodile of 47,000 square miles, was less a nation and more an approximation.") How did that get past an editor?
   
   The "tiny, plutocratic elite in Havana" is contrasted to "millions" of poor people. One wonders what source the author uses in arriving at these "millions," particularly since the author schizophrenically refers to the middle class in the previous paragraph. In fact, the middle class is described as both "small" and as "bigger than was found in most of the rest of Latin America." The data the author presents about telephones and automobiles is wrong: Cuba in 1958, according to readily verifiable information from the UN and other sources, had more televisions per capita that any other nation in Latin America (and in Europe) and it had the largest number of automobiles per 1,000 people (24) except for Venezuela (27). Per capita food consumption was 2730 calories per day, higher than anywhere else except for Argentina (3100). In fact, Cuba had the largest middle class in Latin America relative to the population of 6 million in 1958.
   
   Breathless comments about malnutrition and platitudes about Che Guevara's concern about the children left "to starve for several months each year, with nothing but guarapo, the weak juice from crushed cane, to survive on," seem straight out of a Castro nomenklatura manual. For one thing, Guevara had never been to Cuba and had never seen Cuban children except for whichever ones he happened to run across while hiding out in the Cuban mountains during 1957 and 1958. Is this journalism or orthodoxy?
   
   Still, there are interesting passages that illuminate how repressed and dismal life is in Cuba under Castro. The most interesting segment deals with Cuba's "apartheid" tourism. The author relates a poignant moment while he waits in the Hilton lobby in Havana. The hotel guards "turn away one Cuban after another. They split apart one couple, turning away the Cuban man while admitting the foreign woman. The pair had been holding hands as they walked through the door, but they were physically separated amid objections. She continued in, and the man waited outside."
   
   Nonetheless, the best part of this book will come when I sell it on Amazon at, alas, a huge discount.



4. Recommended for one searching for insights and background to the Cuba of the past fifty years. This is not a straight history, or a policy article, or a personal travel memoir but a combination of all these and more, woven around one Cuban private school and the lives of some of its students, one of whom being Fidel Castro. Patrick Symmes is a talented writer.
   
   I am not an expert on the history of the revolution or of the Bay of Pigs, but having been once to Havana the parts of this story pertaining to present day Cuba ring true to me.
   
   This book is most relevant as this review is posted. The New York Times reports that Raul Castro has taken over as president of Cuba from his ill brother, Fidel Castro, this very day.



5. 
   The book began with somewhat of an attitude. One of the exiles "wallowed in history like a boy in a mud bog", another "cackles gleefully", and others "unashamedly shook hands" (why be ashamed to shake hands?). I almost put it down, but I'm glad I didn't. A lot of meat, and some very good writing follows.
   
   The book is one part travelog, one part recent Cuban history and one part the story of Castro's classmates at the exclusive Jesuit school. Some of "the boys" supported Castro and his revolution before they fought against him. History is intertwined with descriptions of rations, baseball games and streetscapes.
   
   The stories of the "boys" are the stories of the upheaval. Some smelled to coffee right away and left. Others were jolted out as they saw their liberties and property falling away. Some, like Kiki de Jongh remain for reasons that are very unclear.
   
   I wonder how this author has slipped in and out of Cuba, as he says, for 11 years. He clearly knows the turf, and can write of the changing moods and landscapes. He has fereted out some oral histories inside of and outside of Cuba that add to the literature available to be sifted by future historians. It seems that Symmes knows some of the interviewees quite well. Presumably he has more extensive tapes and notes that I hope will someday be donated to a research institution.
   
   In the final pages Symmes gives some ideas about what could happen after Castro's death.
   
   I think a good editor could make this a 5 star book. The first 50 pages or so need some work. Throughout, some phrases could be metaphors or statements, it's hard to tell and some ideas are introduced in a way that you might not catch that the topic is changing (and go back to find what you missed). Pictures, even blow ups from the cover photo, would be a good addition and for the general reader, a map is needed.
   
   The title is deceiving. I don't think this book was originally intended to be about the "boys". For instance, the author is given 2 addresses for one alumni, and dutifully mails the envelopes. If this were actually about alums, he would have pursued him and other leads.

5 comments about The Rough Guide to Jamaica 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. This book was absolutely indispensable on my first trip to the fascinating island of Jamaica. All sections of the island are thoroughly covered, including recommendations for lodging, restaurants, and the multitude of places to visit.
   
   This is a must-buy guide to anyone traveling to Jamaica for the first time or the tenth.



2. I bought this book for our move to Jamaica, chronicled at JamaicaMAX.com, because I wanted to have the most up to date guide for our travels. My last experience with a guide was wiht a book over 5 years old and the iformation was nearly useless. This book has some great features and tips and thus far everything has been very accurate. It's been a lot of fun in Jamaica for the last 6 months and this book made it so much nicer.



3. A good all around Jamaica travel guide. Add to it the following: 1] DO NOT rent a car and drive in Jamaica. 2] The locals drive like banshees, death or dismemberment on the highways is common. 3] there are numerous drivers willing to take you around cheaper than you can hire a car with insurance and they give out great tips and advice 4] There are no roadsigns you will get lost, then try to find gas stations and the Jamaician Police write lots of tickets--especially to tourists who are expected to pay in cash roadside.



4. This book is by far the best....it is full of very important information. If you like to travel off the beaten path, this one's a must own!



5. Our travel reading was limited to Frommer's, Moon, and Lonely Planet. After reading the reviews on this new source, we bit. I'm convinced the author's relatives must have provided the "positive" comments!
   
   This guide might be helpful to the Jamaican backpacker who desires the "$8 a day experience." If your desire is the more upscale visit, we suggest your choice of guides from the tried and proven professionals listed above.

1 comments about Puerto Rico Off the Beaten Path, 5th (Off the Beaten Path Series).

1. I bought this book right before a trip to Puerto Rico. Although I wished I'd had more time to read it thoroughly before I left, I took it with us and we referred to it from time to time throughout our vacation. I believe if I had had enough time to read it cover to cover before leaving I would have been able to mark the pages of the things we wanted to do while there.
   
   Some of the information concerning El Yunque was incorrect when we visited, but it wasn't too much a problem. First, when we visited the Caribbean National Forest, our cost was $3.00 per adult and children under 16 were free. This was cheaper than the book said, but it also has a disclaimer that all price information was accurate at the time of printing so that was just a pleassant surprise. The other thing was that the road (PR 191) to the El Yunque lookout was closed, and appeared to have been for some time.
   
   Thanks to the book, we discovered a new Puerto Rican rum and we were able to do a free rum tasting while we were there. Helpful tip, make sure you don't go when the cruise ships are in. When we went the piers were empty and we had the place to ourselves.
   
   The maps in the book are helpful in a pinch, but I would highly recommend purchasing a road map from Walgreens and using it instead, as the maps in this book are not very detailed.
   
   his book contains helpful little lists of hotels, retsaurants and night clubs, and we did refer to those lists a time or two when trying to decide where to eat for the evening.
   
   All in all, I would recommend this book to someone who is going to visit Puerto Rico, and I would also add that you should try to find time to read it thoroughly before you go.