5 comments about Lonely Planet Cuba.

1. While Lonely Planet Cuba does a good job of discussing the country and its culture in an objective way, its discussion of hotels and entertainment is way off. Prices for hotels listed is correct, but reviews of the property and the surrounding area is terrible. In addition, the discussion of nightlife is ridiculously off - Cuba has very little nightlife!!!



2. In the LP, the layout for Havana/suburbs/outlying areas is very difficult to follow. maps aren't consecutive, and the division of restaurants vs paladars divided by neighborhood and separated by pages of other stuff is hard to manage when you just want to know "where to eat". However, if you're just visiting Havana, i suggest another guidebook: the Time Out Guide. the maps are in color, easy to access (at the back of the book), and there is much more up to date stuff on current events, social attitudes/mores, clubs etc.



3. This particular edition of LP Cuba will do you little good in the year 2005 and it's not necessarily all LP's fault as Cuba undergoes a metamorphosis every other day or so. So, go with another guide for more up to date information on currency and prices in general as well as legal casas.
   
   And specifically for the Hotel Lido: whomever wrote up the little ditty about how only the brave should stay there does a great disservice to that hotel.
   
   Finally, it would be nice if the author could actually stop blaming the US for 2 seconds and perhaps hold Castro accountable for something other than nothing.



4. ... the following letter was sent by us to LP after using the (then) fresh off the press LP Cuba in July 2004. We still did not hear from them.
   
   -A.
   
   Dear Madam/Sir:
   
   We have been avid travelers for the most part of our lives and cumulatively have entry stamps from over 140 countries to boast. For the past 10 years, we have primarily used Lonely Planet to aid travels around the world (see attached picture of subset of LP library).
   
   Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we toured Cuba in June with the LP Cuba (2004 edition). We have never been let down more by a travel guide in our entire lives. Of course, things change ... prices go up ... schedules evolve; but never have we seen a guide so off the mark. Here are a few reasons why LP Cuba is simply the worst guide we have ever used:
   
   1/ Biased Politics -
   
   Authors love for Cuba makes them overlook many negative aspects of both Cuban society and travel in Cuba. Neither of us are Americans and we do not support the American government sanction on Cuba or Americans traveling there. However, we fail to see the need to vilify each U.S. government action while simultaneously painting a picture of the perfect socialist State. True, Cuba has some of the best social indicators in the Americas - but please also point out the "Dollar is King" economy, the sad "apartheid" regime, which allows clubs/bars/cafés/restaurants and even whole islands with some of the country's best beaches to be exclusive domain of just tourists. How could the authors marvel at social indicators when you could sit at Hotel Inglaterra's patio, sip a mojito and gaze at the Cubans who cannot enter?
   
   2/ Biased Interpretations of Dangers -
   
   The section on Warnings, Scams, and Travel Advisory is the skimpiest we have ever seen. Why? Cuba still might be the safest destination to be in the Americas, but that's not saying much is it? Both my friend and I (and an informal survey pointed to over 70% of the tourists) were subject to daring robberies by some very skilled "jintero's" (our advice: please do NOT give rides to anyone - other than old people or women with small children - especially if crossing the circumference of metro Havana going from A1 to A4 highway). We never thought it would happen to two skilled travelers - but it did. As our informal survey indicates, our later conversation with many travelers indicated many who had been robbed, mugged, conned, etc. during their travels and almost all agreed to have let their guards down due to the lax coverage of security by the authors. In future editions of LP Cuba, PLEASE do not call "jintero's" as charming Cubans who need to be told off and do not write that the best solution is to become friends with one! Perhaps the author's personal experience(s) with a "jintero" clouded their ability to make rational judgements? "Jintero's" are EXTREMELY dangerous!
   
   Furthermore, the authors fails to point out the many tourist traps in most of the tourist towns - especially in Trinidad.
   
   3/ Biased Interpretation of Bureaucracy -
   
   Why is their no comprehensive section which deals with the level of bureaucracy and corruption that each tourist must face while vacationing in Cuba? In our experience, we were stunned at the need to pay bribes at the airport, at the car rental place (our advice: please plan from before and avoid the Transtur car rental agency in Copacabana Hotel near Miramar or going through Canadian agent A. Nash Travel Inc. in Ontario). After our robbery, we spent many hours in a police station trying to get a report done but it seemed that no one was willing to help. After having spoken to more than 10 officers over the period of 2 days, our report miraculously appeared when a $10 bill was slipped between our passports. I mean, don't get us wrong - from extensive traveling and by the virtue of one of the letter writers being from India, we KNOW bureaucracy and corruption - but Cuba took the game to a whole new level. Again for some reason, the authors were completely off the mark.
   
   4/ General Info, Maps, Prices, Numbers, Layouts -
   
   Prices go up; inflation is a part of daily lives. But how do you explain almost 200% price hikes between what's printed and the reality? These numbers are especially depressing given a/ this edition was hot off the press b/ the official inflation was running below 5-10% band c/ we traveled in low season and the prices listed were for high season. Our hunch that the authors never actually checked the prices and conduct the required background work was confirmed as we asked all the places we stayed at and NONE had the authors visit them in over 4 years!
   
   Worse than prices are phone numbers and access codes. I challenge the authors to call the numbers in the book - I am willing to buy them a plane ticket if calling the numbers gives the right destination more than 50% of the time. I know that's a low expectation rate to give someone a plane ticket, but that is exactly how inaccurate this guide is. E.g. try calling the numbers in Cayo Santa Maria. We asked the Department of Telecommunication if there had been any recent systematic changes in the telephone numbers and they answered in the negative.
   
   Outside these 2 main sub thematic issues, the maps in LP Cuba were highly inaccurate. One of our favourite reminders of Cuba was coming across many tourists at major junctions looking at the maps from LP Cuba trying to make some sense. Another was when we were driving through Santa Clara for one hour in search for a recommended wellness/massage place that does not exist anywhere close to where it is marked on the map (actually, none of the Cubans we have been asking has ever heard of the place). Furthermore, the new layout made it VERY hard to find things. Please go back to the old layout - it made more sense. I don't know if other readers had gripes but it was very complex going back and forth as opposed to the ease of the last format.
   
   Our hope from this letter is to encourage Lonely Planet to conduct a systematic review of their guide to Cuba. Moreover, it is to remind to LP that irrespective of their disclaimers, tourists do depend on them and basic expectations warrant the authors to conduct thorough investigations before sending a book to print. If there are any other questions, both of us are available via the internet to answer them. We sincerely hope LP takes our feedback into consideration and incorporates them into the next edition of its travel guide to Cuba.
   
   
   Warm Regards,
   MO, AD



5. Cuba is a fascinating country with a socio-political system all its own. Things also change rapidly, especially in the big urban centres such as Havana so it must be a difficult place to write a guidebook for.
   
   Lonely Planet seems to give their writers pretty clear rein when it comes to putting down their thoughts on paper regarding travel in whichever locale. This can lead to sections of illuminating wisdom. Often however the smug, ever so friendly, bantering style of their correspondents makes me wonder if one could survive a week in their company without belting them one.
   
   The Cuba guide doesn't fall into this category although a couple of the 'yeah baby' style sentences could do with being edited out. The information is generally accurate apart from currency and prices, then again this must be hard to get right in a country like Cuba where the economy operates on multiple levels. The maps at least broadly correspond to the actual terrain (not always the case in LP guides) and there are helpful sections on things like how to deal with Jineteros (a persistent problem for travellers to Cuba) and purchase cigars.
   
   My main gripe about the contents of the book was that there wasn't enough in it. For every decent bar or casa particular listed, there were several more that weren't, especially in Havana. I know Cuba is a small country, but it contains so much that a longer guide wouldn't be excessive.
   
   Overall, not bad, but a new edition is due out soon and for the time being travellers to Cuba may consider purchasing something more recent.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Bahamas, Turks and Caicos.

1. This guide actually covers the out islands of the Bahamas with detailed coverage. The guide has most every place in the Bahamas covered down to the grains of the sandy beaches.



2. Excellent maps. More budget minded then most guide books. Gives actual prices for hotels, not just $ signs. Easy to read, and honest evaluations. Gives ideas of ways to cut costs. Full coverage of all islands, including out islands. Complement with one other guide and you'll be complete. Site coverages basic, but real use information such as days, times, how to get there.



3. Found the book useful as a starting point. Complete, thorough. Interesting tidbits. But when it came down to actually scheduling trips and tickets, I found out that most of the information was already out of date.

   BahamasAir wasn't familiar with the AirPass, so I had to fax them the section where the author cattily railed on them. All they had to say was "interesting."

   The suggested weekend and week trips were a little sketchy as well. In fact, when I had acutally arrived, I never used the book because of the terrific tourist infrastructure already in place.

   Overall, I felt the author was a little harsh on his take with Bahamian culture, keeping a good sense of humor but almost crossing the line of offensive in some places.

   People should remember that these tour books are a subjective peephole into their place of destination, and should always keep an open mind to discover for themselves.

   I had a great time there.




4. This is one of the best travel guides that I have read. I thought the political information about the Bahamas was really interesting. Just the level of detail--which is probably too much if you're just cruising to Nassau--but it really explains a lot about why things are the way they are in the Bahamas. I dont really use the Lonely Planet guides while on vacation because you dont need that much information. However they really help a lot when you are reasearching a destination.



5. I am usually a fan of Lonely Planet, but having just returned from Grand Bahama, I would not recommend this guide. Published in 2001, which means it was researched before that, it is quite out of date given the tough post 9/11 economy. Examples: Running Mon Resort- closed. Hydroflora gardens- closed. Rand Nature Center- closed. Many retailers- closed, moved, renamed, etc. Restaurant prices - way out of date.

   Some of this is just irritating, but some is more dangerous- eg. LP suggests that, to get to Water Cay you drive the 'dirt road' to the 'north dock' and hire a boat from a local. Do it their way, and you may be a lot lonelier than you bargained for: That dirt road takes 45 minutes on a rutted logging road, lots of forks, no signs, and there is no dock- just a narrow ramp and a couple abandoned cars. High tide there swamps a good 2-300 yards of the shoreline. Time to do a new edition, guys!

   I thought the maps provided were inadequate. For some reason, LP takes the trouble to make a map of Downtown Freeport with some of the restaurants (including a Burger King!?!) and attractions located and numbered, but they don't put the map number with the review! Add that to the Bahamian's indifference to street address numbers, street signs.
   
   Conclusion: Not up to LP's usual standards. Though useful for background information, be prepared to check everything by phone or on the web before you depart. Or skip the guide and start with the web...

3 comments about Guide to Caribbean Family Vacations (National Geographic Guide to Caribbean Family Vacations Includes the Islands and Coastal Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, and Honduras).

1. This book is a wonderful guide to the Caribbean.........It covers everything any family would want to know when visiting the Caribbean. Several ideas presented in the book were helpful on our recent vacation. I have several of Ms Stapen's books and have found them all to be quite informative and worthwhile.!!!!!!!!!!



2. I bought this book for the cool little section on Costa Rica. it was fine. I brought this along with the photo essay book "Costa Rica : The Last Country the Gods Made." Had a great time!



3. Book was informative. The lack of any critical ratings, reviews or "best lists" was disappointing. This is the reason why I buy travel books.

No comments about Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots, & Graffiti from the US/Mexico Border.

2 comments about Planning the Past: Heritage Tourism and Post-Colonial Politics at Port Royal.

1. What does history mean in practice? We know that it is not something fixed and eternal, but changes generation by generation as we reinterpret it in the light of our own needs and experiences. Waters examines a historic community, the village of Port Royal, across the harbour from Jamaica's capital, Kingston, and considers how different plans for developing tourism -- none of which have come to fruition -- have sought to use the town's history as a selling point. Along the way, she notes an important distinction between European and North American perceptions of pirates and those of black Jamaicans.



2. Port Royal is a sleepy little village of about 1200 people lying on a spit of sand at the entrance to the harbor in Kingston, Jamaica. It is also one of the most historic places in the West Indies. Port Royal became the center for piracy in the Caribbean in the late 17th century, with the encouragement of the British Crown. It is often said to have been the "richest" and "wickedest" city in the world when, in 1692, it was sudden swallowed up in large measure by the sea in a catastrophic earthquake. Afterwards, Port Royal was rebuilt as the center for British naval operations in the Caribbean, with Horatio Nelson serving briefly there as a young man.
   
   Port Royal has considerable potential for "heritage tourism" - that is, people will come to visit it for its historical importance - and heritage tourism is growing rapidly around the world today. This is particularly important for Jamaica, as its economy is increasingly dependent on tourism.
   
   This short book is an ethnographic and archival study of seven failed plans since 1965 to develop Port Royal as a heritage tourism destination. It raises interesting and important questions about how we remember the past, and why. Various interest groups have presented alternative interpretations of the past, highlighting the earthquake, British settlement, naval history, piracy, colonial architecture, and archaeology. What about the black majority of the island? Are they to be invisible, historically? Is the heritage project for largely black Jamaicans or for largely white tourists? Is it for cruise ship passengers or for Jamaican school children? Can it be for everyone?
   
   One topic of discussion that will be of particular interest to many is piracy. Why are Americans so enamored of pirates these days? If you read any scholarly study of pirates, you will find that they were loathsome outlaws. Jamaicans see them as despicable criminals who laid the foundation for the white colonial, slave-holding planter aristocracy. The author, a sociologist, sees pirates as a symbol of "unbounded white privilege," representing "freedom from rules." The history of the Caribbean is largely a story of individuals, corporations, and colonizing nations seeking to enrich themselves, by hook or by crook, to the tune of much human misery and suffering. In the words of one famous calypso, it was "capitalism gone mad." How and why do we memorialize that?

No comments about AAA Essential Barbados, 4th Edition (Aaa Essential Barbados).

2 comments about The Turks & Caicos Islands: Beautiful by Nature.

1. If you live in the Islands, you've probably already seen a copy of Phil and Julia's beautiful book, and l hope you've already bought a copy or two. For those who have not seen it yet, I urge you to search it out. Except for Bertie Sadler's historical survey of our country, Turks Island Landfall, this book is the first major publishing effort that focuses on the Turks & Caicos Islands exclusively.

   Primarily a photo-essay, Beautiful by Nature is held together by the impressively astute and coherent narrative that outlines the entire history of the Turks & Caicos Islands.

   Chapter One starts in the far geologic past. We are introduced to the millennia-long formation of the shallows, reefs, and sand flats that preceded the final emergence of our Island platforms. Chapter Two is a brief and readable short course in Island biogeography. We learn how the first signs of life came to these brand new Islands in the form of windblown seeds, migrant birds from north and south, and wave- washed, castaway snails, lizards, and snakes.

   Finally, Chapter Three brings us to our Islands' human populations. In concise historical sketches, the authors outline the successive migrations that have populated these Islands and how these populations have impacted the land: Taino Indians from the south, Bermudian saltrakers from the north, and British Loyalists from North America. Chapter Four covers the Turks & Caicos Islands as we know them today. There is a section on the Salt Islands of Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos with their colonial charm and laid-back feel. The modern development of Providenciales is highlighted in another. And the final chapter is an outline of the country's plans for the future and a plea that the ever- quickening pace of modern development doesn't catch the Islands off-guard.

   Buy this book. Buy it for the stunning photographs and Julia's charming illustrations. It's well worth it. But please, read it, too. The Davies' love for the Turks & Caicos Islands is obvious. And their ability to share it with us in beautiful pictures and well-chosen words is a gift.




2. Do you ever experience that feeling of "goosebumps" running up and down your body when something - an emotion, a work of art, a courageous act - deeply moves you? That is how I felt when Julia & Phil Davies showed me a preview copy of their new book, Turks and Caicos Islands - Beautiful by Nature. I had previously been given the opportunity to read the copy, which itself is an awesome compilation of facts and information about the natural history and heritage of these Islands. However, the combination of the well-researched text, Phil's spectacular photography and Julia's meticulous drawings of selected species tremendously impressed me. Finally, in one comprehensive and beautiful publication, TCI-philes will be able to learn all about the country's magical wonders and how they came to be.

   The 176 page, over-sized hardcover book includes 182 color photographs from all around the Islands and 60 hand-drawn illustrations. The lively chapters lead readers from the land and reef's formation through detailed descriptions of marine, bird, animal and plant life to Islanders' sea-based heritage and how recent change and development has affected Turks & Caicos culture. Besides serving as a one-of-a-kind resource for visitors and residents, the book seems destined to be used as an educational text in local schools.

   Julia and Phil spent two years in the Turks & Caicos researching the book and shooting the photos and another two years writing the text, completing the drawings and designing the layout. Their creation is truly a life's masterpiece and stunning tribute to the Islands.

1 comments about Knopf MapGuide: Havana (Knopf Mapguides).

1. It's hard to get much out of this book, which is really a street guide to the various districts in Havana, until you actually get down there. And even then, there is so much to see and feel, you don't really feel like looking at a book.

1 comments about San Juan: Memoir of a City (THE AMERICAS).

1. Ably translated into English by Peter Grandbois (Assistant professor of English at California State University, Sacramento) and provided with an informative Foreword by Antonio Skarmeta, "San Juan: Memoir Of A City" by Edgardo Rodriguez Julia is a combination travel guide and memoir of Puerto Rico's capital city. More than just a guidebook for tourists, "San Juan" presents a personalized perspective on the city's history and culture by a gifted author who has created a unique work of literary merit as he describes everything the city has to offer from cockfighting clubs and smoke-filled bars, to cabarets and street traffic. The reader is vividly introduced to a living city conflicted with its colonial past juxtaposed with aspirations for a 'commercial future'. Also available in a hardcover edition (9780299203702, $45.00), "San Juan" is rewarding and highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in this fascinating, complex, colorful, and sometimes contradictory city.

No comments about Diving and Snorkeling Guide to Roatan & Honduras' Bay Islands (2nd ed).