No comments about The Rough Guide to Costa Rica 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

No comments about Surfers Guide to Costa Rica.

No comments about Fodor's See It Costa Rica, 2nd Edition (Fodor's See It).

No comments about Insight Map Costa Rica (Fleximap).

4 comments about Choose Costa Rica for Retirement, 7th: Information for Retirement, Investment, and Affordable Living (Choose Retirement Series).

1. Before deciding to retire there, read "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made."



2. This is an excellent guide for folks who want to live in Costa Rica either on a part time or full time basis. Good advice about real estate, investments, how to find new friends, great places to go.



3. When trying to choose a country for retirement, this is one of John Howells's best books. He gives the reader comprehensive information, sensible advice and encouragement. We will refer to it again and again while in the process of moving.



4. This book has everyhting you can possibly look for in a book and more. I never found so much information in one book. I would recommend this book to everyone...

2 comments about Costa Rica Travel Map (Globetrotter Travel Map).

1. We took busses and planes while in Costa Rica. This was a good map for planning our itenerary and making final decisions. You still need to converse with locals and bus schedules etc while there. taxi drivers were good sources as well.
   
   Look for a better map of San Jose if you plan to stay more than a couple of days. Lots to see there if you want. We rode the busses all over and the drivers were good at dropping you at odd places or picking you up if you flagged them down.



2. This map is very large and as such has a lot of detail on it. The map is well marked and very easy to read. It does not have as many tourist location marks on it (i.e. where things you want to see are located). For that I recommend the Insight FlexiMap. I would recommend getting both maps: one map for details and one for specific locations.

3 comments about Earl's Big Adventure in Costa Rica.

1. A lot of children's literature is kind of limited in scope, in terms of the culture and demographic it portrays. This book has a really nice message about cultural diversity. For kids who are just beginning to come into contact with other cultures through travel, it's a great story about learning how to accept and participate in things that are new and different. It's particularly good for kids who will be going to Costa Rica, of course: it deals with lots of nice aspects of the local culture, and even has bits of Spanish to learn.
   Really a nice addition to any kiddie library, especially in terms of introducing them to other cultures.



2. I bought the book because I know the Author. We worked together for a short time. He would talk about all of his adventures surfing in all these far away places and his experiences. So I thought it would be great to read his book. I thought it was great. The wonderful colorful illustrations followed the story wonderfully. The story kept your interest waiting to see what would happen next. The language was kept simple to read and follow by younger kids. I read it to my little cousin who is 10 and he really enjoyed it. He was asking all kinds of questions about surfing when we were done...This book helped him to look at a new sport and want to find out more about it...That is wonderful....
   
   Hanna, Keep up the great work....
   
   Marie



3. Great book, story about young children traveling outside the US. I learned some spanish!

5 comments about Costa Rica: The Ecotravellers' Wildlife Guide (Ecotravellers Wildlife Guide: Costa Rica).

1. If you really consider yourself to be an "ecotraveller" then you will be greatly disappointed by the limited information provided in the book.
   
   The attractive title "Ecotravellers Wildlife Guide" had me sold. Unfortunately this book is not for ecotravellers, but for the novice wildlife observer. This book is very elementary and is very limited in the variation of species of birds and reptiles listed. As for the mammals, the book was sufficient.
   
   I just returned from my trip to Costa Rica 3 days ago and I had more than one of my wildlife tour guides criticize this book for its lack of information. It was so frustrating to see gorgeous birds and lizards everywhere and not be able to find hardly any of them within the book. Costa Rica has 1600 species of birds, so it is understandable that many birds would go unmentioned. Unfortunately, this book does not even scratch the surface of the diversity of birds found in this amazing country. While on my trip I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a book from my tour guide so that I could go out bird-watching. The book I borrowed was fabulous and it was called "A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica" by F. Gary Stiles & Alexander F. Skutch. (highly recommended)
   
   I hope this information is helpful and best of luck on your trip!



2. I took this book with me to Costa Rica so that I could spot and identify commonly-seen birds and wildlife there.

   The first part of the book contains an overview about Eco-traveling that could have been summarized a bit more. The book conveniently places details about wildlife in the center of the book, and puts the illustrations in the back so that you can do faster lookups.

   Although I appreciate the emphasis on Eco-travel, I found this book rather disappointing when used as a reference. Some of the birds I saw more than once were not listed at all. There are few illustrations of what the birds look like in flight and there is little about age- or gender-based differences in appearance. Also, although the wildlife coverage is fairly good for reptiles and amphibians, there is very little about marine or plant life.

   I'm still relatively new to birding, but if I could do it again, I would have paid the additional cost and bought the Stiles and Skutch book.... If you're not a bird watcher and you're just looking for a basic 'wild life' identifier, I would suggest skipping the book, and instead, buying one of those laminated 'bird/wildlife identification' cards that you can find for about $10 in many of the visitor-oriented shops around Costa Rica.




3. This book provides a fascinating, well-written and often humorous overview of Costa Rican natural history as well as a detailed description of the most often seen wildlife. I cannot overstate how much this book enhanced my trip to Costa Rica and gave me a greater understanding of what I was seeing. It is not exhaustive, but unless you want to carry multiple, subject-specific books with you, this is the one to bring. It had information on virtually every bird and creature I saw there.



4. This guide has got three sections: an introduction to the neotropical ecosystems, a description of families of animal, and a section with pictures, for purposes of identification.
   The second section is for people who are willing to dig deeper into this stuff, the first section gives a good introduction into Casta Rica and it's ecology.
   To shallow for professionals, to deep for absolute beginners (only the last section will appeal to them), but very good stuff for the informed layman!



5. For 30% less of the cost of this book, you could (as I did) pick up a superior book that details the history of conservation in the country's diverse geographical zones (seacoasts, prairies, jungles and volcanic highlands). That book is "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made."

2 comments about Fodor's Costa Rica 2007 (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1. This book really helped in reagrds to restaurants, hotels, activites, etc. But, there are a lot of great activiteies that are not listed in the book. While in Costa Rica, be sure to talk to locals and make your own favorite spots.



2. My husband and I traveled to Costa Rica for two weeks in March 2007. We had previously purchased the Fodor's Costa Rica 2005 (which we took with us on our trip) but also checked out Fodor's 2007, Lonely Planet, and Frommers from the library before our trip. We realized when we compared the books that Fodor's fell short in many aspects - this realization was re-emphasized when we got to Costa Rica and everyone had the Lonely Planet guide except us. The Fodor's guide lacks detail - the lack of photos is disappointing and only a few of the places we stayed at or ate at during our trip (and loved!) were even in the book and others that were highly recommended shouldn't have been.
   
   Two other items that we got for our trip were the Costa Rica Traveler's Wildlife Guide by Les Beletsky and the Costa Rica waterproof International Travel Map (we rented a car). Both of these resources were wonderful and we highly recommend them!

No comments about Costa Rica, 2nd (Footprint - Travel Guides).