Job Discussion Forums

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Which guidebooks do you usually use?

hlamb · Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Posts: 431 Location: Canada

I prefer Let's Go because I like the layout better. But LP has far better listing and maps. It's a compromise for me. I used Rough Guide once for France but didn't like it. However, I've seen it for Mexico and it's pretty good.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I prefer Let's Go as well..I find it more practical. Have copies for USA/Canada (don't ask), Mexico, and Ecuador/Peru. They are woefully out of date though.

Aramas · Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:16 pm Post subject:

Do the 'Let's Go' guides lapse into that peculiarly American form of comparitive description that sees the world exclusively through American eyes? ie Country X is about half the size of Utah, Mont Y looks like a lopsided version of Mount McKinley, National Park Z is Country X's answer to Yellowstone, etc..

As a 'foreigner' I find that sort of thing not only uninformative, but also quite irritating. Most US travel books I've attempted to read were riddled with it.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Aramas · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:35 am Post subject:

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

So what should they do instead?

MikeySaid · Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 509 Location: Torreon, Mexico

Aramas · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject:

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Pennypacker1 · Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 23 Location: Caracas, Venezuela!

Good grief people!!

Don't usually post on such frivolous time-wasting matters but I really must take issue with anoyone buying a Let's Go guidebook! Last summer in Eastern Europe left me with an eternal hatred for that group of euro-phile ivy league twats! I should have read the biographies of the contributors before stealing it (joke!, 5 bucks would have been a rip off).

"Susan Chang was born in NYC to a Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist and an Armenian neurosurgeon. Currently completely a triple degree in comparative literature, pure mathematics and ancient hebrew at Stanford University, she fell in love with Bulgaria during her Fulbright Scholarship to Sofia where she was actually elected Prime Minister on two successive occasions. In her spare time she likes to save endangered species and compete in Iron-Man events"

By the end of 4 months traipsing around Eastern Europe with that waste of space I was sick of their stupid intros 'From communist chic to funky bars where the beautiful people dance the night away, Bratislava has it all' to their naive political commentary 'this graveyard is a chilling reminder of how much these people still have to learn about democraacy, it is also about 3/8ths the size of Arlington National Cemetary'.

One other thing that particularly ****ed me off was the fact that anywhere south of the Hungarian border was tooo dangeerrrousss in 2004.. boo hoo

Anyway what probably made it worse was the face that I had just come from six months roughing it round Brazil with the frankly awesome Rough Guide and the Footprint for backup!!! sooo sweeeeet.

Just thinking about Let's Go makes me want to puke my guts out!

Hi to everyone in South America!

pollitatica · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 82

Well, saying how long it takes to get from one side to the other of the country is really not at all related to the size of it when you get into developing countries, which most, if not all, of Latin American countries are considered.

For example, I studied in Costa Rica for a semester in college. CR is about the size of West Virginia (and I really don't care if you know how big W. Virginia is, all you need to know is it's not that big. A couple of hours across it tops). Well, to go from San Jose to Arenal, which is under 100km, it takes 4 hours. If a guidebook just said "It takes 8 hours or whatever to get across the country," everyone would be extremely misleaded into thinking that CR is really a very large country when in fact it just has bad roads that wind up and down mountains.

MELEE · Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:33 pm Post subject:

I'm with penny, I also don't like Let's Go, but I haven't even looked at one since the early 90's. At that time the very thought of Stanford students made me sick, without even reading what they wrote.

I like LP for maps and how to get from X to Y. I like Insights for what to do and see, but of course can't afford to stay in the hotels they list. And Insight guides are worth keeping long after your trip. I was in Chile in 1993, I still pull down my Insights Guide Chile from the shelf and study the amazing photos while day dreaming of long gone student days. I have one for each country I've visited.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject:

I have never bough guide books much, but usually recieve a few every year from guests who buy them, travel latin america with them, then leave them in my apartment in order to have more room in their luggage to take stuff home.

I find the rough guide and lonely planet to be about as good as, or as bad as, each other. Which is to say that they are good sources of "what to see" information, and good GENERAL sources for how to get there, where to stay, where to eat, etc. But remember, these books aren't updated all that often, and counting of the restaurants, hostels, and anything else they tell you about rural latin america still existing would be too much to ask. There's just no substitute for talking to the locals.

About "half the size of Utah..." Travelling from the north to the south of Ecuador would take between 1 and 12 days, depending on weather conditions, road conditions, and political conditions. East to west is impossible to say, as the eastern border is deep in the jungle, where there are no roads, and the border itself is periodically disputed anyway. It's about the size of Nevada, though...

Or is that "about the size of England." How many "international" types are really any clearer on what that means? I run into far too many who are still unclear about "England" vs "the UK" etc...

Maybe "20% of the size of the Northern Territory in Australia?" Does this mean anything to a non-Aussie?

I'm not criticizing- just trying to point out that descriptions of size are difficult, and often audience specific.

Best,
Justin