Favorite Guidebook Series for Mexico, Central & South America: Be sure to consider titles to Mexican, Central and South American destinations from the guidebook series we review on our Guidebook Series page. (You'll also find some helpful comments on the major guidebook series below.)
Click on series name below to read the review on the Guidebook Series page. Use link to series' Web site in our review for full list of titles currently available:
Karen Brown's Guides: A wonderful, long-established group of guidebooks to unique lodging choices throughout Europe, the U.S., Western Canada, and Mexico. Open Road series: A good quality, lesser-known series, which is great to use with major guidebooks to compare and contrast your selections.
And how about the major guidebook series? Our Web site does not focus on the major guidebook series, but we certainly do make use of these often excellent resources. Some brief comments should be useful: Depending on destination, for this region of the world we begin with a Fodor's guide (www.fodors.com/shop), a Moon Handbook (www.moon.com/booklist), and/or a Lonely Planet guide (www.lonelyplanet.com, then click on "online shop"). The South American Handbook in the Footprint series (www.footprintbooks.com) is also a classic and a good place to start--with the understanding that zeroing in on a guidebook covering less territory is a good idea when possible. Use several and compare/contrast. For the budget traveler, there are a number of guidebooks from Let's Go (www.letsgo.com) and the massive Central America on a Shoestring (including Mexico) and South America on a Shoestring from Lonely Planet (which also sells both books by the chapter as a PDF download--see link above). See additional comments on major guidebook series and on selecting from the guidebooks we review on our Choosing Guidebooks page.
Reviews of Favorite Guidebooks:
The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour, by Ruth Wright and Alfredo Zegarra, 192 pages, Johnson Books, revised edition, 2004
Haven’t seen the revised edition, but the original 2001 edition is an excellent choice for adding to your understanding of what you see at Machu Picchu. Even if you use a local guide to give a tour, this book will help you take home so much more. Both the authors are very knowledgeable about the site, especially its archeological aspects. In fact, Zegarra is a professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archeology at the University of Cusco nearby. The book includes a great many photos to assist your explorations. Very worthwhile. Back to Top
The People's Guide to Mexico, by Carl Franz and Lorena Havens, 560 pages, Avalon Travel Publishing, 13th edition, 2006
In 1989 we reviewed 6th edition of The People's Guide to Mexico for our book, Going Places: The Guide to Travel Guides--all of which means Carl and Lorena have been at this game for a very long time! Back then their book was published by John Muir Publications, most famous at that time as publishers of the classic VW repair manual, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Complete Idiot. The mention of a VW repair manual is not entirely an aside, because Carl and Lorena are definitely VW bus/camper-type people. If you are the laid-back-V-Dub type as well--or maybe someone who just longs to be adventurous on the cheap, this is your kind of book. What we said in our 1989 book is still relevant: "This is one of those rare books that combines consistently enjoyable prose with hard, practical facts. It's a pleasure to read sections such as "Car Repairs," "Health," and the "Tourist and the Law." Franz covers it all--transportation, camping, restaurants, hotels, and more--with an emphasis on traveling inexpensively. Rather than choosing specific lodging and restaurants, he gives a first-class primer on how to choose." That's the way to think about this guidebook--it's a How-to Guide of the highest quality. How to deal with red tape, how to change money, how to stay healthy, how to enjoy traditional fiestas, how to appreciate the cultural differences you will encounter. The occasional critic says the authors don't emphasize the inherent dangers in gallivanting around a poor country in your camper or on foot. You'll have to be the judge of that, but clearly, with over 40 years of experience imbedded in every page, this book represents the voice of experience (check out their Web site, www.peoplesguide.com, for more on these two lifetime travelers). We recommend it highly. For the adventurous types, this guidebook goes well with Lonely Planet Mexico (www.lonelyplanet.com -- click on "online shop") Back to Top
Costa Rica Guide, by Paul Glassman, 468 pages, Passport Press, 11th edition, 2003
Belize Guide, by Paul Glassman, 324 pages, Passport Press, 10th edition, 2003
Many years ago when we first were introduced to Belize, Paul Glassman's Belize Guide was one of the few reliable, helpful guides out there. He also had a very helpful guide to Guatemala at the time--another country of great interest to us. The printing was very basic, the cover a pale blue that reminded us of the old, traditional college test booklets,but the the material was oh so helpful--particularly his practical tips based on his years of travel in the region. The Costa Rica Guide later proved no exception. Since that time the number of major guides to Belize and Costa Rica has grown considerably. But Glassman's insights have remained helpful. We hadn't seen updated versions of his guidebooks in some while, but were pleased to discover recently that Paul is still at it some 30 years later. Hurray for small-press publications that survive that long! Do yourself a favor and combine these books with the 2007 updates of the Moon Handbooks for Belize and Costa Rica (www.moon.com/booklist)--that would be our first choice. Probably the simplest place to find Glassman's books is through his own Web site, paulglassman.com. Unfortunately we can't link you to it, since (for some inexplicable reason) it won't allow you to return to our site (and we want you to come back!) Back to Top
