Dec

15

Want to “Explore Costa Rica”?

December 15, 2007 | Tags: Local Business News, Tourism | Leave a Comment

Explore Costa Rica - 6th EditionThere’s so many guidebooks about Costa Rica - it’s difficult to pick one so we at The Talamanca News thought we’d share our insights with you. For the most part, the big titles, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Fodor’s, etc have pretty much taken over the market. But there are a couple of independents hanging on. One of them is Harry S. Pariser’s Explore Costa Rica, now in it’s 5th edition (copyrighted 2007 but with research done probably about a year ago).

Harry kindly sent me a copy of the book to review. One thing I’ll give this book is that it sure is comprehensive! While other guidebooks have, for example, covered Puerto Viejo by listing a dozen or so hotels in the area and a handful of restaurants, this book includes 26 hotels and 23 restaurants in Puerto Viejo alone, as well as listings in sections for Cahuita, Cocles, Punta Uva and Manzanillo.

This comprehensiveness could hopefully prevent “Lonely Planet Syndrome” where you arrive at what Lonely Planet describes as an “undiscovered treasure” only to discover that everyone is there already, the prices have gone up, the service has suffered and they’re still full! (Not that anyone in PV would boost their rates just because of a favorable mention in a guidebook!).  Of course, if you’re looking for strong opinions on where to stay or eat, this might not be your book, it mostly lays out what’s offered and let’s you make up your mind.

Unfortunately though the weak point of this book is that both the photos and maps are rather lacking as compared to the big fish in the guidebook pond. Rather than finding places on a map, you’ll mostly have to rely on descriptions of how to get there. Of course as anyone who’s every showed a map to a Tico and asked for directions based on the map knows, you might get better results with directions than with a map. (Tico directions are always given relative to other places which are well-known in the locale; the spatial sense of a map doesn’t seem to come across well).

If you want to grab a copy of the book for yourself, you can buy it direct from the publisher Manatee Press at what they promise is the best price on the ‘net, $20 including shipping (to the US, other destinations are more).