[.ca] Rough Guide Guatemala 3e (ISBN 1843534991)

The best guidebook I've used to date:
I just returned yesterday from 10 days in Guatemala and Belize and found the Rough Guide invaluable. I went with 7 friends and between us we had Lonely Planet's "Central America", Lonely Planet's "Guatemala" and Fodor's "Guatemala and Belize". The 2 of us carrying Rough Guide were in the most demand and we relied on it for all our housing and most of our eating recommendations. In addition, the book begins with 33 things you must see/do in Guatemala and we hit most of them. Housing: Finding a place to stay was not difficult, but in Guatemala the comfort can vary a lot even in the budget range. We were able to find clean, comfortable and affordable accomodations at all of our stops. I highly recommend the Hotel Santa Clara in Antigua which has a lovely courtyard and older colonial rooms (ours had a cute, decorative fireplace). All the pricings for accomodations were on target throughout our trip (with the Santa Clara coming in at about 17$ per person based on double occupancy). Depending on how much you want to "rough" it - a $5 difference can be a big one in Guatemala and we often reserved rooms at 2 places in each of our locations. If you are traveling in a smaller group or by yourself you probably don't even need to call ahead. Food: We used this book for many of our eating recommendations and it never failed to give us an idea of the type of food and quality to expect. History and Culture: The book was enjoyable to read and provided some good information on preparation, recent happenings as well as history. A little more info on Tikal would have been great - perhaps a walking tour guide - but there are other books available for that and the site is huge. Overall: I plan to use Rough Guide again in the future. After my less than desirable experience in Peru with Lonely Planet, as their descriptions are often flat and pricing out of date depite the "new" edition.

it's okay but....:
it would be nice to have more detailed information, such as prices for things and such. seems to be accurate so far, but isn't very detailed. i think i prefer lonely planet's guidebooks.

The best guide book for Guatemala:
I recently spent six weeks in Guatemala, and I was able to visit most sections of the country. Although the Rough Guide book was the only guidebook that I brought with me, I have looked through the lonely planet book quite a bit and also the guidebooks from the other travel publishers. I believe that the Rough Guide version is the best guidebook for Guatemala, hands down. I have read the book literally from cover to cover. I especially liked the commentary and general descriptions located throughout the book as well as all of the historical data in the back (which is actually a significant section of the book). Even when I was taking a chicken bus through a random section of the country I could find information any any given area or town along the way--housing, food, and cultural commentary. I've been told by others that the Lonely Planet edits out some places to see (such as Fuentes Georginas near Quetzaltenango). Rough Guide will just give you everything, even if the location is way off the beaten track. The only complaint I would have is that the author tends to be very socio-politically biased. For example, he dismisses the Eastern Highlands as a stronghold of right-wing politics...the ladinos acting like cowboys..."violent demonstrations of macho pride are common." I suppose this is why "your best bet is to travel directly to San Salvador by pullman" (rather than visit this aweful place of conservatism). I actually liked the Eastern Highlands.

Dissapointing:
While reading it at home it looked pretty complete and with good information. Once we were in Guatemala, I found that most of the places recommended were like the writer had not checked them himself or just written from what he had heard. I followed the writer's hints and checked it myself, like in some hotels I stayed. In some other cases, I found places that there were not included in the book and which should had been... Certainly the guide is not updated at all. Great dissapointment for such a highly rated book.

A recommended purchase for your trip to Guatemala:
My wife and I went to Guatemala in May of 2002. This is the only guide book we used and we were quite happy with it. In addition to information about various things to do (content was good and accurate) this book contains a lot of great extra information in the back such as chronology of the Maya, recent political history, explanations of indigenous culture, and recommended reading lists. Wow! The listing of hotels and places to eat was on target. The book has a pretty good section on Tikal too.