Insight Guides Guatemala, Belize And the Yucatan ... (ISBN 9812583440)

Insight Guides Guatemala:
Great photos, excellent culture and history overview, highlights important sites ... the entire series by Insight Guides is the best. Don't leave home without one!

Great if you never plan on actually going to Guatemala....:
This book is filled with beautiful pictures and some semi-informative history and background on the region. However, it is utterly useless as an actual travel guide. Information on where to stay, recommended eateries, and transportation options is limited to 34 pages at the end of a 388 page book, of which 10 pages are devoted to Guatemala, 10 pages to Belize, and 14 to Mexico's Yucatan. The lovely pictures and brief background information might serve to sway a wavering would-be traveler, but add 3 or so pounds of deadweight on to the actual journey. The real title of the book should be "The Insight Oversized Travel Brochure of Photos of Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan". We started the trip with only this unwieldy paperweight in our packs, and a day later, were standing on the shores of Lago Atitlan dumbfounded; not simply by the spectacular beauty surrounding us, but by the simple fact that we were standing there at all, fed, clothed, and housed, not a single facet of which was due to this bundle of paper useful primarily as fuel for a fire (though, if you in fact did so, the toxic fumes from the chemical-coated pages could probably kill you). We rushed to the local bookstore to pay gringo prices for Lonely Planet's "Central America on a Shoestring"; this guide actually made it possible for the journeys to follow.