I found it to be full of useful information presented in an easy to read and witty format.

Don't rely on it to give you full indepth information into each country in South America - for that you should invest in the individual guides - but for someone like me who visited a handful of countries and enjoyed swapping tips and details with other travellers it was perfect.


Very Handy   October 17, 2004
 18 out of 20 found this review helpful

I take issue with the previous critics. The writers have crammed in a lot of information into one book. Sure, the individual guides are better. However, most people don't have 100 quid to fork out for a whole Lonely Planet library. Also, how are you going to carry so many books with you when you're travelling? I'm in South America at the moment and this book has provided me with a lot of help. If you're going to stay in one country only then just get the guide for that one country. The Lonely Planet for Chile is especially good.


good place to start   January 9, 2004
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

I am far more positive than anyone else here it seems:
I used this book to get a better view of what the different south american countries have to offer. I did not expect a very thorough nor very detailed account of each individual country because it seems to me an impossible task to cramp a whole continent into a single book. So I agree with others that it is short on detail. But for me, not knowing much about any of the countries, it was and is an extremely helpful pointer to what each country has to offer in terms of nature, archeology and people, when the best time is to visit a certain country, how to travel through multiple countries or within a single nation and more. I now have a much more specific idea of where I would like to go (argentina or venezuala), and currently am simply looking on the internet and consulting more country-specific travel guides for more specific info. As to the style, it is very much like other LP guides (which I've used extensively in the past), lucid and very easy to navigate. Although with one that deals with an entire continent it pays to spend time on it; the info is condensed (an obvious example is los llanos, venezuela) so quickly glancing through the pages will make you miss a lot.
So if you want a thorough first glance into the south american continent, I'd most certainly recommend it.


Lonely Planet Guide to South America on a Shoestring   September 15, 2003
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I have just returned from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (15.09.03) following the Andean Route outlined in the 8th Edition. I found the guide book to be overly repetitive and too vague. The editing of the book, spliced together from various single country guides is appalling. Inaccuracies include; prices, time scales for travel (which are annoying but to be fair not Lonely Planets fault) and maps. Some maps showed museums, banks and ticket offices to be around the corner, across the street or on the next block from their actual locations. The net effect was many hours of frustration. I sometimes seriously wondered whether the reviewers had actually visited some of the places they wrote about. I found myself continually asking other travellers for a peek at their Footprint South American Handbook or Lets Go guides, both of which were far more accurate and detailed. I found the Footprint Guide in particular to have condensed, intelligently written information devoid of extraneous warnings and humour. Eventually, I abandoned the guide and used it only in situations where I could find no other source of information. A definite waste of money.


Useful if you run out of toilet paper...   July 25, 2000
 37 out of 39 found this review helpful

I agree with the other review here. This book is far too vague to be of good use, some of the places mentioned in the book did not even contain maps - the single most useful thing for any place you visit.

It omits so much other information (only giving you the places to stay and eat) that you miss out on so much of local interest - such as excellent hikes, ruins or other places to visit.

There's loads repeated (unnecessarily) for each country. I lost count of the number of times the book warns you to "watch your bags like a hawk at the bus station" - like you need reminding of that in *any* country. I think that the Dangers and Annoyances sections of all the countres should have been combined - it would probably save a few dozon pages.

In the end I abandoned it for an individual guide to Bolivia (unfortunatly the last place I was to visit) but I would recommend that you ignore this book and take individual guides and then sell/swap them when you leave each country. They may well be heavier and take up a bit more space, but it's *really* worth it!