If you are unsure whether it is Bolivia, Brazil, Belize or Costa Rica that provides the sort of thing that you are looking for, this book will help you to decide. Beginning with an exhaustive introduction to planning your trip and ensuring that it is a success, the book then provides a very brief guide to each country, detailing the highlights. Once you have taken this on board, you will be ready to plan your first Latin American trip.

Most of the information is detailed and accurate (although people may struggle to survive on 25 US dollars a day in Uruguay). The book will not be of much use to seasoned travellers or to people who are actually on the ground, but it does provide useful pointers to those who want to go to Latin America but do not know where to start. Once it has been digested, the South American Handbook or the Mexico & Central America Handbook--the best overall guides to the continent--should be the next ports of call. --Toby Green