Travel guidebooks: Choosing the one that’s just right

My Cuba travel companions and I accomplished the ultimate travel guidebook experiment during the first week of our travels. We each decided to bring a different Cuba guide with us to test which guidebook reigned supreme (kind of like the Iron Chef: Cuba). I was never a good science student, so I apologize for the rudimentary experiment form that follows…

Objective:
To identify the guidebook that provides the most comprehensive and useful information for travelers to Cuba.

Participants and their respective materials (guidebooks):
Lora – Lonely Planet Cuba by Brendan Sainsbury
Frank – Frommer’s Guide to Cuba by Susan Boobbyer
Peter – The Rough Guide to Cuba by Matthew Norman & Fiona McAuslan
Brenda – Moon Handbook Cuba by Christopher P. Baker

Procedure:

1. Carry each book with us every day while sightseeing in Havana for one week in April 2009. (I unfortunately didn’t bring my Moon Handbook with me to Cuba, but have since browsed through it carefully. The other three we humped everywhere. Only the Havana sections were thoroughly utilized, as well as general tips for other destinations such as Trinidad.)
2. Identify travel guidebook components and assessment criteria.
3. Use assessment criteria to rank the usefulness and/or accuracy of the guidebook components.

Hypothesis:
Before the trip, most participants’ top guidebook choice was Lonely Planet. Personally, I permanently dissed Lonely Planet when I was writing for Viva Travel Guides in Colombia last year and found out that LP’s Colombia guidebook writer, Thomas Kohnstamm, researched his book (with LP’s consent) from the States. Despite these sentiments, I suspected we would likely discover that, while LP’s information would be quite useful, it would also be the most used guidebook in Cuba, thereby making it an overexposed travel resource.
Assessment
What follows is our assessment of the important guidebook components.

  • Author: There’s really no doubt about the most experienced Cuba author in the bunch. Moon’s Christopher P. Baker has been traveling to Cuba for nearly 20 years — once by motorcycle. And he’s met Fidel Castro. (Read my “Talking Travel” post with him HERE).
  • Country overview and history: Lonely Planet always does a fantastic job with the informational section to country guides, and this one is full of well-written, helpful history and facts.
  • Suggested itineraries: LP’s Brendan Sainsbury also puts together some really original trip ideas like “Roads less traveled” and “Bird-watchers dream.” However, the one problem with these is their length. Sainsbury has several trips of up to two months, but tourist visas expire after 30 days.
  • Maps: Lonely Planet, hands down. Their maps are not only accurate but extremely handy.
  • Accurate information: Moon Handbooks is chock full of accurate and insightful info. Spot-on addresses, up-to-date phone numbers, and exact hours of operation are all there.
  • Size: Frommer’s Cuba is the lightest and most travel friendly. It’s not realistic to carry around a hunking travel guide like the Rough Guide to Cuba or Moon Cuba.
  • Cuba-specific issues we encountered: The casas particulares information in all of the books just aren’t useful — the reason being that casas, with their two-guestroom per night limit, can easily become full.
  • Online tools and information: Moon Cuba has the richest online resource, with information drawn from Baker’s guidebook as well as a cool blog updated by Baker himself. Be aware, however, that Internet is expensive in Cuba (US$8 per hour). Do your research ahead of time, and leave your time there for travel.

Conclusion
Based on Christopher P. Baker’s wealth of experience in Cuba, Moon is a sure thing. Sainsbury’s Lonely Planet Cuba is also a rich and trusty companion. Frommer’s Cuba, though the most recently updated (in January 2009), provided the most basic travel and destination info. We didn’t use the Rough Guide to Cuba at all; it was unjustifiably heavy and difficult to follow.

I think it’s worth mentioning that too many people carry the Lonely Planet guidebook around — not just in Cuba but around the world. In Cuba, it’s the only one I saw in at least five different languages (the content is the same). While useful, Lonely Planet is suffering from a unfortunate hipster effect: the same restaurants, hotels, and sights are becoming overrun by “budget backpackers,” and travelers are relying too heavily on LP-specific travel tips and suggestions.

Cuba is a really easy place to travel without a guidebook, but few tourists are willing to trust themselves and explore the place emptyhanded.

Please keep in mind that this experiment was based purely on our experience using Cuba guidebooks in Cuba and that our collective experience using these guidebooks should be taken as lightly or seriously as you deem worthy.

Moon Travel Guides enjoys a handsome facelift

My brother-in-law, Jason Salter, has been working long hours for Five Paths, his web developing company, updating the website for Moon Travel Guides for over a year now. His hard work has paid off, and Moon was so pleased with the results that Gadling recently heard from a Moon representative alerting us to the latest changes and features on its new (and quite modern) online look.

Redeveloping an already existing site was quite complicated, but Jason reports that about 10,000 pages of content were added to Moon’s website, and it will grow exponentially in the near future to about 100,000 pages of online travel information, which is fantastic news for online travel information seekers.

On the new Moon website, there are now full descriptions of all published Moon books, which are easily searched by using the blue “Find Books” widget. Jason also tells me there is deep content for select books. Destinations in Central and South America are particularly well-developed, but Jason assures me that an increasingly larger number of books and sections are already being built.

If you don’t like searching for information based on the destination, you can also search for content based on activities using the “Find Activities” widget. This is a great search tool for someone like myself, as I’m always on the lookout for awesome surf spots in the world!

There are Q&A pages for authors of selected books, and maps for those books. Finally, Moon is hoping its readers can correspond with the authors through their author blogs.

Unlike Lonely Planet, which has been slow to move its content online, Moon appears to be fully embracing the world wide web, and I’m sure its readers are grateful.

Don’t miss the sky this Christmas!

I’ve always loved watching the sky, looking out for constellations, spotting the North Star and looking for Mars. Having lived in Dubai for a while, I had the opportunity to see amazingly clear and starry skies — ones only possible to see in the desert.

On that note, in case you haven’t caught the news already: today and tomorrow, the Moon and Mars will be the brightest and closest ever to the Earth.

The moon will be the highest-ever and 98% full, and Mars will be aligned with the Sun and the Earth so you will be able to see its full-face lit-up. They say it’s the first time in 47-years that we are able to see this and it’s unlikely to happen again until 2023.

Also, if you go out right after sunset tomorrow night, you are bound to see satellites and some shooting stars. So if you were wondering how to spend a perfect evening this Christmas Eve, you might want to get your binoculars out and add this to your list.

Happy Holidays!

One for the Road: Moon Belize

Moon has released updated editions of several Central American titles this fall. We’ve mentioned their Guatemala and Costa Rica handbooks already, and will highlight another new release today:

Joshua Berman’s Moon Belize has been nominated for Planeta’s Book of the Year award for “best place-based guidebook.” Moon has a special web-only Q & A with Josh, who has spent ten years touring and leading trips around Central America. And we’ve got some insider info from the knowledgeable author as well. Today, November 19, holds special significance for the people of Belize. In his own words, Joshua Berman tells us why:

Settlement Day – the annual reenactment of the Garinagu people’s 1823 arrival on Belizean shores – is one of the rowdiest, raging-est parties of the year in Belize. At least it is in Garinagu (also known as Garifuna) communities up and down the coast.


The biggest party, most bands, and longest drumming binges are found in Dangriga. Smaller-scale celebrations occur in Belize City, Hopkins, and Seine Bight. Festivities start on the night of the 18th, climaxing at dawn when palm be-fronded wooden dories are rowed to shore. Crowds greet the boats’ arrival with drums, dance, and alcohol and then everybody parades through town to a Church, a house party, or to the taco cart by Stann Creek Bridge.


You’ll have a difficult time finding lodging in Dangriga during the week preceding and after Settlement Day, since so many expat Garinagus from Chicago and New York book their holiday a year in advance. But you may get lucky, and if you can convive all night with the locals (as they will be doing several nights in a row), you won’t need a room anyway.

It someone hands you a shot of clear, strong-smelling liquor, it’s probably “bitters,” also called gífit. This cherished nectar of the Gods is good for what ails you: from cancer to romance. As one of Dangriga’s most famous homebrewers, Big Mac said to me from behind his counter, “It’s good for your penis, mon!”

One for the Road: Two new Costa Rica guides from Moon

Earlier this fall Moon released two updated guides to Costa Rica. The 6th edition of the handbook to Costa Rica was written by veteran travel writer Christoper P. Baker, an expert on both Costa Rica and Cuba. Baker won the 2006 Lowell Thomas Award for best guidebook for a previous edition of this book. At 650 pages, the latest version is bursting with valuable tips about traveling through this tropical jewel.

Another recent release is Moon’s second edition of Living Abroad in Costa Rica, written by Erin Van Rheenen, a writer who has lived abroad in Nigeria, Ireland, Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala. She now spends time in both Costa Rica and California. One of Erin’s favorite things about CR: fresh squeezed o.j. costs about $.35 from a streetside cart. More information can be found at her website.

Guidebook publisher Moon was recently named Best Travel Series of the year by the ALA’s Booklist.