Product Description

The acclaimed Backpacker's Bible to South America. Fisrt published in 1924, a living legend in travel publishing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #720200 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1584 pages

Review
"I carried the South American Handbook from Cape Horn to Cartagena and consulted it every night for two and a half months. I wouldn't do that for anything else except my hip flask." Michael Palin "The best travel guide in the world" Graham Greene "Amazingly detailed, updated every year and has good city maps. It has set the standard for South American guides since 1924." Minneapolis Star Tribune"

From the Publisher
Dear Fellow Traveller

Thank you for checking out the South American Handbook 2001. Footprint are an independent British publisher (based in Bath). We specialise in providing travellers with guidebooks that are second to none in terms of accuracy, recency and especially coverage. You will find that most of our guides are simply the most comprehensive available with in-depth information on history, culture and customs as well as practical travel information. Our major titles are updated ANNUALLY to ensure you have the best information to hand. If there are no reviews for this particular title we recommend you check out the reader reviews for the Peru and South American Handbooks which give a good flavour of how useful our guides are. You might like to know that we also publish Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico & Central America and Ecuador & Galapagos Handbooks and an extremely useful general guide to travelling: The Traveller's Handbook. Finally, whichever guidebook you choose, we would like t! o wish you an exciting, illuminating and above all enjoyable trip.

Best wishes
Footprint

About the Author
Ben has been the editor of the South American Handbook since 1989 and associate editor for many more years. In this role he has travelled to almost every corner of Latin America. He has a doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese Studies and has been writing about contemporary Iberian and Latin American affairs since 1980.

Customer Reviews

An Alternative to Lonely Planet
The Footprint guide definately gives the traveler a different itinerary than the typical Lonely Planet guided souls. Often, with the domination of Lonely Planet suggestions being taken by travelers, certain "Gringo trails" are forged and well trampled. Footprint gives the next best comprehensive review of traveling in South America, but makes the travler leave more to their own judgement instead of relying on a guide. I traveled with both my Footprint Guide and my partner's Lonely Planet. The LP is a better guide for nuts and bolts, but the prices are often inacurate because of the popularity increase, which rapidly rises prices in South America. But the Guide has its drawbacks. If you are extremely map based, then go with the LP. Footprint's maps are not nearly as good. Also, for specific suggestions on exactly what a traveler SHOULD do, LP is better. Bottom line is, if you can fit them both in, do it. Take the LP for those late night bus stops in a tiny southern Ecuadorian town, and take the Footprint for those days and nights when you want to make more judgements for yourself than the guidebook makes for you.

Less Budget Accommodations/Youth Hostels than 2003 Ed.
I am a budget backpacker. I owned and used the 2003 S.A. edition three years ago and must say that the 2007 S.A. edition is not as budget friendly when it comes to accommodations. I am in South America for 5 months and left the 2003 edition at home thinking that the 2007 edition would have the same listings along with new listings. Not so. For example, one of my favorite budget hostels in Argentina that still exists and was once in the book is no longer in it. When I asked the hostel why they are not in the 2007 Footprint book they said that one has to pay several hundred dollars to be in it these days. And that's just to have a few sentences about the place. I have just about found each city's budget accommodations (i.e. youth hostels) on the internet during this trip because the 2007 Footprint just doesn't cut it in this department.

Otherwise, the book does have good information in other areas. But I don't know if I'd be carrying this thick book all over the place for 5 months if I had known about its lack of budget accommodations listings.

Don't leave home without the Handbook!!
My wife and I relied primarily on the South American handbook, now in its 77th year (the longest-running travel guide in the English language, apparently) during a 3-month period of backpacking through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina not too long ago, and along with other information we gleaned from a variety of sources (i.e. fellow backpackers, some maps and other material I had gotten off the internet) it served us extremely well. However, I can understand why some people might consider the book to be difficult to use in the sense that there's almost too much information and not enough informed opinion/recommendations about what the authors think you SHOULD do. In many ways, this book is information overload, and not opinionated ENOUGH! Some of the fun of reading guide books, I have found in my many travels, is listening to someone who has a strong (as long as it is well-informed) opinion, and then seeing for myself what I think. Also, SOMETIMES it's a relief to be able to turn off my brain for a while and just have someone TELL me what to do if I've got, let's say, just 3 days in a particular city.

But, the bottom line is if you don't mind/prefer to think for yourself, are not particularly into listening to other people's suggested itineraries for you, and are willing to wade through the vast amount of material provided in this guidebook, then you will be richly rewarded with the Handbook, which is truly an amazing creation, and obviously a labor of love! It sometimes seems, for instance, like the Handbook has a detailed street map on every interesting (and even not-so-interesting) town in South America! Plus, listings of hotels/hostels and restaurants in numerous price ranges. Plus, "Places of Interest", listings of museums, information on excursions, local festivals, archeology, culture, language schools, laundramats, and just about everything else you could possibly need!

This book probably should not be the main reference for those wanting to travel first class all the way (or to be led by the hand), but for the budget traveler it's great (Lonely Planet is excellent as well, and would be a fine companion to the Handbook). Just be prepared to use your brain while wading through a veritable jungle of information on South America! Don't leave home without the Handbook!!