Product Description

Beyond the deserted beaches of the Nicoya Peninsula and the visceral heights of the Monteverde cloud forests lies the real Costa Rica – a land of delicate pathos, forthright purity and hard-won pacifism. Tromp through virgin rain forest – sighting poison-dart frogs and howler monkeys along the way – or simply explore the local lore and laid-back beach scene with this comprehensive guide.

Less Is More – expanded ecofriendly coverage and loads of volunteer and learning opportunities make traveling with a conscience easier than ever.

The Wild Side – spot your favorite rain forest dwellers – scarlet macaws, caimans and more – with our expert-written color wildlife section.

Gaps On The Map – lose yourself in the seldom-visited corners of this ecological powerhouse with informed do-it-yourself content and more than 80 maps.

Charge It! – surf the world’s longest left at Pavones, hike through rain forest in Corcovado or drop into roaring rapids with our Adventure Travel chapter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34082 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Review
Best for curious and independent-minded travelers' --Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Customer Reviews

As always a good help
The lonely planet helped as as always to plan our vacation. We spend only one week in this interesting country, but managed to plan an interesting and packed two day trip. Instead of booking through the hotel and spending at least $250 per person we took all the information out of the book. Besides saving some money, we had a lot of information and explored the country a lot better than with a pre booked trip. As the book is from 2006 some of the prices have already increased. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to plan his trip on his own and/or wants background information on history, culture and people.

Culture Chauvinism by the Backpacker Set
I generally find Lonely Planet Guides quite helpful. This volume, sadly, was written by a couple of Ugly American Backpackers.

Their coverage of San Jose was positively absurd. The author's overstate crime dangers by a comical margin, and come off sounding like the snide "Ugly American" of bygone decades, looking down their noses at the sad, dirty third world. They also fail to comprehend the obvious: if you want to see what life is like for Costa Rica's citizens, you might want to spend some time in the city where most of them actually live.

If nothing else, Lonely Planet would do well to hire a third author that isn't allergic to cities; especially third world cities.

The editors might also simply practice the lost art of editing. Much good information is lost here, in a sea of snide.

So-So.
The detailed city maps are not very good, outdated with businesses that have gone away, etc. Moon guide books have way better maps than Lonely Planet. The hotel reviews I thought were way off base, and don't include some major hotels. All in all, let me just say this: Lonely Planet isn't the Bible. Check out other guide books and go with any of the major ones. If you buy Lonely Planet, also buy a map, because their city maps are wrong!