Product Description

This Eyewitness Travel Guide explores Cuba's rich cultural history while giving you all the practical tips you need for a perfect holiday. And nearly 1,000 illustrations bring the place to life even before you get on the plane.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214929 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780756628796
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews

The best travel guide I've seen
I'm delighted to have bought this guide before my trip to Cuba. It is nicely illustrated and presents substantial historical and cultural information as well as the necessary where-to-stay and what-to-see.

Jane Newhagen
author of
Sand Dollar: a tale of old Key West

a good planning tool
This guide book (2007) is a really good planning tool for a trip to Cuba. It has lots of photos and great schematic drawings of important buildings and plazas.

If you are taking a tour package where you are not having to choose accomodation yourself or deal with transport logistics, I would probably take it with me. However, for the traveller who is making all their own decisions and reservations, I would take either Lonely Planet (new edition Fall 09) or the Moon Handbook (06). using the DK just for planning then leaving it at home. DK has minimalhotel recommendations - just the chain hotels, and sketchy restaurant selections. The Moon Handbook has really extensive background information on Cuba, but weighs almost twice as much as Lonely Planet.

Beautifully presented if obviously biased
DK produces the most arguably beautiful travel books currently available. The maps, graphics, architectural renderings, photographs and overall layout are beyond reproach and most appealing and informative. Why not five stars? I'm not sure where the blame lies, be it with the writers or editors, but this guide is deeply flawed in its biased content. Though not openly sympathetic to the island's communist government, it is nevertheless more than obvious that the person(s) responsible, are more than a little enamored with that country's socio-political ideology. In describing pre-revolutionary Cuba, the guide takes a cynical stance, perpetuating the myth that Cuba was nothing more than an American subsidized den of iniquity, populated by gangsters, prostitutes, gamblers and grown ineffective with rampant corruption and illiteracy. Though all these things were certainly true, the book fails to provide a balanced perspective of that period in the country's history and that's where its inherent failure lies. The Cuban revolution, though tragic, horrible and seemingly endless, is a part of World history in general and Cuban history in particular, and, therefore, should not be ignored, but by the same token it need not be given such idolatry treatment in a travel guide, which, in my opinion, should be an unbiased reference tool, meant to educate the traveler on a country, its history and people in a clear, concise and informative manner, free of personal prejudices and/or beliefs. This guide is filled with non-stop descriptions of revolutionary monuments, sites, people, and history. That in and of itself would be fine if weren't done so with such obvious appreciation for all that it represents. In describing Che, the author writes "Though Che suffered from asthma, he had an iron will, loved books as well as sports, and had a great spirit of sacrifice, he could appreciate beauty and was a perfectionist but had a sense of humour. He was a man of action who also found time to meditate on reality and write." One would think the author was describing Robin Williams and not one of the 20th century's most controversial figures. Though he certainly may have been all the things described in the book, it doesn't give a complete and accurate portrayal of the man. That was one example, but the book is plagued with socialist fawning that ultimately proves to be an ineffectual tool. Though the author is free to appreciate, love, praise, support, condemn, ridicule whatever he/she may choose, be it political, religious, artistic, etc. or a combination thereof, it should not be done through a travel guide. It's a genuine shame because, otherwise, from an aesthetic perspective, there's just nothing out there that even comes close.