Product Description

The second edition of Footprint's ARGENTINA HANDBOOK has been completely updated and revised and is published in the new Footprint paperback format. It is packed with ideas on how to plan a visit, when to go, where to stay and how to get about. It includes highlights of Argentina with colour photography, a special feature on estancia tourism and adventure tourism from climbing and trekking to skiing. It gives information on Chilean Patagonia, including Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, and excursion from Buenos Aires to Uruguay. It has extensive listing in Buenos Aires for all budgets as well as "Where to Tango". The background information on history, culture, art and theatre is interesting and comprehensive. There are colour maps to help you plan your journey and keep you orientated while you are travelling in addition to literally dozens of local town and site maps.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1568750 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

Review
Footprint Handbooks - the best thing that has happened to travel guides in years. Distinctive, amusing, well-informed and hype-free. -- The Business Times, Singapore

From the Publisher
Dear Fellow Traveller Thank you for checking out the Argentina Handbook. Footprint are an independent British publisher (based in Bath). We specialise in providing travellers with guide books that are second to non 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 on the Peru and South American Handbooks which give a good flavour of how useful our guides are. Your might like to know that we also publish Chile, Bolivia and Brazil Handbooks and an extremely useful general guide to travelling: The Traveller's Handbook. Finally, whichever guidebook you choose, we would like to wish you an exciting, illuminating and above all enjoyable trip! Best wishes Footprint

About the Author
Charlie Nurse is a Latin American aficionado through and through. Following his degree in history and politics he did 6 months research in Ecuador and travelled throughout Central America. After this he taught for a year in Spain during the fascinating period at the end of the Franco era. A year working and travelling in Nicaragua and Mexico was the next adventure. Six years ago Charlie turned his attention to Chile and Argentina where he travelled extensively.

Customer Reviews

This 2007 / 4th Edition is a great guide for Argentina and an excellent guide for Patagonia.
There was a day when Rough Guide and Lonely Planet were the best guides for travelers that sought to leave the tour groups behind and explore on their own. But slowly, year by year, Footprint has improved, and now this 4th edition is one of the best guides for Argentina that you can buy. *Note that this review is for the the 4th edition, other reviews below are probably refering to the 3rd Edition.

I took five travel guides with me to explore Argentina/Patagonia, and I found myself consistently reaching for Footprint first. It is the most current (2006) and the guide consistently listed quality accommodations and good restaurants, some of which were exemplary. The city maps in the guide are excellent. All the restaurants and hotels are well marked on each map. Kudos.

Footprint Argentina's background section (history, religion, culture etc.) is well written, brief, yet informative. There is an abundance of website references throughout the text and a website listing for almost every accommodation = excellent.

I spent five weeks exploring Patagonia and found Footprint to be the best single guide to have. More than 200 pages in this Argentinean guide are devoted to this region, including a section on Chilean Patagonia. If you purchase "Time Out Patagonia" (see my review) you will have the best two guides possible for Patagonia.

On the downside Footprint uses a cumbersome letter system instead of just telling you the price for accommodations (i.e., LL=$200 plus, L=$150-$200, AL=$101-$150, A,B,C,D,E,F etc. -- putting the legend at the back of the book - a serious hassle). It also fails to tell you what is the price range for the restaurants; so at one eatery you could pay $10 for your meal, then have a $35 bill at another. Not good. The descriptions of the restaurants are insipid and verge on being meaningless: "tasty food", "cosy", "very popular", "delicious food". Whereas, other good guides (Rough Guide - also highly recommended - see my review) give you pointers: "best grilled shrimp ever" / "the steaks here are the best in town" etc.

Bottom line: this is a very good guide for Argentina and the best guide for those that are going to Patagonia. Highly recommended

At last! A good edition
There are some better books about Argentina... in Spanish an in six volumes. The best single-volume that I've seen for a traveller is here: the Footprint series at last got it right! (I speak about this last edition only). A lot of good sites that I know from my wanderings in my home country are here, and some others... too! Read carrefully the guide, if you found one sentence that says: this place is breathtaking, believe it even if is only mentioned in that sentence: Argentina is a VERY big place, so many of his attractions may be shortly described, because of that you must put attention to the words that are used. Enjoy!! (and believe the book about security concerns, the guide recomends to visit the country and I agree, the places where it says that you must take care are exactly the places where you must do it).
Update 2008: more info about the unknown province of Catamarca would be welcomed: it have the highest volcanoes out there, natural thermal baths in front of the Andes, and it is really out of the beaten path.

Fantastic.. Best travel handbook around!!!
very impressed by the depth of intelligent coverage on history/economics and politics as an added bonus to the extremly helpful maps and local information. Loved the lay-out. The suggestions of HOW a trek to one city could naturally lead to a visit to another... very fluid. Very well done. I have never bought a footprint book before... i think this will be my first of many. A cut above the rest! Even my argentine boyfriend agrees!!