Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring (LONELY PLANET SHOESTRING GUIDES)

by Fiona Adams, Sandra Bao, Charlote Beech, etc.

Release Date: March, 2004

Edition: Paperback

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If you are looking for the complete guide to South America

This is not it. Sorry. Not that it is an aweful book, but hardly comprehensive. Lonely planet's individual guides are passable, but what little savve they have is sadly editted out in this oversized under norished number. Having travelled in a good few of the countries mentioned here, I eventually ended up ditching the book and using photostats of the South American handbook, a vastly better publication. Remember that a guide book defines, to no small degree, how you see the places you visit. Following the lonely planet guides gives you great generic lonely planet experience. But if you want something more or different, the options aren't there. Sure, its colorful, and yes, it is useful as a map book, but as you only source of information on vast continent, follow the footprint

Hit and Miss

Just got back from 3 months with this book in SA...

Plusses:
Great Maps...LP maps are the best guidebook maps
Lots of Choices for Hostels/Restaurants...they aren't too detailed but do typically offer a lot of places, while Let's Go will offer 4 or 5 per city.
Everyone has got it, you'll find a lot of people to hang out with when going to their recos.

Minuses:
Everyone has got it, perhaps you don't want to run into a lot of gringos.
Doesn't cover lots of small towns which are great to visit...yes of course this is a book that tries to cover a CONTINENT so it's not going to have everything, but I found Footprints SA book to be significantly more comprehensive.
A bit out of date...new one is forthcoming, I believe.

Overall I would recommend Footprint's SA Handbook instead, although the maps do leave a bit to be desired.