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Rating: 
Summary: Pointless
Review: This book has no discernible value to anyone planning a dive trip to Belize. First, it does not tell you which dive sites are good and which are worth skipping. This makes it difficult to plan your trip, assuming you have limited time and money to spend. The book does not even contain a list of top 5 or 10 recommended sites in the country. Second, the book has no information on costs or other logistical aspects of a dive trip. For example, it mentions that Dangriga is the departure point for diving certain reefs, but doesn't tell you that there are no dive shops in Dangriga: to do any diving around there, you have to go thru an out-of-town resort, which is highly inconvenient. Third, the capsule descriptions of 66 specific dive sites -- the heart of the book -- don't tell you anything meaningful and are irrelevant anyway because dive shops, not customers, choose which sites are visited. (Customers can choose which area they want to go to, but the dive shops select the specific sites within that area.) Finally, although the book was updated in June 2002, it ignores the fact that in October 2001, Hurricane Iris devastated the sourthern diving hub of Placencia. The reefs in this area are heavily damaged and therefore not worth visiting. The failure to update the book to account for this major development can only be explained by bad faith on the part of Lonely Planet, which should be ashamed to have put such a lousy product on the market.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: This book is not worth buying. It provides very little information on specific dive sites. I did not use the book once to make a dive choice during two weeks in Southern Belize. A good dive book for Belize is really needed - it was difficult to locate good dive operators for some areas...but this book was of no value. It does have some nice pictures and a very basic fish/coral guide in the back.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: This book is not worth buying. It provides very little information on specific dive sites. I did not use the book once to make a dive choice during two weeks in Southern Belize. A good dive book for Belize is really needed - it was difficult to locate good dive operators for some areas...but this book was of no value. It does have some nice pictures and a very basic fish/coral guide in the back.
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