Rating: 
Summary: Not updated
Review: The book wasn't updated, the bridge over Suriname river in the capital Paramaribo of Suriname wasn't mentioned instead they recommend the ferry! Good for the beginner to find a place to
stay but otherwise not so good....
Rating:
Summary: Not updated
Review: The book wasn?t updated, the bridge over Suriname river in the capital Paramaribo of Suriname wasn?t mentioned instead they recommend the ferry! Good for the beginner to find a place to
stay but otherwise not so good....
Rating: 
Summary: This book is delightfully informative and always necessary!
Review: This book is an absolute must for the budget,adventurous,willing-to-stay-in-a-funky-hotel-with-lumpy-beds traveler. In a writing style as colorful as the cover, Lonely Planet helps you plan your trip with concise information on: restaurants (with many references to vegetarian places), lodging, festival dates, nightclubs, local language and customs, safety information and more. Lonely Planet South America can also lead you to out of the way villages and towns where you are thrilled at the sight of a real toilet after a five-hour bus ride which left you covered in dust. Nothing comes more in handy after starving on the long bumpy ride than grabbing your guidebook out of your backpack to find out the best fried plantain stand and cheap posada (inn) in this block-long town. And I was very grateful for those tips the book gave on where to ask for that guy "Juan" who is the only person who sells stamps within miles! From the Amazon to the Andes to the Caribbean, Lonely Planet was there for me. Seeing other tourists leafing through the same guidebook, brimming with over 1000 pages of invaluable information in a small book you can cram in a purse, was always a comforting sight in such different-from-home lands.
Rating: 
Summary: If you are looking for the complete guide to South America
Review: 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
Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunate developments at LP
Review: Unfortunately, the publisher seems to have abandoned most of their previous authors and recruited rookies with dubious qualifications and almost no experience in South America. The chapters done by the authors of their individual country guides are reasonably accurate, but the ones by new authors are appallingly bad.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Disappointing Guidebook
Review: We started out travelling in October 2000 with the LP's 'South America On A Shoestring' but I have to say that we have been very disappointed. Firstly, the book has summarised the information on each country to such an extent that it becomes useless. Vital information is omitted and details of accomodation is very sketchy. We soon found ourselves having to borrow individual country guides from other backpackers to be able to obtain the necessary information. Secondly, and more annoyingly, the book is very out of date. Our edition is listed as 'January 2000' but as far as we could tell from looking at the previous edition IT HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED. For example, the Lima section lists an English language bookshop that we later discovered had closed 5 years ago! Furthermore the Cusco office of the South American Explorers Club, which opened in the Summer of 1999 is not mentioned. We have come across numerous hostels, open for 3 years, that are not included. We appreciate that not all hostels can be included but the sheer numbers of excellent and popular accomodations left out is very frustrating. We have been using LP guides for more than 10 years and have generally been very satisfied. However 'South America On A Shoestring' is a very poor guidebook. Talking with many other backpackers on our trip I can confirm that our views are widely shared. We were lucky to find a copy of a much better handbook in Lima - The Footprints South American Handbook has about 30% more, and up-to-date, information (it is also smaller and cheaper)....... If you have the LP guide and are as disappointed you could always cut your losses like we did - cut out the maps (which are good) and throw the rest of the book away! Good Luck!
Rating:
Summary: Go with a Footprints Guide Instead!
Review: While the food and lodgings recommendations were generally awesome, I found that the authors missed out with their descriptions of "Things to See & Do". If the only thing you're interested in is museums, then this is a great guide. For those of us who enjoy any sort of outdoor pursuits, the Footprints guide is far superior. We met a few lucky people who had bravely strayed from the Lonely Planet flock and had only praise for Footprints. We borrowed their guides when we could!
Also, if you use the Lonely Planet books, you're sure to see the same people everywhere you go because you're all making decisions based on the same recommendations. We actually ran into the same couple in 4 different countries during a month and a half!
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