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Summary: Great Book !
Review: As the President and Founder of the B & B association, I have visited more than 300 of our B & B's . I highly recommend Harry S. Pariser's "Explore Costa Rica". Mr. Pariser travels frequently to Costa Rica and his book is attractively designed and well written and updated. He also supplies information on more of the out-of-the-way places wich other guides fail to mention.
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Summary: An ideal, wonderfully enhanced travel guide and planner.
Review: Costa Rica has long been a favored vacation destination offering the on-site visitor a wealth of recreational opportunities of all kinds and categories. Harry Pariser's Explore Costa Rica is an ideal, very highly recommended travel guide and planner. This informational compendium is wonderfully enhanced with color photography and covers everything from surfing to hiking, horseback riding to ballooning, cruising the countryside to wandering around the towns, and much, much more!
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Summary: The best coverage of Costa Rica
Review: Harry Pariser's "Explore Costa Rica" is the best coverage of Costa Rica that I've seen--with much detail on rainforest tours, kayaking, biking and diving excursions, remote lodges, large and small hotels inland and on the Caribbean and Pacific Coasts. Whether you want to trek through the jungle, watch thousands of wading birds, frolic with the monkeys or relax on a gorgeous beach, this book is a valuable planning tool.
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Summary: a costa rica enthusiast
Review: Having lived in Costa Rica for nearly two years and traveled extensively throughout the country, Explore Costa Rica is the ultimate travel guide to have on hand. The book has excellent maps and time saving tips that I wish I had known about prior to my travels. I have used Pariser's books on many occasions and believe they are the best resource on the market. Most importantly, Explore Costa Rica provides the traveler with information that goes well beyond which hotels to avoid and which bus to catch. It provides a fresh perspective that many travellers seek: an historical, social, cultural, and environmental understanding of the places they visit and grow to love.
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Summary: Why Explore Costa Rica is different from other guidebook:Hes
Review: Here are a few questions and answers with me. Please contact me with any questions (editorial@savethemanatee.com) and visit my web site... Why is Costa Rica so appealing to travelers? "For many reasons. Costa Rica has a good infrastructure relative to its neighbors. It is peaceful, friendly and environmentally concerned, and has relatively high standards of living, literacy, education, hygiene, and safety. One may visit both coasts in the course of a single day, and Costa Rica offers virtually every type of activity you can imagine: kayaking, hiking, windsurfing, surfing, rock climbing, mountain climbing, horseback riding, ballooning, and more!" What are the most distinctive things about Costa Rica? "Costa Rica is compact and relatively easy to get around in. It maintains extensive tracts of rainforest, a number of cloud forests, tropical dry forests, and spectacular volcanoes; beaches line both coasts. Legendary for its biological diversity, it is easy to spot monkeys, toucans, coatis, and other creatures. Costa Rica is also unique in having hundreds of nature lodges and bed-and-breakfast inns. Many of these are quite amazing places to stay at: each have distinct character and personable proprietors. Some own private nature preserves with trails. All are covered in my book." What makes your guide distinct from other travel guides to Costa Rica? "Mine is more personal than most. Included are many useful tips, readings, reader recommendations, and special places. I provide extensive information on wildlife, rainforests, history, and environmental problems and positives. It is hand-tailored for visitors who travel to learn and grow. Included are 30 color photos, 60 black-and-white photos, 36 maps, and thousands of fax numbers, web sites, and e-mail addresses. ...- so your copy will never be out of date, and Palm Pilot and other electronic versions are scheduled." Who should read your guide? "Anyone planning to visit. It is helpful for every visitor - students, surfers, divers, parents with children, birdwatchers, and hikers.
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Summary: Packed full of everything you need to know
Review: I found "Explore Costa Rica" incredibly user friendly in terms of easy to read text, wonderful descriptions of resorts, inns and jungle haunts to stay, maps, color and black and white photos. It covers absolutely everything one needs to navigate the rainforests, beaches, rivers--including the guided tours, wildlife tips, safety, history and complete travel details. It's a gem.
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Summary: An Excellent guide for Costa Rica
Review: I found the organization of this book rather good. Particularly useful is the itinerary list on the publisher's website which helps you to select among the many options available, and there are updates available there as well. There are many good suggestions for choosing a nature tour, and the coverage of national parks is outstanding.I went on a great hike which I found detailed in this guide book. The background information on society, culture, as well as other information on the country of Costa Rica, I found very valuable. It put the country in perspective for me. He obviously cares about environmental issues and this is different from other guide books I have read. I found the photos top notch, and was drawn to the book first by the cover photo of the volcano. In all, I had a great trip, helped by following the author's suggestions for things to do, and places to stay.
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Summary: Best of the lot
Review: I just went to Costa Rica a few months ago and found this guide above the rest in depth and eco-friendly suggestions. Mr. Praiser is a great travel writer and it is little surprise that he won the "Lowell Thomas" award for best travel book.
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Summary: GREAT Information; HORRIBLE Typos
Review: I purchased this book recently for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica because I wanted a different point of view outside of Lonely Planet's guidebook (which, I might add, I also purchased). I found the information very helpful in planning my trip, including the little sidenotes on what to watch for and dangers on the road. My biggest mistake, however, was to try and read the book from cover to cover like a novel. There are probably over 250 typos in the first 300 pages alone, ranging from repeated paragraphs to punctuation errors to ommitted words. It can get very frustrating when you are learning about a particular region and the sentence reads, "...most notably, this region includes. Further down the road...". I do not know who to blame, Praiser or Manatee Press for letting a book like this out on the market. The credibility of the author and the publishing company are severely weakened by something like this. Buy this book used and skim it...your frustration level will be dramatically lowered.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT Information; HORRIBLE Typos
Review: I purchased this book recently for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica because I wanted a different point of view outside of Lonely Planet's guidebook (which, I might add, I also purchased). I found the information very helpful in planning my trip, including the little sidenotes on what to watch for and dangers on the road. My biggest mistake, however, was to try and read the book from cover to cover like a novel. There are probably over 250 typos in the first 300 pages alone, ranging from repeated paragraphs to punctuation errors to ommitted words. It can get very frustrating when you are learning about a particular region and the sentence reads, "...most notably, this region includes. Further down the road...". I do not know who to blame, Praiser or Manatee Press for letting a book like this out on the market. The credibility of the author and the publishing company are severely weakened by something like this. Buy this book used and skim it...your frustration level will be dramatically lowered.
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