- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing; 2nd Revised edition edition (26 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1566913381
- ISBN-13: 978-1566913386
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 13.3 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,760,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Opinionated, insightful, and entertaining, Moon Handbooks are more than just travel guides-they're reference tools, ideal for independent travelLers who desire complete immersion in the culture of their destination. The only guidebooks to win Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers for six years in a row, Moon Handbooks deliver a wealth of practical advice, as well as in-depth coverage of each region's history, geography, people, arts, politics, and social issues.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When travelling in Ecuador this summer (2004) i brought both this guide and a similar Lonely Planet book. In balance i found this one to be far superior, because although the narrative is slightly less well written, the practicality and accuracy of the information was far greater. For instance it has safety information specific to each city or area rather than overall advice and much more detailed and useful links to local tour companies and guides. Definitely a worthy travelling companion for anybody travelling in Ecuador on a medium-low budget.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful
excellent guidebook
11 Jan 1999
Format:Paperback
i've travelled a lot, and i've usually just picked out the lonely planet book on wherever i'm going almost by habit. but i was getting sick of how dull they are, so i decided to try a different one for this trip. this seemed like the most interesting among the competition.
i like dhow the author took the time to explain so much about the history and ecology of the country. in two and a half months i only found a few places where the travel details weren't accurate, which is pretty good for these books. but it was all the rest that made the difference. it was great to actually learn something from a guidebook for once. the stuff about the galapagos especially gave a much better sense of the islands (DONT miss them if you go) then just listing the plants and animals.
i used this book for ecuador and another one for peru right afterwards, and there was no comparison. so i knew where all the hotels were in peru and how much everything cost (at least when that author was there). but in ecuador i read about local legends and famous people, which may not seem that important when you're looking for a hotel at midnight, but trust me it can make a big difference in your experience.
plus i liked how much there way about outdoor activities like surfing, rafting, hikingand mountain climbing, since i did all of them while i was there.
great book!
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
The best Ecuador guide going
27 Jan 1999
Format:Paperback
Informative, entertaining, obsessively comprehensive--you have to love a guidebook that quotes Kurt Vonnegut and describes Galapagos penguins as looking "as out of place as eskimos at a beach party." Makes you realize how dull most other travel guides are. And all the travel details are dead-on, too. My wife and hiked around Cotopaxi volcano, rafted in the Amazon, and went birdwatching along the coast, and in all cases the information was accurate and complete.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Good overview but get something else to plan
31 May 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first bought this book a couple of months ago and was really pleased at first. It seemed to give good information on a variety of areas and gave recommendations of things to do that were probably off of the beaten path. Based on the book I drew up a list of the places in Ecuador that I would like to visit and laid the book down for a little bit until I had firmed up my plans some more.
On picking up the book again I started to see some of the glaring errors I had missed in my first reading. There are very few maps of the cities that are spoken of in the book so it doesn't really do you any good to know an address if you have no idea where in the city it is. When there is a map it will label all of the things mentioned in that section on that map. When you're talking about Quito or Cuenca or even significantly smaller cities you have to search the entire map to find the name of a hotel or museum. It would have been so much easier if there was a key to the map where all the locations were given numbers and you could say that Hostal Maria is #5 which is located in square B-3.
This guidebook also wasn't very helpful in planning because it wouldn't give very much information on the transportation section. You could be in a section on the southern coast and it will say that the bus takes 11 hours to Quito. Well, what about Guayaquil or other closer cities of importance? Also, how frequent are the buses? Is it once a day or do they leave every couple of hours? Very few travelers are going to keep going to the capital in between cities. Rather they will probably be making a circuit and it's really necessary to know how long it is between cities in a region.
In addition it will mention towns that are major transportation hubs (like Jipijappa) but doesn't give any additional information like travel times to various places, accomdations if you need stay the night, etc.
One last pet peeve was that frequently they would mention a hotel or a restaurant and just give the name of the place with no address or phone number.
Having said all of this the Moon guide was informative about various places and it was nice that it included pictures in the text, though as usual, more would have been nice. I had bought the Lonely Planet Peru and found it far more helpful in planning for that country. Unfortunately, however, the LP for Ecuador hasn't been updated since Ecuador switched its currency. Oh well.
On picking up the book again I started to see some of the glaring errors I had missed in my first reading. There are very few maps of the cities that are spoken of in the book so it doesn't really do you any good to know an address if you have no idea where in the city it is. When there is a map it will label all of the things mentioned in that section on that map. When you're talking about Quito or Cuenca or even significantly smaller cities you have to search the entire map to find the name of a hotel or museum. It would have been so much easier if there was a key to the map where all the locations were given numbers and you could say that Hostal Maria is #5 which is located in square B-3.
This guidebook also wasn't very helpful in planning because it wouldn't give very much information on the transportation section. You could be in a section on the southern coast and it will say that the bus takes 11 hours to Quito. Well, what about Guayaquil or other closer cities of importance? Also, how frequent are the buses? Is it once a day or do they leave every couple of hours? Very few travelers are going to keep going to the capital in between cities. Rather they will probably be making a circuit and it's really necessary to know how long it is between cities in a region.
In addition it will mention towns that are major transportation hubs (like Jipijappa) but doesn't give any additional information like travel times to various places, accomdations if you need stay the night, etc.
One last pet peeve was that frequently they would mention a hotel or a restaurant and just give the name of the place with no address or phone number.
Having said all of this the Moon guide was informative about various places and it was nice that it included pictures in the text, though as usual, more would have been nice. I had bought the Lonely Planet Peru and found it far more helpful in planning for that country. Unfortunately, however, the LP for Ecuador hasn't been updated since Ecuador switched its currency. Oh well.
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