Lonely Planet Caribbean Islands

Love this book, huge book with everything in it i was looking for. Bought this book because we are taking an eastern caribbean cruise in January 2010 and i wanted a heads up on the islands we are going to visit. It's written and put together soo well i couldnt help reading about all the islands. Really cant wait to go now, VERY HAPPY i ordered this book.

Wonderful, comprehensive and informative. The organization of each chapter makes it easy to locate specific information. As an annual cruise passenger, this book will be extremely valuable to me.

As usual, the Lonely Planet book delivers tons of information for travelers of all incomes. Especially helpful are tips on where to go to avoid cruise ship crowds. However, I had to skip the chapter on Cuba, because of the US travel ban. And the chapters on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic should probably only be used to decide whether or not you want to go to those places. If so, you should probably buy the Lonely Planet books dedicated exclusively to them.

At 800+ pages, this is too heavy to lug around, but it's perfect for planning a trip and deciding where to visit. After you've planned your itinerary, I suggest buying a more specialized LP (Lonely Planet) guide to take with you - a small price to pay for a successful vacation. Cuba gets the longest chapter (a whopping 59pp), followed by the Dominican Republic (48pp), Trinidad & Tobago (47pp), Bahamas (43pp), and Jamaica (42pp). However, the book's warnings about Jamaican crime will cause most travellers to rethink their itinerary. Haiti receives a token 18 pages due to the turmoil there. At the other end of the spectrum, the shortest chapters are on Saba and St. Eustatius (10pp each). I enjoy the LP writing style, and I like their emphasis on practical tidbits. For example, don't fly directly from Aruba to the U.S. because you'll be in line for two hours at the Aruba airport due to understaffing by U.S. customs officers (yes, U.S.) who handle pre-clearance procedures. This is the kind of nuts-and-bolts information for which LP is famous, and enables visitors to avoid vacation hell. Pet peeves: The chapters covering the 26 jurisdictions seem to be in random order - why not alphabetical? LP has always been famous for their maps, but lately their maps have been using one shade of gray for water and a slightly different shade of gray for land, which is tough on the eyes.

Whew-w-w. This is a great entry in a great series of travel books. Thick (thick!) with useful information. The consistent format, the amount of information, the compact physical size of this book make it a must carry reference guide for the Caribbean traveler!