Costa Rica for Dummies [With Post-It Flags]

Very down to earth helpful information. A good addition to your reading list before traveling there with many good telelphone conncections. Recommended reading.

Dummies travel books are usually pretty good and this is no exception. I just can't figure out how people could travel with only one guide book. It usually takes me 3 - I find that between all of them I can fill in most of the blanks. This one and Frommers were the best combination for Costa Rica but a lot of their info was duplicated because this Dummies book has "tips and recommendations from experts at Frommers" so it is like getting a different flavor of the same book. Why can't they just cram it all into one? I also had National Geographic but that was used mostly for the beautiful photos (great natural advertisements for neat places). I wish there were pictures in this book but it's all text. The one great advantage to this is that you can highlight items of interest and they are very easy to find since there are no other contrasting colors in the book. The bottom line is that I like it, it's a good tool, but for me it wouldn't be enough on its own.

My husband and I were going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon so, wanting to research it thoroughly, I bought 6 different C.R. travel books. I bought this one last and wish I had bought it first. It was the book I kept going back to. It also had the most useful maps of any of the C.R. books I saw. We wanted to stay at a mix of regularly priced places ($100+/night) along with the occasional splurge of $200+/night places. We also wanted to stay at enviromentally-friendly places as much as posible. This book got the job done. CR for Dummies is the best intro/overview book. I would also recommend buying The New Key to Costa Rica because it has more detailed information about accomodations for all budget types and lots of additional info on activities and tours that you won't find in Dummies.