Chile, 5th

Prior to my honeymoon, in which I surprised my wife, I bought and studied 5 different Chile travel books to prepare for the trip. This was the best one I found and the one that I actually took with me on the trip. It had the best local information which I appreciated because I wasn't interested in staying at a Hilton in Chile. The author is from Valparaiso and there were places in the book that we visited and loved that weren't even mentioned in the other books. Best of all the author loves Chile and it's culture and you can tell by his writing and advice. If only get one book on Chile, get this one. If you're simply going to visit Vina del Mar and stay in a time share or plan to stay in an American-chain hotel then you may not enjoy this book. But you won't really get to see Chile, either.

I just returned from a month of living in Santiago, Chile, learning Spanish, and living with my Footprint guide to Chile. I read a lot of the book before arriving and everything it had said and recommended was right. I was living in Santiago and it gave tons of things to do, stay, eat, and see in the city. I was also traveling on weekend. Things like, skiing in the Andes, visiting Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, Cajon del Maipo, and taking a trip to the island of Chiloe in the south. Everywhere I went I would read the guide book beforehand and I would arrive and walk around and really have a strong grasp of where things were as well as what to do and what to avoid. There are good detailed maps of all the main cities/towns as well as some of the more popular smaller towns too. The descriptions of places like hostels and restaurants are 100% accurate. I was able to look at other guide books in Chile when I would bump into another traveler. Many times, when someone else had little or no information on something, we would look it up in my book and there would be plenty of information on it. I took this book with me every morning I left my apartment in Santiago and everywhere I traveled. If you are thinking about buying this I strongly recommend it.

Definitely the best guide to Chile. More accurate, enthusiastic, and useful than Rough Guides or Lonely (this bar closed 3 years ago) Planet. Janak also runs a darn nice hostel.

Excelent! All informations I needed to travel all aroud Chile, from Patagonia to Atacama was in this book. I recomend!

Prior to my trip to Chile last year, I checked available guide books in a local bookstore. I chose Footprint for the content and maps, and also because it had a section about Patagonian Argentina that would be useful. I wasn't disappointed, the guide was most helpful. When talking to another traveller in Chile who had an Italian version of Lonely Planet guide, I could see that some information in the Footprint guide was more accurate. I liked it so much that I'm ordering new Footprint guides for my upcoming trips.