Costa Rica

Buy this book for the map in back. When planning your first trip to Costa Rica it is extraordinarily helpful to have a detailed map of the entire country so you can get your bearings and get a feeling for the distance between Monteverde and Manuel Antonio, for example. The map also has a good "places" index where you can look up the names of towns, parks and beaches and find them on the map. This came in VERY handy because, as I found out, there are many places in Costa Rica with the same name (i.e. there are three towns named 'Matapalo', eight towns named 'San Isidro' etc.). If you are driving in Costa Rica, this map is a must. As an added benefit, the map has Recommended Itineraries that match those highlighted in the book. The book itself, even the color pictures, is lackluster. They do a C or C+ job of providing a bare bones general overview of the country.

Although I find the large Insight Guides to be useless, the pocket guides have worked VERY well for me in Morocco and in Costa Rica. By being condensed, they choose very interesting itinaries for you.

Vacation photos are the ubiquitous, clichéd chronicle of the average person's travels. Yet few travel books include more than a small smattering of so-so photos, offering only a peek at a destination's sights and environs; even though a great deal of our travel memories and experiences are through images. This book, along with the Insight Guides series in general, is different, offering a comprehensive set of fantastic photos that not only showcase the sights, but bring the details, richness, and life (some gorgeous, some gritty) of Costa Rica closer. The accompanying text, while a bit uncharacteristic (likely due to editorial consistency), is informative and comprehensive, giving you a great overview of Costa Rica, its history, its people, and places of interest. Its travel information, such as lodgings, appears targeted towards middle-class travelers, although it touches on a wide range of styles and budgets. And when you're ready to plan your itinerary the maps outshine those of any other guide book, and are good enough to use on your trip, even for 90% of the driving most folks are likely to do.Other guidebooks might offer more in-depth and "insider" information with a particular slant (e.g. the excellent, down-to-earth, and environmentally conscious book by Harry S. Pariser, "Explore Costa Rica") but the Insight Guide should be the first one you buy to "see" where your travels might take you.

Features: the People, National Parks, Places to go, Travel tips, Tropical Forest, Ecosystems. Wonderful pictures. A must, if going to or studying Costa Rica. Worth every cent.