Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island: Travel Survival Kit

This is for certain one of the best Lonely Planet guides I came across (and I do have a very large collection). Perhaps aided by the fact that Chile is a relatively small country, yet stretching from the tropical to the antarctic areas, and by the relative homogeneity of the country in terms of society and culture, the author and editors have done an excellent job in collecting and putting together all the best information a traveller to Chile would need. I know Chile very well, and can witness that this information is up-to-date, correct, unbiased, and altogether an indispensable tool for any traveller, providing all necessary data for the more well-off and for 'backpackers' alike. The information is concise and clear. Everything is excellently written, thus ensuring real pleasure too. The sections on politics, history and society are excellent too. Altogether, it is a great companion while travelling in Chile or dreaming of Chile.

When planning my trip to Chile, I bought about every Chile guide I could find, and I have about 8 or 10 of them. While none of them had "everything" this one was definately the best of them. The city maps were useful as they are in all Lonely Planet books anad its practical information helped decide where to go and how to get around. I think it gave me the most useful information of all the other guidebooks. I planned my entire trip to Chile and Easter Island from guidebooks and phone calls without any tour agency. I think I did find a couple things out of date as others did, but that is, as said another reviewer, common to all guidebooks as they are researched over a period of time, then edited & compiled, then finally released. I recommend getting this book if you plan to visit Chile and also another book for another point of view and other details. The book is not perfect, but it is probably the best out there on the subject.

While shopping for a guidebook for my first visit to Chile, this book (the previous edition of it) looked like the most comprehensive guidebook available. It was extremely helpful for both choosing what places to visit and how to visit them. As some other reviewers noted, there were some weaknesses and omissions and some information was out of date, but the current edition of the book is likely to be more up-to-date. Anyway, if you need your whole trip laid out for you, you are probably better off joining a tour group. I found the Lonely Planet Trekking in the Patagonian Andes was a good complement to this book. I certainly wish all the information had been available in a single book, but given the amount of detail in both the Chile and Patagonian Andes books, I don't begrudge Lonely Planet too much.

I was really stunned by the number of things that were not in this book. But for a number of things, like finding good places to eat and sleep, this was far and away, the best book that I used in Chile (I also had Openroad and Footprints).Example things that were left out: almost anything on Torres del Paine. No mention of the W. No mention of a glorious day hike in Puerto Natales. Little mention of logistics for getting around to various parks.It seems to me that this is an essential book to have, but I don't think that it will do as the only one. And I don't have a good recommendation for the other one

This is an excellent guide for travelling Chile, specially if you do not know anything about that country, but sometimes many places are missing. I think that with this guide you can plan your trip without needing any help from another guide.