Moon Costa Rica [Paperback]

I usually purchase Lonely Planet guides, but the LP Costa Rica was too old. Moon was more recently published and I'm very glad that I was able to try out a different series. I was very impressed with Moon Costa Rica and the Moon series will definitely be one that I check first when looking for a guidebook in the future.

The similarities with LP mainly come from the tone in which it was written since it was authored by a Brit (much like most of the LP books I've used in the past). And this author has a tremendous amount of knowledge of Costa Rica as well as Latin America. The layout was logical and easy to navigate.

Of all the Costa Rica guidebooks on the shelf this one had the most, and most detailed, maps. In small towns where there are no road signs and "intestinal" roads that make getting turned around and confused very easy these detailed and zoomed-in maps came in very, very handy.

Of all the guidebooks it also devoted the most amount of pages to the areas where we were visiting (the Pacific beaches/Nicoya peninsula and the Arenal volcano area).

I liked this guidebook especially because it gave me the feeling that nothing was left out. For instance, while driving by the tiniest town I noticed that it would be mentioned in the guidebook even if very little was written about it.

As a loyal Lonely Planet reader, I thought Moon would be as good or better, considering the reviews for the two. This book is written for the author's ideals only - anyone who is really into sportfishing and seeing expats exclusively while traveling. It does a poor job of listing the more budget-minded lodging and restaurants, and has little to no mention of info that would suit someone with cultural interest. All restaurants and lodging are "to avoid the Ticos, book here" or "try expat Chuck and Susan's place, here". It would help someone book an entire trip to see other travelers traveling, and to go fishing. Disappointed, I went to the bookstore and paged through LP's older, more concise guide book, and was thrilled to see better descriptions, more color pictures, and more cultural insight. Moon's book also packs an extra 100 pages of Costa Rican history - something that is nice, but not necessary to take with me in a backpack trekking around the country.
Lastly, the author has an absurd overuse with superlatives! "This beach is the best in the country" and "the wildlife in this park is unmatched" - these are good descriptions, but when applied to every park and every beach, given that there are dozens, it makes it difficult for the traveler to make an informed decision to organize their best trip to Costa Rica.
Overall I was disappointed and will be buying a different guide book to take with me.

This book attempts to serve as a tavel guide for both the budget and the upscale price segments for trips to Costa Rica. It was first published (over) 15 years ago in 1994. This review considers the 6th edition of the book, which was the most current version when we made our trip in 2009.

While we cannot speak for the upscale price segment, this travel book utterly failed on us as a guide for our backpack tour through Costa Rica. It appears to us as if much of the information provided in the book is outdated and has not been properly updated.

The reasons for why we are so disappointed with the book include the following experiences:

1) In 2009 a change in the telephone system of Costa Rica took place. While the book briefly mentions this in the last chapter, it does not explain how this change affects the old seven digit numbers. Without this rather simple information (a number 2 must precede the seven digit numbers) all telephone numbers in the book are rendered useless. While this detail may not have been available when the 6th edition was published in 2007, we would have welcomed to be given a hotline number or an operator at the least, through which the necessary information could be obtained.

2) Hotels which are mentioned in the book are occasionally missing from the maps (e.g. Cashew Hill Jungle Lodge and Kaja's Place, Puerto Viejo).

3) The information about getting to Tortugero is rather misleading. The water taxis are not public, but run by a private operator. Thus the fare for the trip is not $6, but $35-40 (one-way). According to the locals the public water taxies were put out of operation as early as 1991 (!). The telephone number given in the book does not reach the taxi operator, but the port's main entrance gate. Furthermore the taxi trip from Puerto Limon to the port is not $4 but $10 (here the author contradicts himself, the error can be spotted by looking up the taxi meter rates at the end of the book).

4) The information on Cashew Hill Jungle Lodge, Puerto Viejo, is not correct. The Lodge does not offer any of the rooms mentioned in the book, instead it offers rental cottages for a much higher price. This can even be looked up at the very website which is provided in the book.

5) The telephone number of Tamarunda Lodge, Puerto Viejo, is not correct (wrong number).

6) On page 595 the author describes that tourists occasionally get pulled over by police men in the hope for bribes, because rental cars can be spotted by the letters TUR on the license plates. During the two weeks that we spent in Costa Rica we did not see a single car with such license plates, nor seemed our own car which we rented in the second week to be marked in such a way.

After our travels we went to the book store to have a look at the Lonely Planet guide for Costa Rica. It was surprising to find that a lot of the information which we missed in the Moon guide could actually be found in the Lonely Planet. We suspect that in the future we might be better of with a book that considers budget travel only, but does not aim to deliver information on both the budget and the upscale price segment.