Costa Rica: The Complete Guide: Ecotourism in Costa Rica (Color Travel Guide)

We ordered "3" books about Costa Rica prior to traveling there this year. Of all the books....this one was the most informative and understandable and accurate out of them all. Learning cultural do's and don'ts... finding out Costa Rica has no actual home address' or street names, what time the sun rises and sets...what is considered rude as well as how to receive a compliment. Do you know what an air kiss is? It is acceptable and something everyone should know about before arriving in CR. All that trivia and so much more! We found it highly entertaining with info that will come in very handy as we travel in the future. The author goes into great detail about the country itself. The location of things....forests, volcanos, hot springs to name a few....oh and the roads! Oh the roads will be quite a challenge as well!! So many great informative things tucked into 480 page book and with gorgeous pictures to boot! I had to wait longer to receive this book than I did the others....but it was well worth the wait and a book which "once opened" is very hard to put down! We have shared our findings with the friends who will be joining us on our journey and they now all have purchased the same book! If you're going to CR, order the book and enjoy every colorful fact filled page! You won't regret it!

I couldn't be happier with this guide to Costa Rica! It has everything you need to start, as a tourist traveling there. Things about the animals: birds, insects reptiles, all the surrounding areas, the different climates, traveling through and staying in various places, things about the culture and history. The highlights as well as the down sides and things to watch out for. Also, everything you would need to know about money, purchasing things, transportation/getting around the country, maps, directions, the customs and a few helpful phrases. It's divided by areas of interest which is very useful. Just a Fantastic purchase!

Used this book to plan my recent trip to Costa Rica and it was fantastic! The advice and recommendations were spot on. It is very hard to find good travel resources such as this one that provide narrative and context instead of large lists of dry info that can be looked up online anyway. The author is a great writer and the content hits the perfect balance of being relatively comprehensive while also concise and readable. I read through several location specific sections to plan our trip and I circled back and read all the introductory chapters on language, culture, food, history, etc. on the plane ride there. This book really enriched my trip to Costa Rica -- I hope the author writes books for other countries as well.

We purchased this for our trip to Costa Rica and we wanted our kids to learn all about Costa Rica before our travel. Our kids loved the book and they read the book in few days before our travel. The books covers details about the best places to visit in Costa Rica along with beautiful pictures and recommendations for best places to stay, eat and hike.

This is a truly wonderful guide for either visiting Costa Rica or, like in our case, moving there. The information, the photos and overall layout of the book are wonderful. The images are stunning throughout the whole book! Comparing with other great guides like Lonely Planet and Frommer’s guide, this one offers less restaurant and hotel information but a lot more insights about different areas, activities, history and culture and the country overall. It is truly a fantastic guide, thank you!

James Kaiser wrote an exceptionally informative book about Costa Rica, to include everything you want to know about all the major (and not so major) cities and towns, where to find what kind of wildlife, road conditions, weather conditions, areas of interest, and history of the area. I read the guide like a book, but one can read whatever suits. The entire book is interesting and even the history and short bios on influential people are fascinating. I will definitely take this book with me when I visit Costa Rica.

This was a fantastic book, unfortunately it was so heavy I couldn't take it on my trip with me but as a buyer of guides this had loads of information that isn't so obvious, so much so that you will have insight that others won't if you go through this carefully. Also had beautiful pictures. Recommend.

This book is too heavy and too large a format to actually be useful while moving around. The information is goo to VERY good but we found it to be a bit outdated. The author also really-it seems- likes to be quite verbose in his opinions. On the plus side I did learn a fair bit about Costa Rica. But when I compared this book to the guidebook a friend was using, I really did not see anything worth the extra several dollars I paid for this. It is my hope that that upcharge was donated back to the people and programs in Costa Rica.