Lonely Planet Guatemala

by Paul Clammer

Lonely Planet Guatemala is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Visit Tika's monumental restored temples, learn to speak Spanish while admiring picture-postcard vistas in Antigua or hike Lago de Atitlan's lakeshore trails -all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Guatemala and begin your journey now!

Inside Lonely Planet Guatemala Travel Guide:



Colour maps and images throughout

Highlightsand itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests

Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots

Essential infoat your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices

Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss

Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - ancient Maya heritage, history, religion, education, sport, wildlife, literature, painting, music, architecture, handicrafts, environmental issues, cuisine, coffee

Covers Guatemala City, Antigua, Lago de Atitlan, Quiche, Baja Verapaz, Alta Verapaz, Copan (Honduras), El Peten, Tikal, El Mirador, Chichicastenango, Quetzaltenango, Nebaj and more
The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Guatemala, our most comprehensive guide to the country, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled.

About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travelers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference, Collections, Guidebook

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Paul Clammer is the author of 'Black Crown: Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean's Forgotten Kingdom.' He wrote Bradt Travel Guides’ Haiti, the only English-language guidebook to the country, while his work for Lonely Planet includes writing more than forty guidebooks, including 2007's pioneering stand-alone guide to Afghanistan.

Reviews

[Yael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review from a Guatemalan:
Tho I liked the book and it has some facts that I didn't even know... It also has some misleading information and it tells you to go to places that don't even exist!
So if you use this book, try to look for information online or ask a local.

[Valerie Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Used this book to fill in a trip to Antigua and Lake Atitlan. Very thorough, and contained solid info on how to get around the lake towns in Ati.

[Theut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utile per preparare il viaggio, ricca di informazioni utili (ovviamente il web aiuta per gli aggiornamenti, ma sulle priorità/posti interessanti al momento il cartaceo batte siti ;)).

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guidebook edition was pretty good, but it was missing a lot of detail. Plus, it was riddled with small errors (typos, wrong page numbers cited, etc.) Lonely Planet needed a good proofreader for this edition. The style of this edition was different from other Lonely Planet guidebooks, and on one hand, I liked the more interesting way it wrote about the different attractions/things to do, the problem is that it really focused on a couple of the main things to do in each city/place. Some of the cities/towns, there was not a lot of information as to what to do/see. I am glad I had an older Lonely Planets guidebook for Guatemala because that provided much more detail on sites/things to do/eateries/places to stay so between the 2 books I got a comprehensive amount of information (though I did have to check that the eateries, etc. from the older book were still around and some of them were closed). So I am a bit disappointed in this LP guidebook. They could definitely had included more details for every place in this edition.

[Chelsea Waters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonfiction/ Informational

Summary:
Guatemala, a country with history. This travel guide gives color maps, suggestions of activities to do while in Guatemala and built in dictionaries to help with vocabulary. Maps and photographs give readers a view of Guatemala that they would not receive apart from this nonfiction text.

Evaluation:
This book is so engaging. From colored maps to actual budgeting suggestions, it follows a person through how to take a trip to Guatemala. This book is in the beginning of a series of different countries.

Activity:
These books come in a series of different locations that the students could research. Since the text gives suggestions for taking trips to Guatemala, I would ask the students to write a short paragraph on what they would do in Guatemala. I would incorporate this text by teaching the students about maps and what maps tell them.

[E&A Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in Guatemala for over 2 years, in the jungle on the Rio Dulce on my sailboat and this was my bible during that time. It was a huge help. If you have never been go now! It's a beautiful country and the people are the kindest in the world.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of places to see and experience. Little stories about the history and traditions of places also captured my mind.

[Yaotl Altan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una buena referencia sobre los sitios que no debemos omitir en nuestra visita a Guatemala 🇬🇹 tanto en su ciudad capital, como en la colonial Antigua, además de múltiples lagos, volcanes y sitios arqueológicos. También proporciona información cultural sobre ese hermano país.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I carried this book in my backpack for six weeks around Guatemala, like just about every other american (and most European) tourists. I found it helpful to a point, like most guidebooks I suppose, but after a week or two I began to find it most annoying. It didn't seem terribly well organized and I found it particularly difficult to use when trying to figure out how to get from place to place, because often that information was spread throughout the section, or simply was incomplete.

[Rosey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well... this was a good starting point for me. It did exactly what I wanted it to do--get me excited to go to Guatemala. Hopefully I'll get there, sometime in late August... again, let me know if you have any suggestions for reading regarding Guatemala, and any tips if you've been there... la dee da.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guidebooks for what they are worth can tell you a lot. And this one does that, but there is something about this guide book that only tells you about the tourist traps. I like to go where there aren't tourists. So take it with a grain of salt if you like to travel like me. But whatever you do don't carry it in your hand or the people will laugh at you!

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feel like I have a pretty good first impression of Guatemala now! It provided a thorough intro to the culture of Guatemala and listed many outside resources that will also be helpful for learning about the country before I go. The writing was pretty entertaining as well - my favorite part is when the author called the tectonic plates underneath Guatemala "frisky."

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this guide and can't wait to reference it on our trip to Guatemala this month! Skimmed quite a bit in the middle for regions we're saving for future trips. I'm really excited to visit the western highlands-Antigua, Lake Atitlan, and Xela. Lots of good food and lodging tips in this book as well as some history.

[maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is embarassing. They call indigenous traje "costumes". If you're ever going to travel to Guatemala and want a book borrow one from somebody else or get it used (I could track mine down for you)- don't give 'em your money.

[Justin Wiebelhaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great guide to Guatemala. Though I think things like specific restaurants and hotels is getting antiquated with the internet but the overviews of cities and the quick history of Guatemala was good. Also liked to inside look on culture and what makes the county unique.

[Jennifer Fetterly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good source for travel from Lonely Planet.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't go to The Mangle in Monterrico!

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a great trip!

[The Bamboo Traveler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Lonely Planet. It's probably the best travel guide on the country. Not perfect, though.