Choosing the Right Travel Companion

One of the first things we often do when considering a trip to someplace new is pick up a travel guide. Stop by a Barnes and Noble or Half Price Books, and you´ll find walls of travel books, each with their own take on your particular country or continent of choice. I arrived in Honduras with two travel guides: one on Honduras and another on Central America, I have somehow accumulated nearly 10 travel guides on Central America!!!

This evening I sat down with a glass of wine (!!!) and decided to tackle my mountain of travel books in attempts to plan a trip to El Salvador for my quickly approaching 28th birthday! I won´t bore you with all the details (I´d rather post pictures after), but I will share a few thoughts on the most common travel books that are currently gracing my shelves, in hopes that it may help in your future Central American travel investigations!

Fodors: A five-star travel guide aimed at audiences who are looking to enjoy the luxurious and more exclusive ammenties of Central America. Suggested hotels tend to focus on high-end chains at the expense of ignoring smaller, locally-owned establishments. They do; however, do a nice job of covering key tourist and historical attractions within each city.

Lonely Planet: Coveres the tried and true backpacker havens as well as a few of the more well known upscale digs. This book is a great first reference, but tends to be a bit out of date, making this backpacker wonder when the last time they sent anyone to the countries they are writing about. THAT being said, Lonely Planet has a great website were people can post updates and meet others traveling in the area! Well worth checking out!


Frommers: Currently my travel guide of choice (and that is not just because it is the one I came with), it provides a great mix of economical backpacking dorms and upper scale hotels as well as a great mix of eateries and activities to provide a well rounded lay of the land. While there are not as many cultural side notes as some of the other travel books, the space is taken up with additional things to do and places to visit.


Let´s Go: A great, quirky travel book that continues to surprise me with random hostels and out of the way, hidden gems that are only found by people taking the time to thoroughly explore a city and its people. Their Central American book is almost exclusively written by students and young adults who are tend to be a bit more open to experiencing the culture beyond tourist attractions in the areas they write about. Lots of side tracks make it a fun, if meandering, read!