Colombia (Bradt Travel Guide) | 
 enlarge | Author: Sarah Woods
Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $13.99
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 230683
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 1841622427
Dewey Decimal Number: 918
EAN: 9781841622422
ASIN: 1841622427
Publication Date: July 17, 2008
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Product Description
Much like neighboring Panama, Colombia is home to a fascinating mix of cultures and wildlife. The country has more plant and animal species per square mile than any other country in the world – over 130,000 endemic plants and 1,900 species of bird – and both coastlines (Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea) are rich in coral reefs and marine life. Sports enthusiasts are catered for with climbing, paragliding, fishing, diving and windsurfing, and for the culture vultures Colombia also boasts historic colonial and six sites with UNESCO World Heritage status.
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| Customer Reviews:
 made my trip to Columbia all the more special September 15, 2008
Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found this book a thoroughly researched and detailed guide to traveling Colombia. No travel guide to a rapidly changing country can be 100% perfect, but this one hit the mark more than not. I`m also pleased to see it includes lots of personal insight to stuff that`s off the beaten track. Good stuff.
a good starting place September 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just got back from my first trip to Colombia. This book has a lot of breadth and helped us in the early stages of deciding where to go and what to do. We didn't have any security problems whatsoever, sticking to the author's recommended areas in Medellin and Bogota. We visited many of the places that the Bradt book recommended in these cities. I felt like the book was well-researched in general.
I gave the book only 3 stars because it wasn't sufficient on its own. There weren't enough maps to really be helpful to us. Often, I felt like the book pointed out that a destination existed, but didn't provide enough information to actually get there. I was also surprised to see no information on tipping (restaurants, hotel staff, etc). I don't really blame the author -- I think she had to choose between breadth and depth, and admirably tried to cover most of the country.
We supplemented the Bradt book with city and transport maps we got for free in Colombia from the tourism kiosks, and two Spanish-language guidebooks we bought in Bogota: El Tiempo's guide to Bogota (El Tiempo is a newspaper)"Guias El Tiempo Bogota" and "Medellin Turistica" (bilingual, but the Spanish section is better). El Tiempo's book was especially useful with excellent maps, pictures, etc. I highly recommend it and I think it would be helpful even if you don't speak Spanish. The Medellin guidebook we used was just okay -- but necessary considering the Bradt guide's short section on Medellin.
 I haven't read this book, but.... September 10, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
.... I have been to Colombia. And I'm really so very sorry to hear of the previous reviewer's trouble at Parque San Antonio. I personally visited that park on a weekday morning and felt very safe.
During my time in Colombia I traveled to Medellin, Bogota, and more. I even took a trip into the Colombian Andes with some locals I'd just met the day before. And though I stayed out late I always felt safe.
My heart goes out to all travelers who encounter trouble on the road, but, for the record, I had a very safe, pleasant experience in Colombia.
the worst guide i've ever used - read this before going to colombia August 11, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
just got back from colombia. i brought this and my friend brough the lonely planet. this book is horrendous, even compared to the LP. both are weak, but the LP is by far the better of the two. the most important thing about a guide is safety, in a place like colombia. this book, it seems, just copied the LP for everything but history. it's supposed to be the most recent guide, but has nothing really new on the LP. it recommended the same hotels in the area by the cathedral in medellin. so did the LP. no one happened to go there or check with the police, quite obviously, because it's one of the sketchiest neighborhoods i've ever seen. transexual hookers who mug people on the blocks all around it. one simple check with the police and they will tell you it's a critical zone. it also mentions how safe a city it is. i really wonder how much research was done. in the day we got there we saw and arrest, someone tried to get into my daypack while walking around, and then we were walking in in broad daylight, in the very crowded Parque San Antonio, and my friend and i, both having grown up in brooklyn, and being bigger than most colombians, were jumped by 5 guys with knives, who were going for my camera, and i was STABBED IN THE BACK! we talked to the police who said exactly where to go and where not to, and that it's not nearly as safe as the guides lead you to believe.
more specifically to this book. the maps are absolutely useless, the second most important thing a book can contain. and the recommendations are few and far between for both food and lodging, and are barely located on the useless maps, so they're really no help at all.
my advice is to get the Lonely Planet, despite it's flaws, be careful in the big cities, don't carry anything that looks expensive, and take cabs at night anywhere that looks sketchy. that all said, colombians in general are some of the nicest people i've met and the country has a lot to offer. i have travelled 35 countries all over the world and grew up in nyc in tougher times. i had no problems in any of my previous travels, including brazil, mexico, guatemala, indonesia, or otherwise. i would just warn anyone going to colombia to be on your toes, and ask a lot of travelers where they stayed and where to avoid. things do happen there, and though it's a wonderful country, well worth a visit, don't walk around blind to the realities.
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