Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)While I agree with the conservationist spirit and general distaste for overrun tourist traps expressed throughout this guidebook by Matthew Firestone (one of the book's two authors), I found his relentlessly negative tone to be extremely off-putting. While the sections written by the other author (Mara Vorhees) are more neutral, informative and generally reflect the high quality I've come to expect from the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks, Matthew Firestone's sections have fully succeeded in dampening my enthusiasm for a trip to Costa Rica before the trip has even begun.
While it may be that the beach at Playa Tamarindo "is full of blubbery North American and European holidaymakers who spend most of their time frying in the sun like beached whales" turning their complexion "from a pasty white to a rosy shade of skin cancer," and while that description does indeed sound like a scene I would rather avoid, I find the author's consistent haughty tone and overriding negativity to be out of place and offensive in a book that is intended for - after all - tourists.
I am still planning what I fully expect to be an exciting and fun vacation in Costa Rica, but now I have to do so in spite of the author of this book's overbearing negativity. It's true, I'm sure, that Costa Rica was once better to visit than it is today, but this book is not for people who knew and loved the country years ago. It's intended for people who have never been there before, and since Mr. Firestone couldn't put aside his sour gripes and focus on what's great about the place rather than bemoaning what's been lost, his words and advice won't be making the trip with me.
This book has been my first disappointment in the Lonely Planet series.
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