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Books : The Rough Guide to Cuba (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
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Rating: 
- A travel guide missing the point of travelling
In short, the rough guide to Cuba was a sincere disappointment to me.
Of course it was not all bad, the almost 700 pages certainly contain loads of background information about Cuba which are informative and worthwhile to read. However, there a three major points that bug me the most and which I consider to be essential to any travel guide.
1) Maps: Detailed maps of Cuba, its provinces and its cities are vital for travelling around. Especially the regional maps lack in detail with important places left of the map. When directions in the guide are phrased as such: "the best place to stay in the mountain area is the villa santo domingo, about 68km souhtwest of Bayamo" and the place is not on any map it is somewhat hard to find.
2) There is an awkward logic to the guide, I found myself flipping back and forth through the guide in search of where the information is. This could have easily been solved with references to other pages. Also information on (hotel) prices are vague and general.
3) But, most of all the guide is written by a car-lover, who has neglected travel information on busses and trains. Over and over again the authors write that you need a car to go around (which of course is partly true at best). Bus and train routes, timetables and prices are severely neglected, probably because the authors assume you will rent a car anyway. For example, to reach Bayamo by train the authors write: "the train station is on calle Linea" and leave it at that! No further information.
So, for those who use the car the Rough Guide to Cuba will do just fine if you buy a good road map. Those who like to explore Cuba by public transport (as I do), pick another guide. This travel guide has ignored the essential: offering guidance in travelling around.
Rating:
- Not as good as other Rough Guides
We used this guide to travel around Cuba independently for two weeks. It's not as good as other Rough Guides we've used in the past (Kenya, Egypt).
While it isn't particularly bad, there are a few issues:
The maps of Havana are worse and smaller than in the previous (2005) edition of the guide, and there's no map of the area between Centro Habana and Vedado - you have to flick between two maps and there are no street names on the overlapping area. We ended up carrying the DK Eyewitness travel guide for Cuba just to have a half-decent map.
The writer(s) seemed to get bored of Cuba and there's a thread of cynicism and sarcasm that, while generating a smile at first, does become very tedious as it threads throughout the whole book.
Also, there are no bus timetables included.
Rating:
- Really, Really Useful and Up-to-Date
We have just returned from a 2-week holiday in Cuba - including Havana, Santiago,Trindad, Camaguey and Guardalavaca. The book is a bit unwieldy to carry around but is bang up-to-date. We used it for example to find "paladares" in which to eat. It is informative, contains an amazing amount of detail and is very thoroughly researched. And the advice about what to do - and what not to do ( or avoid) is spot on. A great buy.
Rating: - Important errandum
I have yet to test this book in Cuba, although thus far it seems to be as thorough as any other rough guide I have used.
That said, on p63, the book claims $1 CUC is worth roughly £1.80 GDP. The Cuban CUC is currently worth around £0.53 and has been (more or less) for the past year. Perhaps the author converted the currencies the wrong way. This lead me to believe that everything in the book cost 4 times what it actually does. And almost made me consider changing my entire plans.
I always use Rough Guides, so this schoolboy error is rather disappointing. I'll reserve judgement until I return from Cuba.
Rating:
- Not perfect - but as good as you're likely to get
I've just used this book to help me in my travels round Cuba and while it's not perfect, it was invaluable. The potted histories and local insights are all as well written as you would expect from the Rough Guides.
The book's usefulness is, admittedly, limited by the rapidly changing nature of much of Cuba. Paladars (the privately run restaurants) open and close all the time, musicians spring up here and there and then vanish again apparently without warning. And such seems to be the way of things in Cuba at the moment - all part of the charm. You just have to go with the flow and sometimes you strike gold, other times you find that the gold has moved on.
This guide contains accurate maps (better than many tourist maps available in Cuba - one good reason to buy it) and fair assessments of the more stable attractions such as museums, hotels etc, and that's about as good as you can hope for in a rapidly changing country.
To my knowledge the Rough Guide is currently a more recent edition than offered by its main competitors which in my opinion is a big selling point, given the changing nature of Cuba. If you're going, I recommend it. Don't rely solely on local maps and guidebooks which aren't plentiful and also tend to be slanted to emphasise what the Cubans think we tourists want to see and what they want to show off.
- A travel guide missing the point of travellingIn short, the rough guide to Cuba was a sincere disappointment to me.
Of course it was not all bad, the almost 700 pages certainly contain loads of background information about Cuba which are informative and worthwhile to read. However, there a three major points that bug me the most and which I consider to be essential to any travel guide.
1) Maps: Detailed maps of Cuba, its provinces and its cities are vital for travelling around. Especially the regional maps lack in detail with important places left of the map. When directions in the guide are phrased as such: "the best place to stay in the mountain area is the villa santo domingo, about 68km souhtwest of Bayamo" and the place is not on any map it is somewhat hard to find.
2) There is an awkward logic to the guide, I found myself flipping back and forth through the guide in search of where the information is. This could have easily been solved with references to other pages. Also information on (hotel) prices are vague and general.
3) But, most of all the guide is written by a car-lover, who has neglected travel information on busses and trains. Over and over again the authors write that you need a car to go around (which of course is partly true at best). Bus and train routes, timetables and prices are severely neglected, probably because the authors assume you will rent a car anyway. For example, to reach Bayamo by train the authors write: "the train station is on calle Linea" and leave it at that! No further information.
So, for those who use the car the Rough Guide to Cuba will do just fine if you buy a good road map. Those who like to explore Cuba by public transport (as I do), pick another guide. This travel guide has ignored the essential: offering guidance in travelling around.
Rating:
- Not as good as other Rough GuidesWe used this guide to travel around Cuba independently for two weeks. It's not as good as other Rough Guides we've used in the past (Kenya, Egypt).
While it isn't particularly bad, there are a few issues:
The maps of Havana are worse and smaller than in the previous (2005) edition of the guide, and there's no map of the area between Centro Habana and Vedado - you have to flick between two maps and there are no street names on the overlapping area. We ended up carrying the DK Eyewitness travel guide for Cuba just to have a half-decent map.
The writer(s) seemed to get bored of Cuba and there's a thread of cynicism and sarcasm that, while generating a smile at first, does become very tedious as it threads throughout the whole book.
Also, there are no bus timetables included.
Rating:
- Really, Really Useful and Up-to-DateWe have just returned from a 2-week holiday in Cuba - including Havana, Santiago,Trindad, Camaguey and Guardalavaca. The book is a bit unwieldy to carry around but is bang up-to-date. We used it for example to find "paladares" in which to eat. It is informative, contains an amazing amount of detail and is very thoroughly researched. And the advice about what to do - and what not to do ( or avoid) is spot on. A great buy.
Rating:
- Important errandumI have yet to test this book in Cuba, although thus far it seems to be as thorough as any other rough guide I have used.
That said, on p63, the book claims $1 CUC is worth roughly £1.80 GDP. The Cuban CUC is currently worth around £0.53 and has been (more or less) for the past year. Perhaps the author converted the currencies the wrong way. This lead me to believe that everything in the book cost 4 times what it actually does. And almost made me consider changing my entire plans.
I always use Rough Guides, so this schoolboy error is rather disappointing. I'll reserve judgement until I return from Cuba.
Rating:
- Not perfect - but as good as you're likely to getI've just used this book to help me in my travels round Cuba and while it's not perfect, it was invaluable. The potted histories and local insights are all as well written as you would expect from the Rough Guides.
The book's usefulness is, admittedly, limited by the rapidly changing nature of much of Cuba. Paladars (the privately run restaurants) open and close all the time, musicians spring up here and there and then vanish again apparently without warning. And such seems to be the way of things in Cuba at the moment - all part of the charm. You just have to go with the flow and sometimes you strike gold, other times you find that the gold has moved on.
This guide contains accurate maps (better than many tourist maps available in Cuba - one good reason to buy it) and fair assessments of the more stable attractions such as museums, hotels etc, and that's about as good as you can hope for in a rapidly changing country.
To my knowledge the Rough Guide is currently a more recent edition than offered by its main competitors which in my opinion is a big selling point, given the changing nature of Cuba. If you're going, I recommend it. Don't rely solely on local maps and guidebooks which aren't plentiful and also tend to be slanted to emphasise what the Cubans think we tourists want to see and what they want to show off.