Moon Costa Rica available as e-book travel apps

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Avalon Travel Publishing, which publishes the Moon guidebook series (plus Rick Steves’ famously popular European guidebook series) is at the very forefront of digital guidebook publishing, and makes its user-friendly guidebooks available on a network of mobile devices, complete with hundreds of photos and customs maps.

(Moon’s electronic guidebooks also let you search for information, just like you flick through the index of a book.)

For example, my Moon Costa Rica guidebook and three Moon Spotlight regional guides are available as e-books on Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and the Sony Reader book readers, as well as on Apple’s iTunes.

I’m blown away by the explosion of sales of Kindles and iPads, and it’s gratifying to see strong sales for my e-book versions.

Travelers (and travel publishers) are abuzz at the benefits that e-books and apps—downloadable from the cloud to their handheld computing devices and wireless networks—offer over paper editions.

Travelers like to have the most up-to-date information to ensure getting the most from their travels. The rise of e-books, travel apps, and wireless delivery makes the day of the perpetually updated ‘real time’ guidebook close to hand.

Plus, depending on the format, you might get such enhanced functionality as internal and external hyperlinks, slide shows, and interactive maps, as with my Costa Rica ¡Pura Vida! travel app, available on iTunes and for Android.

Apps aside, when it comes to full-on guidebooks many travelers continue to prefer the ease of toting around a paper guidebook that you can pack in your cargo-pants pocket while in the field, without need to haul around an ‘inflexible’ e-book reader.

Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer the feel of a paperback guidebook rather than electronic versions.

Which reminds me of a recent post by Rick Steves on WorldHum in which he wrote: “I am pretty slow in all of this. And, while determined not to be a Luddite about the demise of paper, I recently invited one of my employees (who I thought was a bit over-enthusiastic about futuristic forms of travel information) into my office, pointed to the 30 different Rick Steves guidebooks lining my windowsill, and said, ‘This is what we do ... paper guidebooks.’”

If you prefer your guidebook auto-delivered wirelessly, here are your options for my Moon Costa Rica guidebooks…

iPhone and iPad editions:
Moon Costa Rica, $9.99
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, $4.99
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast, including San José, $4.99
Moon Spotlight Arenal & Monteverde, $4.99

Kindle editions:
Moon Costa Rica, $9.99
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, $4.99
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast, including San José, $4.99
Moon Spotlight Arenal & Monteverde, $4.99

Nook editions:
Moon Costa Rica, $12.31
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, $8.39
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast, including San José, $8.39
Moon Spotlight Arenal & Monteverde, $8.39

Sony Reader:
Moon Costa Rica, $12.09
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, $7.16
Moon Spotlight Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast, including San José, $7.16
Moon Spotlight Arenal & Monteverde, $6.59

For old-schoolers like Rick Steves and myself who like the tactile pleasure of a paper guidebook, buy Moon Costa Rica

If you're traveling only to San José and the Caribbean, buy Moon Spotlight Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast pocket guide.

If you're traveling only to the beaches of Nicoya, buy Moon Spotlight Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula pocket guide.

If you're traveling only to Arenal and/or Monteverde, buy Moon Spotlight Costa Rica's Arenal&Monteverde pocket guide.

Learn more about Christopher P. Baker.

Disclosure: I occasionally accept free or discounted travel when it coincides with my editorial goals. However, my opinion is never for sale. The opinions you see in Cuba & Costa Rica Journal are my unbiased reflection of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Copyright © Christopher P. Baker