Travel to Mexico

Adventure Guide to the Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel

Format: Paperback
Author: Bruce Conord
ReleaseDate: 01 November, 2003
Publisher: Hunter
Rating:

Almost 5 Stars (I give it a 4.8)
We have looked at other guides, and so far this one is the most comprehensive for folks who want an unbiased guide to travel and learn the local flavor, locations, and habits of the people of Cancun and the Yucatan. This is a great guide we have been using now for the last two editions. If you are an "all-inclusive" type traveler who stays in one of those mega-resorts, this guide may enable you to see what you are missing by not venturing out on your own outside of the "packaged" trips controlled by the mega-resorts. If it had more information on local shopping areas like Mercado 28, Mercado 23, etc. and more local street restaurants, I would have rated it a 5. .

Not so great
(1) None of the maps are to scale. Might be a great book, but for my purposes (travel from Cancun to Tulum) it really didn't cut it. Not a big deal, but in some instances towns don't appear to be placed in the correct geographic locations (e. g. , shows Playa de Carmen located inland), and in the text the authors sometimes neglect to mention how far the town is from benchmarks (e. g. , other towns, kilometer markers). As a result, you will have no idea if you are getting close or still have 20 km to go. In unfamiliar terrain this is somewhat of a big deal ("did we pass it?"). (2) Many of the prices listed in the book are WAY off. Not sure how this could be unless the locals have recently figured out they can charge a lot more. (3) Some of the recommended "budget" or "moderately-priced" hotels were faily sketchy. Personally, I wouldn't recommend a hotel that didn't come with a toilet seat on the toilet, or that provided only one dingy, ripped towell for the shower. Maybe that suits budget travelers, but at $60/night I doubt it.

great comprehensive book of the region
This is an excellent guide if you like to do things different than the mainstream. We visited the Yucatan area for ~8 days and used this book extensively throughout our trip. Not surprisingly we got tired of Cancun itself very quickly, with it's Vegas-like atmosphere, crowds and prices. This book was the only reference we needed to visit the surrounding region and provided a great overview of the 'real' Yucatan.

However, the coverage of hotels and restaurants is not comprehensive. The authors only describe the places that where they have actually eaten/stayed, with a lot of personal opinions rather than objective views. Also, they seem to be fixated on bakeries, which was kind of odd.

Overall a great book, but I would suggest to get a complementary guide for the purpose of food/lodging.

Related products:
click image or link for details on these Mexico travel books.

	The Rough Guide to The Yucatan Map (Rough Guide Country/Region Map)
	Frommer's Cancun, Cozumel & the Yucatan 2006 (Frommer's Complete)
	Fodor's Cancun, Cozumel, Yucatan Peninsula 2006 (Fodor's Gold Guides)