Adventure Guide to the Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel [Paperback]

Bruce Conord (Author), June Conord (Author), Bruce (Author)

Book Description

Series: Adventure Guide to the Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel | Publication Date: November 1, 2003

This book offers tons of recommendations for everything from tour operators to restaurants to hotels in every price budget. All are based on first-hand experience from authors who know the Yucatan intimately. Comprehensive background information - history, culture, geography and climate - gives you a solid knowledge of each destination and its people. Regional chapters take you on an introductory tour, with stops at museums, historic sites and local attractions. Places to stay and eat; transportation to, from and around your destination; practical concerns; tourism contacts - it's all here! Detailed regional and town maps feature walking and driving tours. Then come the adventures - fishing, canoeing, hiking, rafting, llama trips and more. Never galloped along a beach on horseback, trekked up a mountain, explored ancient sites? "Adventure Guides" include extensive lists of recommended outfitters, with all contact details - e-mail, website, phone number and location.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Comparing your book to Lonely Planet's - your book won hands down on every level. It was AWESOME! -- Erika Holm

Profiles 49 Maya destinations, excellent trip planning hints, detailed maps and advice from health precautions to getting around. -- Anton Newspapers

Your Yucatan guide is great.....Keep up the good work -- Bill Bell

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Hunter; 3 edition (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588433706
• ISBN-13: 978-1588433701
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Travel > Latin America > Mexico > Cancun & Cozumel
  • #24 in Books > Travel > Latin America > Mexico > Yucatan Peninsula

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars La Ruta de Conord: the essential 2ndary guide book, August 17, 2005

By 

C. B. Newman "moodindigo2" (Brisbane, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adventure Guide to the Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel (Paperback)

With such an extensive selection of travel guides for the "horn" of Mexico, including Quintana Roo (East-Caribbean), Yucatan (North-interior), and Campeche (West-Gulf of Mexico), the selection for THE travel guide to these regions is not obvious. Lonely Planet, Moon, Fodors, Frommers, and Eyewitness are just a few of the more widely known and popular. Conord's Adventure Guide Series "The Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel" opened a doorway I would have missed had I relied upon these other venerable guides. Bruce and June Conord leave the main roads and La Cuota behind to explore the regions surrounding Cancun, Valladolid & Chichen Itza, Merida, the Maya, Church, and Convent routes (La Rutas Maya, Iglesia, y Convento) and many other fascinating locales.

A quick glance at this Adventure Series guide reveals a plethora of adventure and culture awaiting any traveler willing to get off the main tourist road/La Cuota and experience El Mexico tipico, the real Mexico. Whether you wish to know of the magnificent cenotes (sinkholes) hidden just off the highways awaiting you with their cool blue waters, or the quaint little thatch-roofed restaurants visited by ex-pats and locals, Spanish colonial Haciendas built to amaze and pamper travelers, ancient villages nestled in the Puuc hills near Uxmal, this guide is the key to these unseen treasures you simply will not find in many of the guides listed above. Yes, Lonely Planet or the Moon Guide can point you in the right direction for a nifty little hostel overlooking the main plaza in Merida (as do the Conords), but they lack some of the insight and author's tips that can come only from personal relationships with many owners/proprietors and locals who live in the area. The Conords offer not just the obvious choice of where to stay or eat; by providing insider tips and offering both the good and bad, they provide a perspective that seems to be spoken from the locals themselves.

Guides such as Fodors and Frommers excel in rating and testing hotels, restaurants, and shopping. In truth, the Adventure Series Guide can not compete with such thoroughness. Yet much is left out by these other popular guides that Conords shine so brightly in documenting and elaborating upon. Author's notes, historical backgrounds, quotations, and contact information abound in the Adventure Series Guide. Fodors offers only its few top choices for bungalows and hotels along the popular Boca Paila Road near Tulum. The Conords review almost every establishment in either direction of the road near the Tulum crossroads. Lacking its own rating system, Adventure Series Guide works well in conjunction with these other narrow yet precise travel guides.

The authors' strength lies not in sheer quantity, but by giving enough choices and explaining how things truly function and are accessed in each area. Other guides can be limiting in the offerings of only the "safe" bets. Safe does not always equate to adventure and "an experience" that many of us want in a vacation. With over 400 pages of easy to read descriptions, suggestions, Maya history & vocabulary, witty anecdotes, and ample coverage of Cancun, Playa D.C., Isla Mujeres, and Cozumel in addition to off-the-beaten-path, a traveler who takes this guide to the horn of Mexico is sure to find their own unique adventure.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helped make our Cancun vacation great!, August 18, 2005

By 

Summer B. Frace (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adventure Guide to the Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel (Paperback)

I spent a week in Cancun last year and this was the only guidebook I took with me. The best part about this book is that it highlights some more out of the way sites and things to see and do. I also appreciated the section on car rental since we did end up renting one to see some of the aforementioned out of the way sites (Tulum and Aktun Chen - which, if you are planning a trip to the Yucatan, are must-see sites).

The dining recommendations were spot on. We ate at several of the reviewed restaurants and were very happy. When I didn't follow their recommendations, I was a bit disappointed (they were right and I didn't listen).

If you want a Mexican vacation where you sun yourself on a beach and want some upscale dining and hotel recommendations, this book might not be for you. However, if you want to stay busy every day with exciting things to do and interesting sites to see, this book will surely help you on your adventure.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best!!, July 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Adventure Guide to the Yucatan, Cancun & Cozumel (Paperback)

Absolutely, hands down, the best guide book on the Yucatan. What mystifies me, is that with all its glowing customer reviews, it doesn't come up on an Amazon search of Yucatan guide books (or at least not anywhere near the top as it should). You really have to search it out. Shame because lots of people will miss out.