Customer Reviews

Explorer's Guide Playa Del Carmen, Tulum & the Riviera Maya: A Great Destination (Second Edition) (Explorer's Great Destinations)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just returned from a trip to Riviera Maya. I researched pretty thoroughly before purchasing Hinsdale's guide book and did so largely due to the recent release of this 2nd Edition. My impression is that more work needed to have been done and that it is essentially still a 2005 edition. I found (make that failed to find) several Playa restaurants closed, non existent, or mislocated. Tried to find a few beaches based on the guide, going to the specified Km post and finding an entrance to a mega-resort instead of the described dirt road. Tragically, such change is occurring rapidly to this stretch of coast, but I have to believe that a lot was not checked in putting together this 2nd Ed.

That said, Hinsdale's might be the best guide out there. In most guide books, the Riviera Maya is a chapter at best.

At first blush, this guide book seems to be all you could want for someone travelling to Playa del Carmen-lots of general info and history about the local area, things to do, hotels, restaurants, but two restaurants we went to (on this and no other guide book's recommendation) were just plain wrong. One-La Adela- was 'highly recommended' as a Mexican/Mayan restaurant. It was a complete waste of time-typical tourist menu, lots of upsell to the pricey marguaritas-I've had better Mex food in suburban Connecticut. The nicest thing you could say about the review was that the phone number was wrong, but unfortunately, they could take us without a reservation.

The other was La Fe restaurant, which again was one of the highlighted choices for italian food. The person who finally answered the phone seemed surprised that I wanted to reserve a table. When we got there, we understood why. This wasn't a retuarant, it was a bar. We couldn't even get them to give us a menu. Maybe the author was thinking about the italian restaurant next door Il Baretto, which was also reviewed (but not as highly).

Anyway-if you're looking for general info on the area, this is an OK guide book; if you're looking for specifics, try the Moon or Fodor guide books.

I was very disappointed in this book. It was a boring read with all black and white photos that appeared to be taken years ago. Information really didn't seem to be up-dated or maybe it was the boring photos. The only reason I kept it was to have something else to check out or, share with my lady friend.

Bought the 2009 edition in November of 2009. Sure it's late in the year, but pricing can't have changed THAT much, right? I booked my trip to Playa del Carmen for January 2010 and took the book with me, thinking it was an invaluable resource. Almost everything was twice as expensive as the book listed (probably pricing from 2006). Hello, who edited this thing? Also the locations for quite a few attractions were inaccurate by several blocks or not even existant. It wasn't helpful in Playa del Carmen, so I tossed it and asked the locals for advice.

Buy any other book but this one.

I have to admit I did not fully appreciate this book until we actually got to Riviera Maya. I actually purchased other guide books, like the Eyewitness Travel Guide Top 10, because I love the photos. However this book has a wealth more information and we particularly enjoyed the walking tour of Playa as well as the awesome restaurant/food suggestions. It's apparent the author has spent lots of time there and feels like you are getting "inside" info. I would highly reccommend this book over others.

I love to read travel guides and I love to travel. We have been to Playa Del Carmen twice and plan to go back. We have taken this travel guide with us every time and will take it again, as Hinsdale has packed this book full of fabulous things to do and we haven't done them all yet. Hinsdale was right on every thing that he reccomends and has steered us to many things we would not have otherwise known about. We have taken a few daytrips to other areas, and the author could suggest a few more of those (Coba was fantastic) but overall this is a very well rounded travel guide and interesting read. Hinsdale clearly loves Playa and so do we!