Frommer's Mexico 2006 (Frommer's Complete Guides) [Paperback]

David Baird (Author), Lynne Bairstow (Author)

Book Description

Series: Frommer's Complete Guides | Publication Date: September 9, 2005

Completely updated every year (unlike most of the competition), Frommer's Mexico features gorgeous full-color photos of the white-sand beaches, mysterious ruins, and colorful market towns that await you. Our authors have lived in and written about Mexico for years, so they're able to provide valuable insights and advice. They'll steer you away from the touristy and the inauthentic, and show you the real heart of Mexico. Let them take you to exciting cities, charming colonial towns, lovely beach resorts, ancient ruins, traditional Maya villages, and natural wonders, from the Copper Canyon to the whale migration off Baja.

You'll travel Mexico like a pro with our candid advice and handy Spanish-language glossary. Also included are accurate regional and town maps (including site plans of the major ruins), up-to-date advice on finding the best package deals, and an online directory that makes trip-planning a snap!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer. Frommer's. The best trips start here.

• Everything you need to plan a successful Mexican vacation, from choosing the best beach resorts to discovering archaeological treasures.
• Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.
• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.
• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com

About the Author

David Baird is a writer, editor, and translator who doesn’t much like writing about himself in the third person (too close to being an obituary). Texan by birth, Mexican by disposition, he has lived several years in different parts of Mexico. Now based in Austin, Texas, he spends as much time in Mexico as possible. At home his hobbies include painting, scraping, mowing, and patching drywall.

For Lynne Bairstow, Mexico has become more home than her native United States. She has lived in Puerto Vallarta for most of the past 13 years, where she has developed a true appreciation and respect for the customs, culture, and natural treasures of Mexico. Her travel articles on Mexico have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Private Air magazine, Luxury Living magazine, and Mexicana’s and Alaska Airlines’ in-flight magazines. In 2000, Lynne was awarded the Pluma de Plata, a top honor granted by the Mexican government to foreign writers, for her work in the Frommer’s guidebook to Puerto Vallarta. She is appreciative of the invaluable contribution of her research assistant, Alejandra Macedo, in her work on this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 802 pages
• Publisher: Frommers; 1 edition (September 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764587951
• ISBN-13: 978-0764587955
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,911,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For tourists, not "travelers", November 16, 2005

By 

JWS - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Mexico 2006 (Frommer's Complete Guides) (Paperback)

Covers only the most popular tourist destinations and provides no coverage of cities one might drive through getting there. For example, Tampico and Monterey (!) are not even listed in the index. For covered areas, the emphasis is on the on the destinations popular with the fly-in tourist, while other major cities receive scant attention: Mérida, Yucatan's capital, has about the same number of pages as Tulum, a small Maya site easily assessable from Cancún. Hotel and restaurant coverage leans toward the upper end of the $ scale. Should be useful for the English-speaking tourist who wants to see something other than the beach (major archaeological sites are reasonably well covered), but is not useful for the traveler who might happen to arrive in Coatzacalcos (or any other non-tourist city) looking for a hotel and a meal.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frommer's is the best "upscale" guide available., February 22, 2006

By 

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Frommer's Mexico 2006 (Frommer's Complete Guides) (Paperback)

Mexico is popular! Last year it received over 20 million visitors, and with a fairly stable Mexican peso the prices for food, lodging and transportation offers a very good vacation value.

I took both Fodor's and Frommer's with me on my recent visit to Mexico and Frommer's is clearly the best. Frommer's Mexico 2006 opens with "What's New in Mexico", and this is a store house of information, especially if you are a frequent travelers to Mexico. New hotels and resorts are popping up throughout Mexico. If you can go to these spots before they become well known and packed, you apt to get great prices and better service.

Another section that I highly recommend is "The Best of Mexico" where the authors, Baird and Bairstow, have selected "Best Beach Vacations", "Best Culture Experiences", "Best Active Vacation", on and on.

Unlike, Fodor's, Frommer's makes life a bit easier by giving you the actual cost of accommodations and restaurant in dollars. Yea! All of the hotels have website listings and going online to see the rooms and layout of a hotel is a major help. The hotel recommendations are right on the money, but I found the restaurants recommendations to be hit or miss.

The authors describe each hotel and restaurant accurately and write in such a way that they paint a picture for you, "This centrally located hotel is comfortable, beautiful and well managed. It is a half-block from the plaza, in a large colonial mansion made from the same stone as the church. The two floors of rooms surround a stately courtyard with orange trees growing around a stone fountain and bougainvilleas creeping up the walls." Great writing.

Though the guide attaches a pull out-map of Mexico (a nice gift) they completely omitted maps by which locate the restaurants that they recommend. Thus finding the restaurants becomes a serious hassle, especially in the sprawling cities. This is serious omission. The six page anemic section on the history, politics, environment, culture and customs is an affront to Mexico.

If you are on a tight budget then you should consider Rough Guide or Lonely Planet. If you are on a very tight budget then Let's Go is the guide for you. If you got a little "jingle" in your pocket and you like the nicer things of life then Frommer's is the best "upscale" guide available.