Customer Reviews

Frommer's Mexico 2006 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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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.

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.