Customer Reviews

Moon Handbooks: Baja (3rd Ed.)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You couldn't ask for a better travel book on Baja. I found myself reading it repeatedly on my trip, not just for hotel and restaurant info, but like a novel--for the sheer pleasure of it. The sidebars and thumbnail histories are so well-researched and expertly delivered that I rank it not just among the best travel books on Mexico, but among the best books of any kind. The concise discussion of the ejido system and of the changing rules for foreign real estate purchases are just two small examples. Cummings touches on every aspect of Mexican society and its interaction with the people to the north, in addition to giving the essentials on gas stations and bus schedules and airports and resorts-all in the delightfully understated style that has become his hallmark.

Especially useful for me were his mention of side roads that lead away from the transpeninsular highway into the mountains of the interior. I took a number of them and often found pristine desert, unchanged for centuries. The route from Loreto to the Mission of San Javier was particularly good. The landscape was similar to Arizona, except that many canyons had oases of palm trees with only the cries of roosters and goats breaking the silence so that you could feel you were in a bygone time in ancient Mexico or Mesopotamia. Cummings calls the road suitable only for 4wd high clearance vehicles. It must have been improved since, because I drove it with an economy rental car with wheels the size of oreos and a hefty 3.5 inches of clearance. If one proceeds slowly and carefully there is no problem, though I would not have gone on if there were any sign of rain.

The best beach by far that I found was that of Todos Santos. It is very clean and unsullied by automobiles, probably thanks to a sign near the parking area that not only warns against taking vehicles onto the beach, but also notes the amount of prison time assigned to violators. And the waves are fabulous: 15' rolling tubes that explode into 40' towers of spray, a natural drama one can watch for hours with only pelicans and the occasional crab for company. It's typical of Cummings' sense of the drama of travel that he tells the best way to get to this great beach: "follow Calle Topete across the palm-filled arroyo...the first sand road on the other side...turn left just before the low rock wall...", but let's you find out on your own what a delight the access road itself is: an inconspicuous lane that runs about a half mile between high stone walls on one side and a line of mango trees on the other, ending in a tunnel through a thicket of bamboo that emerges onto the parking area (shaded!). Bicycles and walkers are on an equal footing with autos, and the tiny scale of the sandy track almost compels you to roll down your window and say hola. Ojala that it stays that way.

Playa San Pedrito, a dozen miles to the south, is also charming and unspoiled, but far from any place to buy food and drink. Punta Conejo, sixty miles to the north, is the most desolate section of Pacific coast I've ever walked. In three days I saw not one person, nor one bit of shade of any kind: no palapas, no trees, no cliffs...even the towering cacti keep at least a quarter mile between themselves and the surf at all times. If Mexico were a nanny state, one would be required to purchase a parasol before venturing onto the beach.

The beaches on the other side of the peninsula are also very nice, but lack large waves, the Sea of Cortez being much like the Red Sea, a huge body of saltwater separated from the ocean by miles of desert. I was there in September, and I often had to get out of the water to cool off, rather than the reverse, which holds true on the Pacific year round. The eastern coast of Baja is probably ideal in January and February. Here, too, Cummings is comprehensive. Nothing escapes his notice, with the exception of the exceptional qualities of the Hotel Moro just outside Santa Rosalia. Senor Espinosa's rambling hacienda style hotel is a work of art. Cummings makes unjustly short shrift of it in calling it "tourist-oriented". I would call it beauty-oriented, with its elegant terrace overlooking the water, and its aviary, and its cool pool set in a profusion of tropical flowers. It's a far greater value than the "venerable Hotel Frances", where you pay twice the money for a room in the midst of a lovingly restored industrial plant far from the water.

As a 30 year traveler and home owner in the Baja, I have quite a collection of guide books covering the entire peninsula. I was suprised to find that Joe Cummings has written one that covers everyones interests. There are too many travel books that concentrate on the authors specialty ie. geology, boating, history etc. However, Cummings gives a book that works from the budget traveler to the exceptionally rich. His historical, ecological, and other interesting facts makes the book one that I recommend for the first time traveler to the seasoned baja explorer. More importantly his information on pricing to condition of the roads is current which so many Baja guide books are lacking. A big applause for Joe Cummings for writing a good read and and an accurate travel guide for us all.

This book is just great. It starts out with a good basic overview of the area. I used the book on a recent trip to La Paz. The maps are excellent and very easy to use. The prices are a bit off at times but still in the range. The hotels are broken down into price categories, that was very helpful. The book helped with getting around by bus and the restaurant sections gives good accurate descriptions. This book was just super. If your going to Baja, anywhere in Baja, get this book it is well worth the price.

I recently took this book along on a two-week trip to Baja. Joe Cummings clearly has a love for the place, and provides a lot of helpful and informative information. It's most useful in it's guides to the towns and cities, restaurant & hotel recommendations etc. We used it to suplement another excellent Baja guide, Walt Peterson's "Baja Adventure Book". A word of caution - on at least two occasions, the information given in this guide was incorrect - in one town the largest supermarket wasn't even mentioned, and in Ensenada, a store we tried to find didn't appear to exist! All in all though, a very useful guidebook, and to be recommended,

We went to Cabo San Lucas and used the guide extensively for dining references. We were not disappointed. Not only were the reviews on the mark, we were able to find some wonderful restaurants off the beaten path that we would not otherwise have found. When we decided to take a day trip to Los Santos, we found the book indispensable not only for dining, but also for finding our way around the landmarks and shops. The brief histories of the various towns were interesting, as well. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in maximizing their enjoyment of Baja.

In December 1997 thru to Feb 1998, my husband and I spent 2 months in Baja and Baja Handbook was our bible. We looked at many travel books for this area before settling on Baja Handbook. We found it to be very well laid out with lots of helpful tips and info for the first time Baja traveller. We would definately recommend it to anyone travelling this area, especially now that it has been revised. HAPPY TRAILS!!!

A wealth of information on driving, fishing, boating, where to sleep, camp and have fun. I love this book! It's helped us find out of the way places the average traveler doesn't look for.

I think it's even better than the 4th edition!

This book was our primary guide through the 2,000 mile odyssey of driving the Baja pennisula. It did cover every place we saw BUT it was missing information or out of date which surprised me since it was just revised October 2004. It definately does not cover Cabo well, but that is not its focus, so I did not mind that weakness as much as the others.

Although nicely written and illustrated, I found much frustration in using this book on a southern Baja trip in January, 2008. The 6th Edition is very out-of-date and not terribly useful for finding specific businesses, campgrounds, and so forth. More generic information seems fairly comprehensive; just don't rely upon it for specifics (at least in the region including & between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas).

I'll use just a couple of examples to back up my point. Since the fall 2004 printing of this edition, numerous restaurants and lodging properties have disappeared, as one might expect in 3 1/2 years. The author's descriptions of the Cabo Pulmo area inspired me to make the drive to reach what were described as great snorkeling beaches, in a protected zone, with easy access from the Coast Road.

Much of the land in this area has, apparently, now been purchased by land speculators, and billboard-sized "No Trespassing" signs have been erected every 200 meters or so, on and behind barbed wire fences that crowd the road. I only could find a single public access to the beaches from the road, even within the marine park boundaries, not the easy and plentiful accesses promised in the guide.

This guide is in desperate need of updating and revision!

I have been travelling to Baja last 17 years but I still found out few things in the book unknown to me and interesting. Looking forward to exploring some of the sights on my next trip, as noted in the book mama Espenosa's saying "Bad road good people, good road bad people" it seems true to me.