Moon Handbooks Cabo [Paperback]

Joe Cummings (Author)

Book Description

Series: Moon Handbooks | Publication Date: August 31, 2004

Whether they're after beaches in Todos Santos, nightlife in Cabo San Lucas, or historical landmarks in La Paz, travelers will find what they're looking for in this guidebook to the verdant region of Baja California. Moon Handbooks Cabo provides the essentials on a range of dining, transportation, and accommodation options, as well as useful cultural insights and sidebar topics on subjects such as island-hopping, cooking, religion, and bar lingo. Complete with maps, photographs, illustrations, and extensive information on outdoor activities, such as hiking, fishing, boating, sea kayaking, windsurfing, surfing, snorkeling, and scuba diving, Moon Handbooks Cabo is the traveler's guide to a memorable and uniquely personal trip.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The latest in the batch of Moon Handbooks releases proves again that Moon is one of the finest travel series around. What sets Moon apart from most guidebooks is the attention to detail, and more importantly, a respect for the topic.

About the Author

A good part of Joe Cummings' childhood was spent in San Antonio, Texas, and he ate his first taco in the 1960s in one of the Mexican border towns his family visited frequently. Joe is now the author of Moon Handbooks to Baja, Cabo, Mexico, Mexico City, Northern Mexico, and Texas. As a freelance journalist Joe has also contributed to dozens of periodicals, including BBC Holidays, Geographical, The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Outside Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, South China Morning Post, Via, and the Wall Street Journal. He has twice received the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Gold Award, and twice been a finalist in London's Thomas Cook Guidebook of the Year awards. In 2001 he received Mexico's Pluma de Plata award for outstanding foreign journalism, for his work on Moon Handbooks Mexico City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing; 5th edition (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566916070
• ISBN-13: 978-1566916073
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,635,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe Cummings was born in New Orleans, and raised in California, France and Washington DC. In high school he developed a taste for rock guitar and subversive politics, playing in a succession of garage bands while publishing an underground newspaper. After he graduated from college, the Peace Corps granted his request to be posted to Thailand, where he served as an English lecturer at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology in Bang Mot, Thonburi. He later earned a master's degree in South Asian Civilization from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a scholar in residence at the East-West Center in Hawaii. His Thailand guide for Lonely Planet was the first guidebook to that country written in English since 1928. An instant success, it remains one of the bestselling guidebook ever published. He has authored over 35 other books, including coffeetable books, phrasebooks and travelogues. Joe has twice been honoured with the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Gold Award and is also a recipient of Mexico's Pluma de Plata (Silver Quill) for outstanding foreign journalism on Mexico. He never gave up the guitar, and continues to jam regularly at clubs in Thailand, where he makes his home.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cape Region Guide, February 28, 2007

By 

Enrique Torres "Rico" (San Diegotitlan, Califas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Moon Handbooks Cabo (Paperback)

I made a trip to Cabo last year and found this book quite useful for planning and executing a trip. Do your homework before you go, read it and plan a tentative schedule of events and things to see and do and you will save valuable time when time is of the essence. A more appropriate title might be The Cape Region but it wouldn't have the name recognizability that Cabo does. Tourists tend to visit Cabo San Lucas or as it is known, Cabo, when they fly in. The book covers the whole Cape Region, including the Central Cape where you wil find small towns and if you are so inclined ,hiking trails in the Sierra de la Laguna. For the adventurous soul there is information about camp sites and details about the Canyons found in the Central Cape. The East Cape is only touched upon briefly unfortuantely. There is also a section on La Paz and the vicinity surrounding it.Other sections of the book include both Cabos, San Jose del Cabo and the more popular Cabo San Lucas. We stayed in a condo in San Jose del Cabo as our headquarters and found it quite pleasant and enjoyable. It was quite laid back. By comparison Cabo San Lucas was anything but. If tourist infested regions of Mexico are what you seek in a trip to Mexico than San Lucas is for you. A few visits was enough for me as I preferred the tranquility and slower pace of San Jose. In any event, the book lays out information for both, including The Corridor, which is the 18-mile stretch between San Jose and San Lucas. The book has maps detailing the various accessible beaches along The Corridor, including several surfing breaks on the reef. There are also several diving spots along The Corridor. Restaurants are also suggested but naturally food tastes are subjective and require some common sense and prior knowledge of the food of Baja's coast. The book also covers the West Cape which is not very developed but has the old charm of Mexico. There is lots to discover in the old towns. A major section is dedicated to Todos Santos which is a lushly-vegetated arroyo seco(dried river bed). I found this place to be very interesting , quaint yet quite charming with a bohemian-artist-flair to the town. It is an artist colony of sorts. Here you will find The Hotel California. Each section of the Cape Area features a history of the towns, places to eat, places to stay, including houses for rent, bed-and breakfasts, hostels, guesthouses, apartments,condos and the onmipresent saturation and expansion of hotels. There are also suggestions on things to do that are geared to the tourist, with addresses and maps. There are tips on money changing with locations of various ATM's, post offices, telephones etc. The tourist and party haven, Cabo San Lucas(this is what tourists think of as Cabo)has 30 pages out of 270 pages in the book dedicated to the hussle and bustle of Cabo. The same type of information is available for Cabo San Lucas or Cabo as the other regions, including sports and recreation, useful telephone information etc. but the scope of the book does not focus on Cabo. This is a good book for the adventurous traveler who wants to explore the area by car. We rented a car and traveled every day to a different location and actually spent little time in Cabo, usually only at night. To this end the book was extremely useful for the week we were there. As with any travel book, businesses change, go out of business, are replaced by new owners etc, so be flexible and use common sense. You will enjoy your vacation more that way. I plan to use this book again for another trip to the region but this time for a longer period of time and by my own SUV. This is a recommended book for the Cape Region, from La Paz and everything in between, to Cabo San Lucas, as opposed to just Cabo San Lucas or as it is known, Cabo.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Many Outdated Recommendations, July 13, 2007

By 

A traveler (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moon Handbooks Cabo (Paperback)

I just returned from a week in Cabo and found this book to be hopelessly outdated. On at least four occassions, I took my family in search of restaurants and other attractions featured in the book, only to find they had closed (in some instances, quite some time (even years) ago). And to be clear, I probably only sought out ten places in the book to start with (so we're talking about a 40% hit rate). To me, that is totally unacceptable. By the last two or three days of the trip, we just left the guide in the hotel room. I also found the maps to be difficult to use. I did appreciate some of the narrative in the book.

3.0 out of 5 stars MOON HANDBOOKS CABO, June 26, 2007

By 

Barry Rindock - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Moon Handbooks Cabo (Paperback)

IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO TRAVEL TO CABO THEN THIS BOOK IS VERY HELPFUL AND INFORMATIVE. THE BOOK IS DIVIDED INTO SECTIONS WHICH ARE CABO SAN LUCAS THE PLAYGROUND OF THE CABO AREA, THE CORRIDOR WHICH IS THE BEACH AREA, SAN JOSE DEL CABO WHICH IS VERY LAY BACK,QUIET, RESERVED AREA AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS LIKE LA PAZ, EAST CAPE AND WEST CAPE AREA. IT HAS EVERYTHING TO FIT YOUR INDIVIDUAL TASTE. IN SAN LUCAS, SAN JOSE, AND LA PAZ IT HAS MAPS OF THE DOWNTOWN AREA,HOTELS AND DESCRIPTION AND PRICE RANGE, SAME THING WITH RESTAURANTS AND ACTIVITIES SUCH AS FISHING,SNORKELING,ATV'S. ALSO THE BOOK GIVES YOU HINTS ON TRAVEL,MONEY,WHAT TO LOOK FOR AND WHAT NOT TO LOOK FOR. THE ONLY DOWNSIDE IS IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU A PARTICULAR PRICE AT THE HOTELS AND RESTAURANT JUST THE PRICE RANGE