Customer Reviews

Moon New Mexico (Moon Handbooks)

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

 

 

As a frequent visitor to New Mexico, I must suggest Zora
O'Neill's handbook as an informative and helpful guide for anyone planning to travel there. New Mexico has much to offer, for artists, sports enthusiasts, historians, culinary experts, nature lovers, etc. This book addresses a myriad of interests in addition to being
a practical guide for tourists. Ms. O'Neill's insights and practical, interesting tips make it a book for all. The maps are great and the pictures timely. It is in no way cumbersome as the varied information it offers is concise and easy to read. Buy it - you'll love it!

The artistic color photos as well as the organized layout of Zora O'Neill's New Mexico Moon Handbook caught my eye immediately. Even though I have traveled to New Mexico numerous times, this book entices me to read and learn more about this most diverse state. The more time I spend reading this book,the more difficult it is putting it down. The author's punchy writing style sets this book apart from other guidebooks. It is uncluttered, yet rich with historical, cultural and culinary information as well as with practical advice. This is a must for anybody traveling to New Mexico.

I always use the Moon Handbooks when I travel. They're small so they're easy to take along, they're broken down into different areas of the state so it's easy to focus on a specific place, there are many hotel and restaurant suggestions in different price ranges. And there are suggestions for itineraries if you're in an area for one day, three days, etc. Very helpful!

My only beef would be that we've found some discrepencies since it was written in 2007. Two places have moved so I'd recommend doing some homework to make sure the place is still there and the price is the same.

My family and I spent two weeks this summer touring the American southwest. We purchased this book along with another one to offer us insight into the attractions found in the Four Corners Area. This was the book that we used extensively. It was our first time using the Moon Series and we were impressed.

The layout of the book is logical and easy to use. It's broken up into the sections of the state (NW, SW,etc). It also has specific sections about each of the major towns/cities and what is found in the towns and the surrounding areas. The maps contained in each section are very helpful and accurate. We were grateful to have them when needing a close up view of a particular area of the state or town that was too general on our state map.

The book flows easily and is written in plain language with a lot of personal tips and advice. You can tell that the author is familar with the state and loves it!

Though the pictures contained in the book are black and white, they are engaging and draw your interest in wanting to know more and creates a desire to visit the particular location. Though there aren't pictures on each page like some other books, there's just enough to grasp the concept of the area. If you're a person who uses your travel books as a photo album of your trip, this probably won't be the case with this one.

The book is not a huge thick book. Instead, it's a nicely sized and fairly compact. It supplies a general overview of each area with the key places noted and pointed out. Though it does supply background history on each area in relation to the history, culture, etc, it doesn't go into fine detail like some of your larger/thicker travel books. We didn't find this to be a problem since we were able to obtain more detailed information about a particular place at the location itself.

She offers a variety of sleeping accomodations at each location. She tries to make a point of picking out a low cost, mid-cost and more expensive accomodation to satisfy the needs of the readers.

The only disappointment we had with the book was that we later found out that there is a Four Corners book by Moon which would have fit our needs a bit better. Oh well. I would recommend this book!

I used this book, as well as the companion piece on Taos, Santa Fe and Abq, during a recent trip to New Mexico. I landed without a plan and let the books drive my itinerary. From helpful restaurant picks to fantastic hiking suggestions, Ms. O'Neill's guidance was flat-out great. Of course, she could've warned me about just how terrible the drive into El Paso was going to be when I tried to short-cut across Texas to reach SW New Mexico...but I'm sure that's in the Texas guide. Thumbs up!

This review also applies to the separate volume by the same author covering ABQ, Santa Fe and Taos.

Rule No. 1 when evaluating travel guides. Newer is usually a bit better simply because everything gets outdated in four or five years. So the Moon Guides get points for being recent. The Guide is also stronger on the people and places and less on the lists of hotels. Moon New Mexico also scores well on the Relatively Obscure Places Rating and Additional Sources of Information I Didn't Already Know About ranking.

My problem with most travel guides is that they should all be available in iBook or similar live, graphic format. Not so much Kindle, which is fine for text but less so when graphics are involved and useless with hyperlinks. Who wants to lug travel books with them? Who would want them on a tablet or notebook (me!me!). I'd pay the same price as the hardcover.

We're getting ready to move to small town New Mexico. I like that this book is arranged by region. We can go to the section on our town, and know that the pages before and after it are also things to do in the immediate area.

Moon travel guides helped us plan and enjoy our last two vacations - to Glacier National Park and to Albuquerque. I highly recommend them.