Customer Reviews

Moon Yucatan Peninsula (Moon Handbooks)

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

 

 

I really enjoyed the narrative in this book. While I didn't agree with every assessment (no one will agree with everything in any guidebook) I found the writing to be clear, concise, and humorous.

What I did not enjoy were the lousy maps. Many, maybe over half of them, say "scale not available". In this day of Google Earth and Mapquest, how can scales not be available? Also, it appears that many of the map layers were not overlaid properly. For example, the map of Cancun on page 30-31, shows hotel names in the zona hotelera. The parts of the names that are printed on the land show correctly. The parts of the hotel names that are printed over water are difficult to read. It looks like the ink layer for the water was put on top of the hotel name text layer. This is true of any printing on the water. The scale at the lower right is almost impossible to read.

Did I maybe get a defective copy?

Just returned from a week on the Riviera Maya (Playa del Carmen / Cozumel mostly), my wife and I found this guide to be well written and well organized with helpful information. Note, the pages are more newsprint/soft cover book so if it gets wet it doesn't dry that quickly. Written by a married couple while they lived in Mexico this guide is more down-to-earth than others we tried to use.

This book is everything that it stated. Still reading it. Will be taking alone on my trip to Tulum, Mexico the end of November.

I purchased this book for a visit to the Riviera Maya. It is a great resource for planning a trip, giving you the flavor of what each region and city has to offer, as well as backgrounds on the local sites and activities. It does provide a sampling of listings for hotels, restaurants, activities, and tours, but it's nowhere near comprehensive. Maybe you'll need to add a guide like Fodor's to get these. What is listed, though, seemed accurate as far as prices and contact info.

I would recommend this guidebook to anyone who will be taking a trip to multiple cities in the Yucatan area. The guidebook does a very through job of covering even the obscure sights in the area, and I found the recommended hotels to be exactly as described.

The included maps aren't quite good enough for driving, so I would recommend supplementing this book with a good road map (and preparing yourself to ask for directions every time you get lost passing through a small town...you know Spanish, right?)

If you're going to remain in one city for your entire trip (like Cancun), I would look for a city guide that focuses on your destination. If you're going to be traveling all over Mexico, I reluctantly recommend the huge Lonely Planet Mexico guide (despite the bulkiness and too-cool-for-you snarky attitude of that book, I haven't found anything better.)

Liza Prado was a well-respected attorney that felt an inner desire to travel to Yucatan Peninsula and photograph the region in unprecedented detail. She has since gone on to coauthor eleven books, blogs, and articles, while becoming one of the most recognized professions on Latin America. Even more amazing, while researching Moon Yucatan Peninsula and Moon Cancun, she dived along coral reefs, snorkeled through cenotes, clambered on Maya ruins, paddled through mangroves, spied monkeys and tropical birds, and explored colonial cities and cobblestone towns all with a new born daughter.

Gary Chandler, Liza's husband, is no less an authority on the area. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Gary backpacked through much of Mexico and Central America, and later through Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean, exploring the highlands of Guatemala, followed by assignments in El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere. Their co collaboration, Moon Yucatan Peninsula has received a number of awards, including a Journey Award for Best Guide Book. Within its bindings, the dedicated traveler will discover well-informed and detailed information on the best way to explore Mexico. For the budget travel to the seasoned explorer, Moon Yucatan Peninsula is a guide everyone should take with them.