Eyewitness Travel Guide to Mexico (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Dorling Kindersley Publishing

Mexico is a heady sort of place; it inundates you with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. A dry text, no matter how informative, just doesn't do justice to Mexico's allure. DK's Eyewitness Travel Guide series, on the other hand, does. Sure, it provides the necessary data points. The "Travelers' Needs" section contains 168 recommended hotel options and another 168 restaurants--as well as a beautifully illustrated guide to the foods of Mexico. And there are pages of practical information on visas, health precautions, time zones, electricity, taxis, security, banking, communications, and the like.

But DK's guide provides far more inspirational than a mere collection of data. The two-page glossy color map of Mexico is not just clear and easy to understand, it's beautiful. The hundreds of color photographs throughout the book are exquisite, depicting the sere hilltop archeological site of Monte Albán, fishermen preparing nets on a Yucatán beach, the vibrancy of a fruit market in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the green lushness of the wetlands, the scrub of the Sonora desert, and the intense vegetation of the Tehuantepec rainforests. There are 3-D aerial-view layouts of towns and ancient sites, cutaways and floor plans for churches and pyramids, as well as wonderful explanatory texts for each region, delving into history, traditions, sights, fiestas, foods, music, and activities. DK's is a guide book that is actually a pleasure to use--one that adds excitement to the necessary task of planning your vacation. --Stephanie Gold

1 The best I've seen
I've been to Mexico twice, and I'm in love with it. I was planning a special short trip on Easter week this year, but because of personal reasons I couldn't go. In my frustration, I went to the book store and looked at every guide about Mexico, and to my surprise, this was the most complete. The rest were just text. I bought it inmediately, and while I read it I traveled without leaving home. The most importante feature is the abundance of pictures.

If you are planning to travel to Mexico, or just enjoy learning about other countries, this book should be part of your collection.

2 Great Travel Guide, Beautiful Coffee Table Book!
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Summary:
Every Dorling Kindersley Guide has been a great and interesting book... and delightful to have and use, even if you are not traveling to that location, but are only interested in learning more!

The Guides are well organized in a logical and easy to follow manner. They are beautifully illustrated, well developed with accurate information (it is unusual for hotel and restaurant information to be that accurate), have enough history to help the reader understand the people and cultural background, and have a lot of useful travel information and useable maps in the appendixes.

But, the really great attraction to this book is several fold; it is:
............Very complete
............Easy to read
............Beautifully and artistically completed
............Good shopping, safety and other tips
............Gorgeous photographs too numerous to list.

Summary Negative:

The country books are too general to really satisfy all your needs in any given location. So, if your entire trip is spent in Puerto Vallarta, for example, you will also want to get some other books on your specific location.

Guide Specifics:
The guides are organized as follows:

How to use this guide
Introduction to Mexico
Portrait of Mexico
Mexico Through the Year
History of Mexico
Mexico City
Mexico by Region
............Introduction / History of Regions
............Specific Cities / Towns
........................Introduction to Towns / Cities
........................Map of specific Towns / Cities
........................Tour of Area of Towns / Cities
........................Specific stops, historical monuments, churches, buildings, etc.
....................................(Filled with great maps, architectural drawings / cutaways)
Travelers Needs
............Hotels
............Restaurants
............Shopping
Survival Information
............Practical Info.
........................Police, safety, buses, trains, etc.
............Travel Info.
........................Maps, tours, currency, etc.
............General Index
............Phrase Book

Discussion:
The book begins with "A Portrait of Mexico", including a complete map, a review of Mexico, it's history, and Mexico thought the Year - including events, etc., and Mexico's History, which is very interestingly presented.

Region with an "At a glance" overview, then has subsections of Cities / Towns, then specific locations, churches, historical monuments, bridges, galleries, beaches, etc.

Architectural reviews include various views, and cutaways; given greater understanding and better perspective. They are all attractive, if not works of art - honestly.

The travelers' Info. offers good and valid info. on prices, currencies, customs, important words, etc. I used the reviews on resorts, hotel's restaurants and nightclubs, etc. and found they were useful and accurate, and helpful with my touring and site decisions

The books are so well thought out that it has multiple maps, with various lookup tables, and the book's flaps are designed to be used as bookmarks for map pages.

Negative:
The country-wide guides are by definition more general than the specific city guides. So, if you are going to Puerto Vallarta, get a specific "Puerto Vallarta" guide. If you decide to get the "Mexico" guide for your 3, or 4 city tour of Mexico, understand that this guide may be a little to general for all your local travel needs.

Conclusion:
As the President, CEO of an International Meeting Planning Corporation we have many resources and techniques to learn about places we have meetings / groups at as well as the cities and sights. But, as a traveler, this book really is top notch and I would recommend it to anyone going on a personal trip, or wanting to learn about a city, or location.

3 A work of art that fails to inspire
If you want the definitive picture guide ot the wonderful archaeological sights of Mexico, then this book is it. All the major cities are covered in spendid colour - as is Mexico city. The eidtors have done a wonderful job in bringing the highlights alive. When you open the pictures pages you will really want to see the real thing up close.

But outside, this area, the book doesn't really have all the information you really need to plan a trip and fully understand what you are seeing. I really like the Cadogan guide books since they are extremely detailed. This is a bit brief for my liking.

4 BEST travel guide for Mexico!!!!
Last year we went to our honey moon to visit Mexico. This guide has been such a wondeful help!!! We went around the country by car and we didn't have any reservations for any hotels, so we just looked at the Hotels and Restaurants section at the end of the book, and chose one. It is really perfect. We also loved very much the 3-D drawings of the main cities, where you could see the biggest attractions. These maps even show you what tour should you make by walking in order to take advantage of your time.

Finally the book has a lot of very nice pictures (almost every page has several pictures on it) and then it becomes an excelent source for choosing where to go by looking, and not by number of stars as some other travel guides do.

If you are going to visit Mexico, buy this guide, it's worth every penny!!!!

Good luck on your trip!!!

5 The best there is, but...
...it doesn't include the famous Cacahuamilpa caverns, the world's biggest (you can put the whole Saint Peter's Cathedral in many of its endless galleries and still have plenty of space left!), near Taxco, Guerrero. A HUGE natural wonder, and a BIG OVERLOOK in the book!

Nevertheless, you won't find a better guide for Mexico, or anywhere else for that matter, than the Eyewitness series!

6 Excellent!
From Planeta Journal - Excellent! Finally a guidebook that makes visual identification and explanation its goal. Hundreds of color photographs illustrate the book. There are 3-D aerial-view layouts of towns and ancient sites, cutaways and floor plans for churches and pyramids. Sections include Mexican Muralists, Paseo de la Reforma, El Tajin and Antojitos (Appetizers), among many others.

7 This is a "Must" for anyone traveling to Mexico!
This book is an essential for anyone traveling to Mexico and I will be taking my copy when I go. The numerous full color photographs are excellent and give a great idea of what to expect for each region. Eyewitness Mexico gives a great introduction to the history, people, landscape and wildlife of Mexico, sections devoted to Mexico City and each region of the country, and great information about restaurants and places to stay. Descriptions of what to see and do are complete and most helpful. The Practical Information section at the back of the book lists everything from travel information to banking to health precautions to security. The pictures and description of the different Mexican dishes are wonderful! There is a plentiful supply of maps throughout the book, but what really sets this book apart from others are the 3-D maps. These maps give the traveler a very accurate picture of each area portrayed. This is an incredible book which can be enjoyed while planning your trip, just to learn about the many facets of Mexico or after you return as a reminder of the people and country through its beautiful photography. This is the best book about Mexico I have encountered.