Best Guide Book for Mexico

Choosing the best guide book for a particular destination is rarely easy. Depending on the destination there may literally be enough guide books in print to fill a suitcase. But regardless of where you are going, what you plan to do or the size of your budget, any good travel guide should provide you with accurate, thoroughly researched information in an easily accessible format. But in our experience, the most important part of finding the best guide book for a particular trip is to set goals for the trip based on your budget and desired experiences; then find a guide book written with those goals in mind.

Lonely Planet Central America on a Shostring?

Our month-long tour of Mexico from border to border was not part our original itinerary. So when the time came to leave Guatemala we were somewhat dismayed by our lack of a complete Mexican guide book. Our Lonely Planet guide, Central America on a Shoestring (2004), did have a chapter on the southern state of Chiapas, but even so the information was admittedly abridged. And a AAA Mexico Travelbook (1997), which we quickly realized was not intended for a car-less audience, picked up a few weeks earlier at a book exchange in Honduras.

So we spent several hours one afternoon scouring the small tourist island/exile-zone that is Flores, Guatemala searching for book exchanges with travel guides. We found several at various hotels around the island, but all were very strict about reserving the book exchange privileges for hotel guests only. To our good fortune the economical hospidaje where we planned to stay the night also had a fabulous book exchange including several Mexico travel guides. Among them was The Rough Guide to Mexico (2004).

Rough Guide to Mexico?

Several aspects of the Rough Guide book appealed to us immediately. It provided information about the entire country, which fit our plan for traveling all the way north to Arizona. It was a fairly recent edition, which proved itself to be acceptably accurate regarding the details of various services (hotels, museums, parks, etc.). And it was essentially free, since we had another guide book to trade in.

We entered Mexico the next day with our recently acquired Rough Guide and the smug satisfaction known only to the parsimonious. We used the book for the next two weeks while touring well known sites around southern Mexico including Palenque, Bonampak, San Cristobal de las Casas, and the Sumidero Canyon. By the time we reached San Cristobal, though, we were eager to ditch the Rough Guide and gladly paid full price for a new copy of the Lonely Planet: Mexico (2006).

Though well researched and generally accurate with the details provided, the Rough Guide had several shortcomings that we found unacceptable. Maps were included with far less detail than we had come to expect from the Lonely Planet series. Smaller side streets were often not shown. This alone made navigating on foot, much less while on an unfamiliar bus route, quite frustrating. The Rough Guide also lacked regional maps, which are particularly useful for getting to less frequented places.

In addition to inadequate maps, the Rough Guide presented written content in a narrative format. This stylistic approach was among the first features that we noticed about the guide when we first picked it up. Initially we considered this favorably as a sign that the authors had chosen not to limit the scope of the books content to brief summaries. After using the book, however, we came to the conclusion that the narrative format often obscured basic information about food, lodging, and attractions. As a result information about hotels in a particular city, for example, was difficult to find and compare efficiently. And the actual descriptions surprisingly provided no more information than the more compartmentalized style used by the Lonely Planet series.

Another shortcoming of the Rough Guide was its greater emphasis on mid and upper range hotels and restaurants. We considered that this tendency was influenced by the strength of the British Pound in foreign currency markets. However, the edition we were using provided prices in US dollars. More importantly, the Rough Guide described itself as a complete guide to Mexico for every price range. In our experience such a broad scope for a guide to a country as large and diverse as Mexico is simply not practical.

Frustrations aside, what really convinced us to drop the Rough Guide was the general tone of the book. To us the Rough Guide seemed to dwell too much on the negative aspects of its reviews. This was not in any way overt, but after a few days with the book we finally just had to laugh at some of the descriptions. The description of Bonampak, a Mayan site in Chiapas was one example. Although the Rough Guide contained plenty of information about the site the writer seemed overly dismayed by the fact that the site is several hours by car or bus from the nearest city. Inspiration would seem to be the key to effective travel writing. Unfortunately, we did not find the Rough Guide compelling or inspiring as a travel guide.

The Best Guide book: Lonely Planet Mexico

In the end we gladly paid full price for a crisp, new Lonely Planet Mexico (2006) guide and never looked back. It gave us the well-organized layout and maps that we needed for quick reference as well as the historical context and insightful tips that one would hope to get from a live tour guide. The reviews were honest and encouraging without being disingenuous. And the content was written with more attention to the concerns of budget travelers. Even though these were only two of many available Mexico guide books, we were glad to have the Lonely Planet guide as it was well-suited to help us meet our travel goals.