Moon Cancun & Cozumel: Including Playa del Carmen, Tulum & the Riviera Maya

by Gary Chandler, Liza Prado

Overview

This full-color guide to Cancún and Cozumel includes vibrant photos and helpful planning maps.

Experienced Mexico travelers Gary Chandler and Liza Prado know the best way to travel Cancún and Cozumel—from a romantic getaway in Tulum to cenote hopping along the Riviera Maya. Chandler and Prado include engaging itinerary ideas for a variety of trip experiences, including Under the Sea and Seven Days of Ecoadventure. Complete with details on the best beaches, advice on which Maya ruins to check out, and recommendations for the hottest nightlife spots in the Zona Hotelera, Moon Cancún & Cozumel gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

Coverage includes:
Cancún
Isla Cozumel
The Riviera Maya
Tulum and Southern Quintana Roo
Inland Archeological Zones

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612386157
Publisher:	Avalon Publishing
Publication date:	12/10/2013
Series:	Moon Handbooks Travel Series
Edition description:	11th Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Gary Chandler grew up in a small ski town south of Lake Tahoe, California. He earned his bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley, and also studied abroad in Mexico City and Oaxaca. After graduation, Gary backpacked through much of Mexico and Central America, and later Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. His first guidebook assignment was covering the highlands of Guatemala, which was followed by assignments in El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere.

Gary has contributed to almost 30 guidebooks, many coauthored with wife and fellow travel writer/photographer Liza Prado. Between assignments, Gary earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University, worked as a news reporter and criminal investigator, and published numerous articles and blogs about travel in Latin America. He and Liza have two children and live in Colorado.

Liza Prado was working as a corporate attorney in San Francisco when she decided to take a leap of faith and try travel writing and photography. Ten years later, she has coauthored 18 guidebooks and written numerous feature stories and travel blogs to destinations throughout the Americas. Her photographs have been published by Moon Travel Guides, Lonely Planet, and travel websites like Gogobot and Away.com.

Since her first visit to the region more than a decade ago, the Riviera Maya has remained one of Liza's favorite places to travel. For this assignment, she dived on coral reefs and snorkeled through cenotes, clambered on Maya ruins and paddled through mangroves, spied monkeys and tropical birds, explored beach towns and mega-resorts, caught a few local bands, and listened to rock-star DJs—all with two kids in tow (well, at least part of the time).

A graduate of Brown University and Stanford Law School, Liza currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with husband and coauthor Gary Chandler and their children, Eva and Leo.

Read an Excerpt

Cancún and Cozumel are places that deserve—and defy—the myriad descriptions given them. The name Cancún evokes images of white-sand beaches, turquoise seas, and raucous nightclubs. Isla Cozumel is no less mythical, at least among divers, with its pristine coral reef and abundant sealife. The secret is definitely out on the Riviera Maya, the long coastline south of Cancún, with resorts of all sizes and favorite getaways like Tulum and Playa del Carmen. But farther south, the Costa Maya remains relatively undeveloped, while the inland archaeological sites, which range from packed to practically empty, never fail to impress.

Some people dismiss Cancún and Cozumel for being overcommercialized and “Americanized.” True, there are places saturated with American stores and chain restaurants (and actual Americans), where you hear as much English as Spanish. But you may be surprised to learn how culturally rich those cities, and the whole region, really are. Just minutes from Cancún’s famous hotel zone is the lively downtown area, where you can sip pinot grigio at a wine bar, listen to live music, or eat tacos in a park without another tourist in sight. Likewise, just a couple of blocks from Cozumel’s touristy main drag is a friendly island community where kids play soccer in the street and old men play dominoes in the afternoon sun. There are large parts of Cozumel that have no roads or power lines, with miles of deserted beach where you hear nothing but the
birds and the surf.

Equally unexpected are the area’s numerous natural and ecological attractions. You can dive and snorkel in the longest underground river system in the world, kayak through mangrove forests and freshwater lagoons, and even go snorkeling with whale sharks, 10-ton behemoths that congregate near Isla Holbox every summer. At Cobá archaeological site, you can climb the second-highest Maya pyramid, and see parrots and toucans, and bike from temple to temple on wide forest paths, all in the same visit.

So what sort of trip will it be? Sunbathing by the pool, diving the coral reefs, snorkeling with whale sharks, or exploring the Maya ruins? With luck, you’ll do a little of each, and more. In the process, you may discover that Cancún, Cozumel, and the Riviera Maya are much more than they seem. They are places to love, laugh at, be surprised by, and above all, to experience and explore.