A Word from the Editor
The last couple of years have been especially confusing for travelers heading
for Mexico. The recent roller-coaster ride that has characterized Mexico s
political， personal， financial， and industrial relationships with other North
American countries -- and the rest of the world， for that matter-- has been
mirrored by severe swings in currency relationships that have made an accu-
rate estimation of the cost of a Mexican visit all but impossible. Clearly， there
has never been a time when an up-to-date guide to Mexico was a more useful
travel tool.
What s more， the broadening sophistication of contemporary travelers has
made it essential that guidebooks evolve in very fundamental ways in order
to keep pace with their readers. That s why we ve tried to create a guide to
Mexico that s specifically organized， written， and edited for the newly know-
ledgeable traveler headed for this complex country. This is a traveler for
whom qualitative information is infinitely more desirable than mere quantities
of unappraised data. We think that this book is a good example of what we ve
tried to create in our new generation of travel guides， a series that s uniquely
responsive 1o lhe needs and interests of today s travelers.
For years， dating back as far as Herr Baedeker， travel guides have tended
to be encyclopedic， seemingly much more concerned with demonstrating
expertise in geography and history than with any real analysis of the sorts of
things that actually concern a typical tourist. But today， when it is hardly
necessary to tell a traveler where Mexico is (in many cases， the traveler has
been to that country nearly as often as the guidebook editor)， it becomes the
responsibility of the editor to provide new perceptions and to suggest new
directions to make his guide genuinely valuable.
That s exactly what we ve tried to do in this series. I think you ll notice a
contemporary tone to the text， as well as an organization and focus that are
distinctive and different. Even a random examination of what follows will
demonstrate a substantial departure from previous guidebook orientation， for
we ve not only attempted to provide information of a different sort， but we ve
also tried to present it in an environment that makes it uniquely accessible.
. Needless to say， it s difficult to decide what goes into a guidebook of this
size -- and， conversely， what to omit. Early on， we realized that giving up the
encyclopedic approach prevented the inclusion of every route and restaurant，
and this fact helped define our overall editorial focus. Similarly， when we
cliscussed the possibility of presenting certain information in other than strict
geographic order， we discovered that the new format enabled us to arrange
Lhese data in a way that best answers the questions travelers typically ask.
Large numbers of specific questions have provided the real editorial skele-
:on for this book. The volume of mail 1 regularly receive continually seems
:o emphasize that modern travelers want very precise information， so we ve
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