Moon Handbooks Guadalajara

I go to Guadalajara for six weeks in the summer for the Guadalajara summer program of the University of San Diego (see albums at http://math-cs.sandiego.edu/albums/g2006/g2008). Thanks to this book, I quickly learned to ride public buses (for 5 pesos or 50 cents) and subway (same price). This is important for me because I speak no Spanish, and this fact seems to bring out the worst in taxi drivers who often charge me much more. I suggest that you make copies of the downtown map on pp 24-25 , map of the Minerva-Chapultepec area on pp 64-65, and other fine maps if you do not carry the whole book when you go out. These maps includes useful bus routes and save me when I get lost in the maze like streets. A weakness of the book is its restaurant coverage. There are many fine restaurants in Guadalajara and the turnover rate is high. For example, Formosa Gardens (p79) disappeared years ago, in its place now is a cooking school. Villa Chianti (p77) is now "La O". I agree with the author about the beauty of Santo Coyote (p 76), but not with his assessment of the dishes. I can very easily recommend many more restaurants. For example, La Matera (Argentinian), Suehiro (Japanese), Recco (Italian), Anita Li (Mexican/Thai/Japanese Fusion), Le Tequila ... Finally, I recommend "7 things to do in Guadalajara" at http://www.agaveweb.com/blog/2007/07/18/top-7-things-to-do-in-guadalajara-mexico for all Guadalajara visitors.

5 stars because overall an excellent guide (not a bible) book. We just spent a week in Guadalajara and used this book as our main guide. It was our first trip, so we had no actual knowledge coming in. The book is very complete, so it seems to me, and very detailed in its description of the various areas of Guadalajara. In fact, sometimes its detail, such as the individual shops in Tlaquepaque, was a bit overwhelming. Nevertheless, the typical Moon headings at the beginning of what to do if you have one day, two days, a week, etc., provide orientation for the more detailed descriptions later on. The maps in the book for each area are excellent. They are detailed but with type easy to read. The book also has relatively extensive sections on history, demographics, culture, etc. It's sidebars on various sites, issues, or whatever were also extensive and informative. This is truly impressive to be found in a guide book dedicated to a single city! There are some avenues for improvement. For example, the trip time to Tapalpa, a small town, wasn't mentioned. For some reason, I thought it was an hour, but it turned out to be three. Had we known this we would have considered other destinations that were perhaps only an hour or two more. Even though our two night stay in Tapalpa was a highlight of our trip. Occasionally there's an assumption that you can speak Spanish. For example, that you might make a friend through good natured bargaining. Or, that you should bargain hard with the car rental agencies. But, how can you bargain hard when they don't speak any English, as the first three I called up didn't. To his rap that 'la tourista' is really nothing more than what one could get when vacationing in San Francisco from New York, I say: "get real." Lastly, the writing lacks a certain pizzaz. I don't believe this is due to the author, as I've found exactly the same style in the other Moon Handbooks that I've read or looked at. Reading between the lines, I think Mr. Whipperman is an interesting writer. So, Moon Handbooks, please give your better writers some more rope. Overall we found this an excellent guide. It's hard to see how it could have been much better.

There are two tricks to enjoying an extended stay in Guadalajara: learning how to get around, and knowing what lies beyond the Centro Historico. This book gives you a good introduction to both. Almost all of the maps and descriptions include instructions about the buses you can take to get about. The buses are very efficient and easy to use, and it's a shame that more tourists don't take advantage of that. The book includes city sights outside of the downtown core worth seeing: the plazuela de nueve esquinas with it's famous birririas, the parque de agua azul, the casa y museo Orzco, the barranca vista park north of town, and of course Zappopan's old centro and Tonalá and Tlaquepaque. The book also provides decent descriptions of a few outlying neighborhoods worth lingering in if one has the time. Restaurant and hotel descriptions are selective. You won't miss any must-do restaurants using this guide, but you won't be able to look up every restaurant you come accross. If you want comprehensive listings you should also pick up simple restaurant/hotel centered guidebook to supplement this one. Finally, two omissions that I'd highlight as worth visiting: the Guadalajara Zoo (mentioned only briefly in passing) - for it's collection and for it's view of the Barranca, and the area around San Jose de Atalco / Plazuela San Sebastian - which is home to some beautiful colonial mansions as well as two notable churches.