Traveler's Guide to Mexican Camping: Explore Mexico with Your RV or Tent

by Mike W. Church, Terri Church, Mike Church

Book Overview

Mexico offers an exciting new world to campers. After visiting archeological sites, colonial cities, and beaches during the day, tourists want to find a comfortable, safe place to spend the night. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965296814
• ISBN13: 9780965296816
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Rolling Homes Press
• Length: 415 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Best Mexico RV Book

Traveler's Guide To Mexican Camping is the best book ever written for RV travelers in Mexico. I've had other books intended as Mexico camping guides which contained sketchy information and confusing directions; those have now been disposed of and the Traveler's Guide To Mexican Camping is my bible for RVing in Mexico. This book is the complete reference for RVers. I used the suggested itineraries for planning my vacation; these show daily driving distances, estimated driving times, and descriptions of the routes and sites along the way, which I found to be very accurate. Over 60 pages of detailed information cover everything from safety, insurance, fuel, food and money to health issues and pets. The information on crossing the border was very helpful in preparing me for this sometimes confusing process and the detailed descriptions of each crossing point, including hours of operation and suitability of RV access, enabled me to select good places to enter Mexico. This section also contains helpful suggestions for nearby campgrounds to use before entering Mexico. The information on how to deal with corrupt cops and to be avoid being cheated at gas stations was also especially useful. The nine chapters which cover every region of Mexico are what set this book apart from all others. I found the key maps, indices and distance tables convenient and easy to use. The detailed description of each campground includes a listing of amenities, a detailed map showing not only the campground location but also many times nearby gas stations and stores, detailed directions to the campground including distances and reference points, a description of the facilities and the price range. I found this information to be objective and accurate, and I liked being able to know what the campground offers and the approximate cost before deciding to stop there. While not the primary focus of this book, many interesting tourist attractions are also described, which I found very useful. The detailed information on driving in the Mexico City area helped me avoid many potential problems there. For those venturing beyond Mexico, an entire chapter covers Belize. While traveling in Mexico I've met many people who spent the night parked in potentially unsafe locations because they did not know of a nearby campground, who did not know how to use the telephones, who had difficulty crossing the border, who spent hours searching for a campground, who got lost while trying to drive through cities, and who did not know where they would spend the next night. One thing all these people had in common was that they did not have a copy of this book. Traveler's Guide To Mexican Camping is an easy to use reference covering all aspects of RV travel and camping, from trip planning and preparation to returning to the US. It is well indexed and cross referenced, packed full of advice and information, and the maps and campground listing are easy to read and understand. The book uses quality paper an

We used this guidebook constantly!

We recently spent 6 weeks roaming in a small Toyota camper, off the beaten tourist paths, down the Gulf Coast to Veracruz, then inland to Teotihuacan and back via various cities. This book led us to a number of delightful (umm... and otherwise, but hey they worked) campgrounds we wouldn't have otherwise found, and I appreciated its directions for bypassing Mexico City and Tampico. We were somewhat more adventurous than the Churches recommend about finding places to boondock, but we do speak enough Spanish to ask the locals, which we always did. I have a list of resources in an ebook I've written about Mexico, and this one literally tops the list -- for RVers.

"Indispensible"

The remarkable thing about the Church's and their excellent book is that they actually nosed into hundreds of side streets, obscure frontage roads, and bouncy cobblestone alleyways ferreting out most of the RV parks in this vast country.I have stayed at (an uncounted) number of the parks listed and can verify that their comments about the facilities and overall condition is right-on-the-money.Maps, are key to exploring and finding new things and places and each campground is served in the book with both an explanation and a sketch map that specifically describes "Large Rig" access from the nearest highway. I can't tell you how much this means at 5:00 PM when the sun is setting and the holding tank is threatening to burst.As a thirty-six year veteran of RV travel in Mexico, I can say with some degree of authority that The Traveler's Guide to Mexican Camping is the milepost by which other's will have to reckon if they wish to write their own guide.

Don't leave home without it!

Over the course of two winters, 1997-98 and 1998-99, my wife and I traveled over 6500 miles in Mexico.We have found this book to be an invaluable resource.We traveled most of the East and West coasts, much of the Yucatan peninsula, and from Cancun to Puerto Vallarta. We traveled alone and we do not speak Spanish.The remarkable amount and accuracy of information in this book allowed us to consistently answer the two most vital questions before us: where is the next campground with suitable security and services and, can we find it easily and promptly once we are in the area?There is a wealth of other useful information in this book and it has been well summarized by the Plaxton review elsewhere on this web-site. We will only confirm the accuracy of his assesment.We also have talked to over a dozen other travelers who agree that this is clearly the best RV camping guide for Mexico that is available at this time.

An accurate + comprehensive survey of Mexican RV campgrounds

A book review by John Plaxton author of the travelogue "RVing in Mexico and Central America" Buy this book. There are three reasons why you should buy this book. First. Use it to compare with other guide books. This is the way an RV guide book should be written. Second. Buy this book if you are going to marvellous Mexico, including beautiful Baja California, or merely dreaming about going there. Third. Buy this book if you've been to Mexico dozens of times because there are probably some RV parks and campgrounds, old and new, that you don't even know about. The only thing wrong with this book, it is that it should have been published at least four years ago. If this book had been available when Liz and I spent almost nine months travelling through Mexico, we would definitely have stayed in more RV campgrounds if we had known where they were and how to get to them. This couple knows their stuff, which isn't surprising because they've been to every campground they write about during the several months of several years spent touring Mexico. And Mike and Terri know what to look for and discuss because they are avid researchers, love to talk to people, and they've travelled in both a large motorhome and a camperized van. Not only does this book describe so many campgrounds accurately (at least the dozens we visited), it gives good advice on preparing for this trip, and a very realistic introduction to the any wonders and few problems that an RVer is likely to encounter in Mexico. It even briefly suggests four self-guided tours to take, and how they can be easily modified to meet your particular requirements and desires. Each section or area of Mexico has a brief introduction and tourist highlights, as does each major city. Each description of a campground displays its price range, a really useful description of facilities in addition to icons, its GPS latitude and longitude, altitude, how to get there info, distance in miles and kilometres, possible side trips, and its name (written and phonetic) with address and telephone and fax numbers. If you want other books, they suggest a few that complement their work. But with 404 pages plus Table of Contents and Index, a few pictures, a pleasant but factual writing style, dozens of maps, and hundreds of campgrounds accompanied by a small chart showing you where it is, you shouldn't need another RV guide book.