Hidden beaches, great taco bars, secret fishing holes, and buzzing nightspots await . . . Explorer's Guides show you how to visit great places like a local, getting under the touristy surface with insights into the area's history, culture, economy, and more. Explorer's Guides Playa del Carmen, Tulum & the Riviera Maya: A Great Destination is no exception. The author’s insider knowledge and selective recommendations make this book a must-have for your sojourn in Mexico. Let it help you make the most of your time in this beautiful place: delve deep into fascinating Mayan ruins; explore the pedestrian boardwalk in Playa del Carmen; or fish for elusive bonefish along the famous Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve in Punta Allen. This fully revised and updated fourth edition features color photography; detailed maps; rich history; a glossary of English to Spanish phrases; a rundown of the best local swimming lagoons, hidden beaches, and great taco bars; events calendars; and much more. It's all you need to help you plan your best vacation yet.

Completely updated, this insider's guide veers off the tourist trail for intrepid travelers to experience the local color, intrigue and charm of the Riviera Maya. For travelers in the know, Playa del Carmen is the little gem with all the beauty of white sand beaches that has drawn crowds from around the world to Cancun, with none of the high-rise overdevelopment. Playa remains a wonderful, sleepy town on a human scale, yet its discovery has resulted in a wide range of lodging and dining options. For families and adventurous travelers alike, there's something for everyone in this Mexican Riviera, known as the “Riviera Maya.” You can explore the fascinating Mayan ruins on the beach at Tulum, shop and have a fabulous lunch on the pedestrian area in Playa, stay in a full-service resort along Playacar, and go for some of the best fishing in the world near the famous Sian Ka'an biosphere in Punta Allen. The Riviera Maya is one of the true travel hot spots in the world today. Includes detailed info for eco-travelers, Maya culture buffs, anglers, foodies, and anyone needing respite on a sleepy beach. This is the definitive guidebook on Playa del Carmen. Distinctive for their accuracy, simplicity, and conversational tone, the diverse travel guides in our Explorer's Great Destinations series meet the conflicting demands of the modern traveler. They're packed full of up-to-date information to help plan the perfect getaway. And they're compact and light enough to come along for the ride. A tool you'll turn to before, during, and after your trip, these guides include chapters on lodging, dining, transportation, history, shopping, recreation, and more; a section packed with practical information, such as lists of banks, hospitals, post offices, laundromats, numbers for police, fire, and rescue, and other relevant information; maps of regions and locales, and more.

A comprehensive travel guide to Mexico's Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and the Riviera Maya, with detailed maps and information on accommodations and restaurants, ancient ruins, and other interesting places to see.

The best guide to Mexico’s finest vacation destination Joshua Hinsdale’s insider knowledge and selective recommendations make this book a must- have for your sojourn on the Yucatán Peninsula. Let it help you make the most of your time in this beautiful place: delve deep into fascinating Mayan ruins, explore the pedestrian boardwalk in Playa del Carmen, or fish for elusive bonefish along the famous Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve in Punta Allen. This new edition features gorgeous new photography; detailed maps; rich history; a glossary of English to Spanish phrases; a rundown of the best local swimming lagoons, hidden beaches, and taco bars; events calendars; and much more. Regions include: • Puerto Aventuras • Cozumel • Cancún • Isla Mujeres

A complete guide to snorkeling, cavern, and cave diving the cenotes of the Riviera Maya. This book includes photographs, maps, and provides details of where and how to swim, dive, and enjoy these beautiful cenotes located on the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Forests are alive, filled with rich, biologically complex life forms and the interrelationships of multiple species and materials. Vulnerable to a host of changing conditions in this global era, forests are in peril as never before. New markets in carbon and environmental services attract speculators. In the name of conservation, such speculators attempt to undermine local land control in these desirable areas. Moral Ecology of a Forest provides an ethnographic account of conservation politics, particularly the conflict between Western conservation and Mayan ontological ecology. The difficult interactions of the Maya of central Quintana Roo, Mexico, for example, or the Mayan communities of the Sain Ka’an Biosphere, demonstrate the clashing interests with Western biodiversity conservation initiatives. The conflicts within the forest of Quintana Roo represent the outcome of nature in this global era, where the forces of land grabbing, conservation promotion and organizations, and capitalism vie for control of forests and land. Forests pose living questions. In addition to the ever-thrilling biology of interdependent species, forests raise questions in the sphere of political economy, and thus raise cultural and moral questions. The economic aspects focus on the power dynamics and ideological perspectives over who controls, uses, exploits, or preserves those life forms and landscapes. The cultural and moral issues focus on the symbolic meanings, forms of knowledge, and obligations that people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and classes have constructed in relation to their lands. The Maya Forest of Quintana Roo is a historically disputed place in which these three questions come together.

This book presents how tourism initiates economic development and how constraints to the growth of tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa can be addressed. With 24 case studies that illustrate tourism development, it reveals that despite destination challenges, the basic elements needed to initialize or intensify success are applicable across the region.