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