Gary Chandler grew up in a small ski town south of Lake Tahoe, California. He earned his bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley, including a year abroad in Mexico City and Oaxaca. After graduating, Gary backpacked through much of Mexico and Central America, and later through Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. His first guidebook assignment was covering the highlands of Guatemala, followed by assignments in El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere.

Gary has contributed to more than 20 guidebooks in all, many coauthored with wife and fellow travel writer and photographer Liza Prado. Their Moon Yucatán Peninsula was named Best Guidebook by American Journey magazine. Between assignments, Gary has earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University, worked as a news reporter and criminal investigator, and published numerous articles and blogs about travel in Latin America.

Liza Prado spent almost every summer from preschool to high school in Mexico, visiting her grandparents and extended family in Monterrey and Mazatlán. Born in Buffalo, NY to a travel-loving family, Liza visited 10 countries by the time she was 15 years old and 20 (including six months in Italy) by the time she graduated from Brown University in 1994 with a degree in international relations. By that time, she was fluent in four languages.

After a stint in New York City, Liza moved to California for better weather, better parking, and three years at Stanford Law School. Then it was 50 miles north to San Francisco, where she worked in a corporate law firm (and met future husband Gary Chandler).

Following two and a half years of fascinating and intense work, Liza decided to take a leap of faith and try travel writing and photography, moving to Guadalajara, Mexico, where she and Gary were married. Nine years later, she has coauthored 13 guidebooks and written numerous feature stories and blogs to destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean; her photographs have been featured in various guidebooks and on travel websites like Home&Abroad and Away.com.

Liza currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and coauthor Gary Chandler, and their children Eva Quetzal and Leo Isaiah.