Best Places To Visit In Mexico

Things To Know When Traveling In Mexico

Mexico is a beautiful country with diverse mountain ranges and shorelines!  Among this beautiful country are more than 20 beach destinations offering sport fishing, surfing, wind surfing, kite boarding, kayaking and more!  Meso-American ruins, nature reserves and colonial cities in Mexico rich in history and architecture.

Consistently temperate weather keeps people from all over the globe visiting nearly year round but peak season is December through May.  However, even in low season (June through October), there is plenty to do and see if you don’t mind a little rain.  The rains are warm so as long as don’t mind getting wet, you can still do most everything you like without the sunburn!

With over 100 major national or international airports in Mexico, flying to Mexico is sometimes a better alternative to ground transportation as it can take days to travel by car or bus from one destination to the next.

However, if you are the type of person who finds the journey as exciting as the vacation destination in Mexico, many magical, unexpected treasures will be found!

See Our Article About Bringing Your Car To Mexico

Mexico’s Infrastructure Is Improving

Mexico has been investing heavily in their road infrastructure and driving in Mexico is better today than ever.  The roads that are maintained the best are the toll roads.  Although the toll roads are rather expensive to travel on, they are much more reliable in quality, speed and safety than the non-toll roads.

Non toll roads can have hazards such as dim or non-existent lighting, large pot holes that are bad enough to wreck your suspension and poorly marked topes (pronounced toe-pay).

Mexican topes are large speed bumps intended to slow down drivers upon entering or exiting a town.  If a tope is in need of a paint job, they are very difficult to see during daylight and nighttime hours and can render your car air borne.  Be alert!

Mexico has implemented a great bus system that includes more than 200 different bus companies operating from over 150 bus stations nation-wide.  The days of “chicken buses” are essentially gone and modern, roomy, air-conditioned buses are now the norm. In fact, they are so air-conditioned that you should bring a sweater or blanket on the bus with you!  A lot of American’s are of the opinion that ADO rivals Greyhound or National Express!

The combination of Mexico’s improved road network and bus lines have created an extensive network of travel routes allowing tourists to traverse the entire country by vehicle.

It’s impossible to list all the magical wonders that can be found throughout Mexico, but we are featuring some that we have personally experienced, as well as some of our subscribers, and want to share with you.

If you have a particular destination that you want to share, join our community on Facebook and let us know, and we will be happy to feature your adventure on Mexico on my Mind and add your destination to our map!

Find out more about these special places in Mexico

Living In Tulum

Average Lifestyle Rating: B – (range  C+ to A+) Click here to view our directory of Tulum local resources The Allure of Living in Tulum Tropical magnetism.  We could go on and on, but to truly appreciate the nature inspired vibration of living in Tulum, you need to go. If you are looking for the […]

Margo Goes To Merida!

Merida, Mexico by Margo Guenther I will never forget my first trip to Merida, Mexico in October of 2007, one of the most majestic and best places in Mexico to live or visit. I had been living in Tulum, Mexico for about a year and figured it was time to get serious about learning Spanish. […]

Visit Tomatlan, Jalisco

Located on the Western, Pacific coast of Mexico, in Tomatlan, Jalisco, is the quiet and secluded Hotelito Desconocido Sancuary Reserve and Spa.  This 27 room, 100% eco-resort is located on sixty hectares in a natural diverse, bio-reserve listed by UNESCO as a bird paradise aquifer.   The tranquility of bright blue lagoon in the middle of […]

Visit Guanajuato, Mexico

The state of Guanajuato has two great cities to visit, San Miguel De Allende and Guanajuato (the capital city of Guanajuato). Many of the city’s highways are partially or fully underground as Guanajuato  is located in a narrow valley surrounded by tree lined hills.  Most of the cobblestone streets are so narrow that cars cannot pass through […]

Visit San Miguel De Allende

San Miguel De Allende, located in the state of Guanajuato, is a beautiful city rich in architecture and culture.  After Mexico’s War of Independence, foreign artists, painters, architects and art students from the U.S. and around the world came to this city to study and re-build what was always a beautiful city but in need of […]

San Cristóbal de las Casas

by Candice Carboo-Ofulue, Travel Writer Sombreros and tequila may be what first comes to mind when we think of Mexico, but it’s the colorful colonial cities which are the foundation of contemporary Mexican culture and in the highland hub of San Cristóbal de las Casas, you’ll find its beating heart. Located in the southwestern state […]

Places To Visit In Cuernavaca

Places to go! Robert Brady Museum The Robert Brady Museum shows the collection of the artist, antiquarian, and decorator from Fort Dodge, Iowa. Ceramics, antique furniture, sculptures, paintings, and tapestries fill the restored colonial mansion, all beautifully arranged in rooms painted with bright colors. Note that the building numbers on this street are out of […]

Palenque

The ancient city of Palenque (pa-lenn-KAY) is like no place on earth. Clutching the foothills of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, where the sultry tropical air gently reverberates sounds of the jungle like a slow-beating ceremonial drum, Palenque’s elegant structures have allured visitors from across the ages. One such figure was Count Jean-Frédérick Waldeck, an […]

Places To Visit In Yucatan

Cenotes In the Yucatan, there are over 2,400 cenotes that have actually been studied and registered.  Here are some of the most popular: Ik-Kil
 – Located less than 2 miles from Chichén Itzá. Called the “Sacred Blue Cenote,” it is a perfectly round well-type cenote with magnificent hanging vines and waterfalls. This is an ideal […]

Places To Visit In Riviera Maya

Places to Go! Parks Xcaret!! What’s to do at Xcaret?  Underground Rivers, Beach, Lagoon & pools, Tropical Jungle Trail, Main Plaza, Stained-glass Plaza,  House of Whispers Rotating Scenic Tower, Butterfly Pavilion, Regional Wildlife Breeding Farm, Coral Reef Aquarium, Living Museum of Orchids & Mushroom Farm, Mayan archaeological sites, St. Francis of Assisi Chapel, Hacienda Henequenera,  Mexican […]

Cozumel

The Sleepy Island is Waking up To Tourists and Cruise Ships Average Lifestyle Rating: B+ (range B- to A+)Click here to view our directory of Cozumel local resources How does living on an island in the Caribbean Ocean sound? Exotic, glamorous, stress-free, infrastructure-deprived? Isla de Cozumel, off the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula 20 kilometers […]

Coba Ruins

Overgrown with tropical forest, the Coba ruins (pronounced coh-ba), the once great city that for a time, dominated ancient Mayan society in northern Yucatan is almost forgotten. Aside from a gentle stream of explorers flowing through each year the ancient city is one of the few visited ruins that has been left relatively untouched. Some, expecting a […]

Visit Campeche

Breaking the tide of the Gulf of Mexico, Campeche (Com pay CHAY) is one of the oldest colonial cities in Yucatán Peninsula, founded in 1540. In golden years, it thrived as the major port; trading timber, dyewood, silver and gold. An elegant city soon emerged behind the harbour, patterned with baroque style townhouses and ornamental […]

Izamal

Known as the “Yellow City,” Izamal may be  the oldest colonial settlement in Yucatán state, located only 45 minutes from the capital, Mérida. It was founded in early 16th century, atop the pre-existing Mayan city of Izamal. As was the strategy of Spanish conquest, temples and buildings were destroyed, and a colonial township constructed from […]

Sian Ka’an Biosphere

In peaceful slumber, on the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, is the Sian Ka’an (see-an CAAN) Biosphere Reserve. Over 500,000 hectares of tropical forest, wetlands and coastal dunes, its remarkable biodiversity includes jaguar, howler monkey, and even the American flamingo. Its eastern region expands across the Caribbean Sea, where it shelters a section of […]

Surfing in Sayulita, The Old Man in the Sea

by Justin Henderson, ex-pat writer and surfer-extraordinaire In 2010, my first year in Sayulita, I made friends with a couple of other Costa Verde International School parents, and ended up surfing with them a lot. We surfed almost every day, it seemed, as the fall/winter/spring season of 2009-2010 offered up week after week of solid […]

Uxmal

Almost 80 km south of Mérida, the present-day capital of the Yucatán state, is the ruin of Uxmal (OOSH mal), an influential Mayan metropolis of the late classic period (AD 600 to 900). In its heyday, Uxmal’s influence spread across northern Yucatán and included subjugating the neighboring settlements of Labná and Sayil. Today, it is […]