Mexico is North America’s most diverse travel destination — a country of 35 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, extraordinary pre-Columbian ruins, vibrant colonial cities, two coastlines (Pacific and Caribbean), and one of the world’s great food cultures. These are its 15 most extraordinary places.
1. Mexico City
Mexico City — a metropolis of 22 million people at 2,240 metres altitude — is one of the world’s great cultural capitals. The historic centre contains the Zócalo (one of the world’s largest city squares), the Metropolitan Cathedral (built over 240 years from 1573 to 1813), and the ruins of the Aztec Templo Mayor discovered in 1978 during electrical works. Teotihuacán, 50km northeast, contains the pyramids of the Sun and Moon — built before the Aztec empire and still one of the most mysterious and impressive archaeological sites in the Americas. The Roma and Condesa neighbourhoods offer the best food, coffee, and street life in Latin America.
2. Chichen Itza
The Mayan city of Chichen Itza — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World — reached its peak between 600 and 1200 AD. El Castillo (the Temple of Kukulcán) is a stepped pyramid of precise astronomical design: on the spring and autumn equinoxes, the afternoon sun creates the illusion of a serpent descending the northern staircase. Arrive at opening time (8am) to beat the tour group crowds from the Riviera Maya resorts that arrive mid-morning.
3. Tulum
Tulum is the only Mayan archaeological site positioned directly above the Caribbean Sea — its cliff-top temples set against turquoise water and white beach create one of Mexico’s most photographed landscapes. The town of Tulum below has evolved from a backpacker hangout into one of the world’s most fashionable boutique hotel destinations. The cenotes (freshwater sinkholes) around Tulum — Gran Cenote and Dos Ojos among the best — offer exceptional snorkelling in crystal-clear limestone chambers.
4-15. The Complete Mexico
Oaxaca (Mexico’s food capital — mole, tlayudas, mezcal, and the best markets in the country). Guanajuato (a UNESCO colonial city of coloured houses tumbling down a ravine — impossibly beautiful and rarely seen by international tourists). Copper Canyon (a canyon system four times larger than the Grand Canyon, accessible by the Chihuahua al Pacífico railway — one of the world’s great train journeys). Palenque (the most atmospherically located Mayan ruins — jungle-shrouded temples in the Chiapas foothills). Guadalajara (Mexico’s second city — the birthplace of mariachi and tequila). Cenotes of Yucatán (the peninsula is riddled with flooded limestone sinkholes — snorkelling in them is among Mexico’s best experiences). Bacalar (the Lake of Seven Colours — a shallow lagoon on the border with Belize, increasingly popular with slow travellers). San Cristóbal de las Casas (a highland colonial city in indigenous Chiapas — markets, textiles, and the most politically complex corner of Mexico). Puerto Vallarta (the best of Mexico’s Pacific coast resorts — good beaches, excellent restaurants, charming old town). Tepoztlán (a magic town in the Morelos hills south of Mexico City — weekend destination for the capital’s creative class). Isla Holbox (a car-free island off the Yucatán tip — whale shark swimming June to September).