We tried to visit the Tulum ruins twice. The first time, we arrived mid-morning to queues so long we simply turned around and left. The second time, we showed up right as the gates opened at 8 am, walked straight in, and had the ruins — 60 buildings perched on limestone cliffs above the Caribbean — almost entirely to ourselves for the first 40 minutes. That’s...
Guanajuato doesn’t reveal itself all at once. You wander through what looks like an ordinary colonial backstreet, and suddenly you’re inside a tunnel built over a diverted river, cars rushing past on one side, colourful buildings rising above street level on the other. It’s a city built into a ravine, layered with mining wealth, silver-funded...
Guadalajara had a reputation. A few years back, cartel-related issues put the city on a lot of “avoid” lists, and we’ll admit we were a little nervous going in. What we found instead was a confident, culturally rich city putting its past behind it — colonial architecture, mariachi plazas, incredible street food, and a genuinely warm welcome...
Ajijic moves at the speed of a horse and rider clopping down a cobblestone street — which is a normal sight here, not a novelty for tourists. We spent time in Ajijic house-sitting for expats, and it didn’t take long to understand why so many people who come for a weekend end up staying for years. Sitting on the northern shore of Lake Chapala — Mexico’s...
We only booked a week in Zihuatanejo. We stayed five. That’s not an exaggeration for effect — it’s just what happens once you settle into “Zihua’s” rhythm: mornings watching fishermen unload the night’s catch at the fish market, afternoons on the beach with grilled red snapper, guacamole and an ice-cold Sol, and a pace of life that...
The first thing you notice about Izamal isn’t a building or a ruin — it’s the colour. Every wall, archway and colonial facade in the historic centre is painted the same warm ochre-yellow, so the whole town glows gold in the late afternoon light. Locals call it Ciudad Amarilla — the Yellow City — and once you’ve seen it, every other colonial town in...
Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacán, is one of Mexico’s most underrated colonial cities — a UNESCO World Heritage historic centre built almost entirely from pink cantera stone, a few hours from both Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende, and still well off the main tourist circuit. Here are the five things worth prioritising, plus a few extras if you...
San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan are two Tzotzil Maya towns in the highlands of Chiapas, each about 30 minutes from the colonial city of San Cristóbal de las Casas and roughly 7 km apart from each other. Both are self-governing, both blend Maya and Catholic tradition in ways found almost nowhere else in Mexico, and both are worth visiting — but they’re...
We didn’t plan our four days in the Yucatán around food. We planned it around Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Izamal, and the flamingos at Celestún. The food happened anyway — market breakfasts before sunrise, a lunch in Izamal, we almost didn’t order because there was too much to choose from, a fish in Progreso so large we asked twice if it was really meant for one...
Most travellers treat Puebla as a day trip from Mexico City — two hours in, wander the Zócalo, eat a cemita, drive back. We did that math too, then stayed four days and still left with a list of things to come back for. Puebla is Mexico’s fourth-largest metro area, sitting quietly under the shadow of two active volcanoes, with more UNESCO-listed colonial...
Our guide at Uxmal talked for two hours without stopping. He waxed lyrical about every Rain God mask on every temple, explained the difference in style between one carving and the next, told stories of daily life in the ancient city — how they collected water, how they celebrated, how they calculated the movements of Venus to plan their crops. He knew everything and...
We arrived in Celestun on a clear February morning, having driven 90km west from Merida with our driver George, and the first thing we noticed — before the flamingos, before the mangroves, before anything else — was the quality of silence. After the noise and energy of Merida, Celestun felt like someone had turned down the volume on the world. Sandy streets, pastel...