Mexico holidays

Mexico is North America's most-varied travel destination — the Yucatán's Mayan ruins (Chichén Itzá, Tulum, Uxmal, Calakmul) and cenote-cave swimming; Mexico City's extraordinary food scene (the world's most pre-Hispanic culinary heritage layered with European, African, Asian influences); the colonial silver-mining cities of Oaxaca, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato; the Pacific surf coasts (Punta Mita, Sayulita, Puerto Escondido); the Baja California Sur whale-watching (gray whales calving in Magdalena Bay, January-March); the cenote-and-jungle Riviera Maya at Tulum; the day-of-the-dead celebrations of Oaxaca (late October); and the Copper Canyon (deeper and larger than the Grand Canyon) in Chihuahua.

A 14-21 day classic Mexico trip: Mexico City (4-5 nights — Centro Histórico, Coyoacán, Frida Kahlo Museum, Anthropology Museum, the food markets and the world-class restaurants Pujol, Quintonil, Sud777) → fly to Oaxaca (3-4 nights — the colonial Centro, Monte Albán Zapotec ruins, Hierve el Agua petrified-water springs, mezcal-distillery day trip, the textile-village circuit) → optional San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato (3 nights for colonial heart) → fly to the Yucatán via Mérida or Cancún (3 nights — Mayan ruins at Uxmal or Chichén Itzá, the colonial Mérida heart) → Caribbean coast at Tulum, Akumal or Bacalar (3-4 nights — cenote swimming, beach, optional Sian Ka'an biosphere day-trip).