Mexico’s Hidden Treasures & Activities
Mexico is exotic. It offers primary colors, vibrant music, getaway resorts, dramatic scenery, and distinctive food. There are appealing beaches, colonial cities, steep pyramids, and soaring cathedrals. The Mexican landscape is varied: deep canyons, smoking volcanoes, thick jungles, hot deserts, high plains, and fish-rich seas.
If you have not sold Mexico before, now is the time to ramp up your knowledge about this extremely popular destination. A great place to start is the Mexico Destination Specialists Course. If you subscribe to the Premium Access lounge, this course is Free! As with all Destinations these days, it is vital to check the varying health and safety protocols, reopening dates, operating hours, and availability of attractions and accommodations and to consult sources like the U.S. State Department and the World Health Organization (WHO) before booking your clients.
Mexico’s number-one visitor attraction is playing and relaxing on a warm, sunny beach somewhere along its miles of coastline. For many, a resort destination with a beach, a pool, local food and drink, music, and perhaps a spa treatment describes a perfect Mexican vacation. For almost 30 years, Mexico’s federal government has built and encouraged development of beach resorts, particularly at Cancún, Ixtapa, Los Cabos, and Bahías de Huatulco.
For travelers wanting to venture beyond beach destinations, Mexico offers varied geography and multiple cultures, plus regional festivals, food, and handicrafts. The challenge for counselors and their clients is to find the hidden treasures and lesser-known activities available to individual travelers or special-interest groups and to plan enough time to experience it all.
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Archaeology: From Teotihuacán near Mexico City to Monte Albán and Mitla in the state of Oaxaca, from Palenque in the state of Chiapas to the hundreds of Maya sites on the Yucatán Peninsula, archaeology enthusiasts will get a workout.
Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon): Northern Mexico’s Canyon Country is known for one of the world’s most-scenic train rides. The train travels eastward from the Gulf of California to the state of Chihuahua. Tourists can stay on the rim, take a zip line to the bottom of another canyon, hike, and visit the traditional lands of some of the greatest endurance runners on earth, the indigenous Rarámuri (Tarahumara).
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Beaches: Sand lovers have a wide choice. In the east, the blue Caribbean Sea laps against sandy shores from Cancún south along the Riviera Maya and Costa Maya. In the west, resorts string along the Pacific Ocean. Mexico’s beach resorts offer water sports from parasailing and sunbathing to windsurfing and beachcombing. The nightlife in Cancún, Cabo San Lucas, and Acapulco appeals to the young, the party set, and those on spring break.
Colonial Cities: The architectural, religious, and urban layout brought to the New World by Spanish conquistadores, settlers, and priests marks the appearance and style of central Mexico. The golden- or pink-stone buildings, narrow cobblestone streets, winding alleys, balconies, and flower-decked courtyards preserve the romance of another age.
Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead): This Mexican celebration is like no other. Among the sights are offerings of marigold yellow flowers and candlelit ceremonies held at graveyard shrines and all-night graveyard vigils. From November 1 or 2, depending on the area, skeleton figures appear everywhere, depicted in drawings, children’s toys, sugar-candy skulls, and by participants dressed in skeleton costumes.
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Gastronomy: Of course, people will find burritos and other familiar Mexican foods. But the land that introduced the world to chocolate and vanilla also has different dishes and ingredients to experience. Diners should not miss a pepper-spicy, chocolate mole sauce; black huitlacoche corn fungus, rich as any truffle; dishes with green spinach-like chaya leaves; huge, garlicky, grilled shrimp; Yucatán’s cochinita pibil, marinated suckling pig baked in banana leaves; tortilla soup; or the always mouth-watering spread of fresh fruit and desserts.
Haciendas: Plantations of the 19th century. The owner’s large house was the center of life and production with guest rooms for important visitors. Over the years, they fell into ruins. Many haciendas have been restored, have been filled with antiques and local handicrafts and operate as luxury hotels. Some have gourmet restaurants.
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Handicrafts: Shoppers, art lovers, and souvenir seekers alike are struck by the variety and quality of Mexico’s crafts. Weavings to woodcarvings, paintings to piñatas, candies to candles, and thousands of trinkets are for sale in public markets, state stores, boutiques, and galleries.
Mariachis: The musicians who once played songs of love, loss, and bullfighting in the state of Jalisco in the 19th century are now some of Mexico’s best-known symbols. Most restaurants will have at least one small mariachi band wearing suits trimmed in silver, boots, and sombreros. The band roves from table to table taking diners’ requests.
Wildlife Sanctuaries: Mexico’s pre-Conquest rulers and warriors wore masks and trappings that identified them as fierce eagles or jaguars. The Yucatán Peninsula’s Reserva de la Biosfera Ría Lagartos and Reserva de la Biosfera Ría Celestún protect pink flamingo nesting and breeding grounds. Several reserves in the state of Michoacán are the place to see millions of monarch butterflies fluttering through fir trees in winter. Along southern Baja’s Pacific coast, Alaskan gray whales take up winter residence in sheltered lagoons to breed and give birth.
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Cruise Call: Many visitors encounter Mexico for the first time on a Caribbean or Pacific cruise itinerary, going ashore at ports such as Cozumel, Ensenada, Acapulco, and Nuevo Vallarta, and new ports along the Costa Maya, south of Cancún and north of Chetumal. Longer itineraries with a Panama Canal transit visit both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Mexico.
Traditionally, ports of call have provided a chance to sample tequila, a margarita, or Mexican beer in a waterfront bar-restaurant or to shop for souvenirs, such as embroidered dresses, serapes, or painted ceramic plates.
The bar-stop and souvenir-shopping experiences have evolved into only a small part of Mexico’s daylong or overnight port stops. Excursions may include a day at a spa or a round of golf in Puerto Vallarta or Cozumel. There also are fishing trips, village visits, archaeological site tours, swims in Maya cenotes, museum tours, or trips to nature preserves.
