I moved to Mexico in 2010 and I have been exploring the country ever since, first from my base in Cancun and later as a full time traveler. This page is where I organize everything I have written about Mexico, so you can decide where to go, how to get around, and what to expect once you land.
If it’s your first trip, my short answer on where to go is the Yucatan Peninsula. It’s the easiest region to travel independently, flights from the US and Canada are cheap and direct, and it’s where I lived for years. If you have already done the Caribbean side, Baja California Sur and central Mexico are where the country gets really interesting.
Below you’ll find all the Mexico destinations I have covered, organized by region, followed by the practical part: safety, the best time to go, buses, driving, and entry requirements.
Mexico Destinations by Region
Mexico is huge. Flying from Cancun to Los Cabos takes longer than flying from Cancun to Miami, so pick one or two regions per trip instead of trying to see everything. Here is how I would divide the country.
Yucatan Peninsula and the Caribbean Coast
This is the Mexico of white beaches, cenotes, and Mayan ruins, and the region I know best. It’s flat, safe by Mexican standards, and easy to explore by rental car or first class bus. If you are traveling on your own, start with my Yucatan Peninsula solo travel guide.
Cancun
Cancun is more than the all inclusive strip. I lived there for years, and the city side has great local food, ferry connections, and easy day trips, while the north end of the hotel zone has some of the calmest, whitest beaches in the country. Use it as your landing base for two or three nights. Start with my guide to Cancun for solo travelers.
Tulum
Tulum gets both the love and the hate, and both are deserved. Prices are silly by Mexican standards, but ruins sitting on a cliff above the Caribbean, plus cenotes ten minutes away, still justify a stop. Two or three nights is enough. My Tulum travel guide and my Tulum guide for solo female travelers cover where to stay and what to skip.
Isla Mujeres
Isla Mujeres is 20 minutes by ferry from Cancun, and it was my favorite escape when I lived there. Playa Norte is shallow, calm, and perfect if you want to swim rather than fight waves. Most people come for the day, but the island is at its best after the last ferry leaves. Here are my favorite things to do in Isla Mujeres.
Riviera Maya
The Riviera Maya is the coastal stretch between Cancun and Tulum, with Playa del Carmen in the middle. This is where you find the highest concentration of cenotes, beach clubs, and snorkeling spots in the country. I collected my favorites in the best cenotes of the Riviera Maya, with prices and practical info.
Valladolid
Valladolid is a small colonial city halfway between Cancun and Merida, and the smartest base for visiting Chichen Itza early, before the tour buses arrive around 10 am. The town itself deserves a full day for its pastel streets and slow pace. Read my guide to the most unique things to do in Valladolid.
El Cuyo
El Cuyo is a tiny fishing village on the north coast of the Yucatan where the road literally ends at the beach. It’s popular with kitesurfers and with anyone who wants an empty beach and no nightlife. Services are basic, so bring cash. My El Cuyo guide has everything you need.
Bacalar
Bacalar sits on a freshwater lagoon in the far south of Quintana Roo, close to the Belize border. The water shifts through several shades of blue depending on depth, which is why everyone calls it the lagoon of seven colors. It’s a long trip from Cancun, about five hours by bus, so plan at least two nights to make it worth it.
Pacific Coast
The Pacific side has bigger waves, bigger sunsets, and a completely different feel from the Caribbean. The water is not turquoise here, but the towns have more character and better food for your money.
Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta is a real city that happens to have beaches, which makes it one of the best bases in Mexico for travelers who want restaurants, culture, and walkability along with the sand. The malecon at sunset is worth the trip on its own. It’s also one of the most welcoming destinations in the country. Here are my favorite things to do in Puerto Vallarta.
Sayulita and Riviera Nayarit
Sayulita is a surf town about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, colorful, small, and very popular, so weekends get crowded with visitors from Guadalajara. Go midweek if you can, and use it as a gateway to the quieter towns of the Riviera Nayarit. My guide to things to do in Sayulita covers both.
Baja California Sur
Baja is desert meeting sea, and it’s the best road trip in Mexico. I drove it and wrote about the full route in my Baja California Sur road trip guide, plus a roundup of 31 things to do in Baja California Sur. If you come between December and April, whale watching here is unlike anywhere else on the planet. I explain the where and when in my Baja whale watching guide.
La Paz
La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur and still feels like a Mexican city rather than a resort. It’s the jumping off point for swimming with whale sharks and for Balandra, a bay so shallow you can walk across it at low tide. Everything you need to know is in my La Paz travel guide.
Loreto
Loreto is smaller and quieter than La Paz, with a pretty historic center, one of the oldest missions in the Californias, and boat trips to uninhabited islands in a protected marine park. It suits travelers who want nature without crowds. Here are my favorite things to do in Loreto.
Central Mexico
Central Mexico is where the country’s history, food, and landscapes concentrate, and where far fewer beach tourists ever go. Distances are bigger and buses become your friend.
Mexico City
Mexico City deserves a minimum of four days: the historic center, the museums of Chapultepec, the canals of Xochimilco, and neighborhoods like Roma and Condesa where you could eat your way through a week without repeating a restaurant. It is also much safer for visitors than its reputation suggests if you stick to the central neighborhoods. A full guide is coming to Boundless Roads soon.
La Huasteca Potosina
La Huasteca Potosina is a region of turquoise rivers, waterfalls, and jungle in the state of San Luis Potosi, and one of the most rewarding places I have visited in Mexico. It takes effort to reach, which is exactly why it has stayed wild. You need a car or a tour, and at least three days. My Huasteca Potosina guide maps it all out.
Grutas de Tolantongo
Grutas de Tolantongo is a canyon in Hidalgo state with hot spring pools built into the cliff face and a warm turquoise river below. It looks unreal in photos and, for once, looks the same in person. Avoid weekends and Mexican holidays, when it fills with local families. Read my complete Tolantongo guide before you go.
Xalapa
Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz, is a university city in the coffee growing hills that almost no foreign tourist visits. Its anthropology museum is second only to Mexico City’s, and the giant Olmec heads alone justify the detour. Here is my Xalapa travel guide.
Map of the Best Mexico Destinations
Here is every destination from this page on one map, so you can see how the regions connect and plan a realistic route.
[MAP EMBED: Google My Maps with one pin per destination above]
Is It Safe to Travel to Mexico?
Yes, the destinations on this page are safe to visit with the same common sense you would use in any big city. The violence that makes headlines is concentrated in specific regions and almost never involves tourists. I have lived and traveled in Mexico since 2010, most of that time on my own, and the problems I have actually dealt with are the ordinary ones: an overcharging taxi driver, a card skimmer at an ATM, a too good to be true apartment listing.
That said, safety in Mexico is a real topic that deserves more than a paragraph, so I wrote a full post about how to stay safe while traveling in Mexico, including what I do differently as a woman traveling alone.
One thing I never skip is travel insurance, because in Mexico private hospitals are excellent but expensive, and they will ask how you are paying before they treat you. I use SafetyWing, which is built for long and repeated trips and lets you start a policy even after you have left home.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Mexico?
November to April is the best time to visit most of Mexico: it’s the dry season, temperatures are pleasant, and the whales are in Baja. The trade off is that it’s also high season, with prices peaking around Christmas, New Year, and Easter week.
May and June are hot everywhere. From June to November the Caribbean and Gulf coasts are technically in hurricane season, which in practice means afternoon storms most days and a small chance of something bigger, so keep plans flexible and buy insurance that covers weather disruptions. The Caribbean side can also get sargassum seaweed roughly between April and August. It varies year to year and beach to beach, so check recent reports for your dates rather than canceling outright.
My personal favorite window is late November through early December: dry season weather, whale season starting in Baja, and none of the holiday crowds or prices.
Getting to Mexico: Flights and Airports
Mexico has direct flights from almost every major city in the US and Canada, and which airport you choose defines your trip. These are the main ones:
- Cancun (CUN) for the Yucatan Peninsula and the Caribbean coast, with the most direct routes from North America
- Mexico City (MEX) for the capital and central Mexico, plus the newer Felipe Angeles airport (NLU) used by some low cost carriers
- Puerto Vallarta (PVR) for the Pacific coast and Riviera Nayarit
- Los Cabos (SJD) and La Paz (LAP) for Baja California Sur
- Merida (MID) for a quieter entrance to the Yucatan
For finding cheap fares from the US, I use Going, which sends deal alerts for your home airports. Fares to Cancun in particular drop constantly outside the holiday weeks.
Getting Around Mexico
By Bus
Mexico’s first class buses are better than anything I have used in Europe or the US: assigned reclining seats, air conditioning, and direct routes between all major cities. ADO covers the south and east, including the whole Yucatan Peninsula, while ETN and Primera Plus cover central and western Mexico. Book directly on the company websites or apps, and bring a sweater because the air conditioning is always set to arctic.
By Car
Renting a car is the best way to explore the Yucatan, Baja, and the Huasteca, and after years of driving in Mexico I can tell you it’s far less scary than the internet makes it sound. The two things to know: third party liability insurance is mandatory and NOT included in the cheap headline rates you see online, and toll highways (cuotas) are worth every peso for speed and safety. I compare rental prices on Discover Cars because it shows the real price with insurance included, which saves the classic surprise at the counter.
I wrote in detail about how to drive in Mexico and what to check before renting a car in Mexico. For live road conditions, the Facebook group On the Road in Mexico is a great resource.
PRO TIP: Take photos and video of the entire rental car, inside and out, before leaving the lot, with the agent present. It takes two minutes and it has saved me from a damage claim more than once.
Domestic Flights
For long jumps, fly. Cancun to Mexico City is a 24 hour bus ride or a 2.5 hour flight that often costs less than the bus. Aeromexico is the full service option, while Volaris and Viva are the low cost carriers. The base fares are cheap but everything is an extra, so weigh your bag at home and read the fare rules before you click buy.
Mexico Entry Requirements for Tourists
Citizens of the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU do not need a visa to visit Mexico as tourists. What you get on arrival is a tourist permit, and here is the part most blogs get wrong: the maximum stay is 180 days, but the immigration officer decides how many days you actually receive, and shorter grants have become common. If you need a specific length of stay, say so politely at the booth and be ready to show your return ticket and accommodation booking.
As of 2026, major airports like Cancun and Mexico City have replaced the old paper FMM form with a digital process and a passport stamp, so check the stamp before you walk away, because the number written there is your legal stay. For the official list of countries and requirements, check the Mexican immigration site.
Where to Stay and What to Eat in Mexico
Mexico’s accommodation range is enormous, from 20-dollar guesthouses to restored haciendas, and outside the Cancun hotel zone, your money goes far. I search and compare on Booking.com, filtering for free cancellation and an 8-plus review score, and for stays over a week I look at apartments so I can cook and spread out.
About the food: real Mexican food has almost nothing to do with the Tex Mex back home, and it changes completely from region to region. Order cochinita pibil in the Yucatan, tacos al pastor in Mexico City, and fish tacos in Baja, and as a general rule eat wherever you see a line of locals at lunchtime.
Two money notes: as of July 2026 one US dollar gets you around 18 to 19 pesos, but check the current rate before you go, and tipping is expected at 10 to 15 percent in restaurants. Keep small cash for markets, taxis, and small towns, because cards are still not accepted everywhere.
Mexico Destinations FAQ
Which part of Mexico is best for first time visitors?
The Yucatan Peninsula is the best region for a first trip to Mexico. It combines beaches, ruins, cenotes, and colonial towns in a compact area with excellent buses, direct flights, and plenty of English spoken. Base yourself in two spots, for example Cancun or Playa del Carmen plus Valladolid, and you’ll see a lot without long travel days.
What is the safest part of Mexico for solo travelers?
The Yucatan Peninsula, Baja California Sur, and Puerto Vallarta consistently rank among the safest areas of the country, and they are the ones I recommend to women traveling alone for the first time. Merida in particular is regularly rated one of the safest cities in the Americas.
How many days do you need for a first trip to Mexico?
Plan a minimum of 7 days for one region, and 10 to 14 days if you want to combine two, like the Yucatan plus Mexico City. Mexico rewards slow travel, and trying to cover three regions in a week means spending your holiday in airports.
What is the cheapest time of year to visit Mexico?
September and October are the cheapest months, with hotel prices on the coasts dropping 30 to 50 percent compared to winter. The trade off is rain and hurricane risk on the coasts. For a better balance of price and weather, aim for late November, early December, or May.
Which Mexico Destination Should You Choose?
If you want the easiest trip with beaches and ruins, go to the Yucatan. If you want a city and beach combination with great food, go to Puerto Vallarta. If you want nature, whales, and a road trip, go to Baja California Sur. If you want to understand Mexico beyond the beaches, give Mexico City and the central highlands the time they deserve.
After 16 years, I am still finding places in Mexico that make me pull the car over for photos. Start with one region, do it slowly, and I can almost guarantee you will be back for the others.