Mexico is a great place to visit. One moment you're sipping smoky mezcal, and the next you're floating in the bluest of natural pools or being serenaded by mariachi singers.
Mexico's stunning nature and vibrant towns allow you to find an everyday life filled with amazing things to see and do. Some of the best things to do in Mexico are listed here.
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The engineering Mayas built pyramids to be the center of public life. The monumental structures at Chichén Itz and Palenque were used to navigate their lands. In Tulum a pyramid was used as a lighthouse.
The biggest pyramid in the world is in Mexico. The Great Pyramid of Egypt is smaller than the Tepanipa. It looked like a grassy hill, which fooled the Spanish conquistadors. It takes 15 minutes to walk through the cool tunnels that lead to the Pyramid of Cholula.
Every mood and life milestone has a song by a mariachi band. A happy trumpet. There is a bolero style. The singing troupes are hired by Mexicans to perform at big events. They are a way to listen to the songs of Mexico. They are found in major plazas from Mérida to Cuernavaca.
Mexico City's Plaza Garibaldi has been bringing together restaurants and music since 1925. The Encuentro Internacional del Mariachi y la Charreria is the largest mariachi festival in the world and is held in Guadalajara.
There's a lot of history at the Jardn Etnobotnico. You can use cochineal to stain your hands. The smooshed-bug blood was used to dye garments for Europe's elite and gave the Spaniards second only to silver. The storytellers at the garden show how indigenous people used plants for many things. The ceiba tree was thought to be the universe itself, with its roots in the Underworld and thorns on the trunk representing the people.
There are bike lanes in Mexico City's most popular neighborhoods. Streets lined with beautifully tiled houses and boutique stores are guided by archways of trees. Young families and teenagers are practicing dance moves in the parks and at the cafes.
The main avenues of the country's capital are car-free on Sundays. You can join in any time with a free or low cost bike rental.
Mexicans like to dance and have the music in them. Dressed in hats and heels or casual clothes, couples take to the outdoor Plaza Ciudadela in Mexico City on Saturdays to dance and learn to salsa. It is open to the public, but if you want to learn to dance for a fee, there are other bars in town. While Mama Rumba has a live big band, PataNegra Condesa is small and intimate.
The stars of Mexico's Golden Age of cinema, like Cantinflas and Mara Félix, went to boogie at the legendary Saln deBailes Los ngeles.
The cenotes were a portal to speak to the gods for the Mayas. The limestone swimming holes in the jungle are great for cooling off in the jungle. Cenotes are formed by the collapse of porous limestone bedrock.
Underwater photographers, cavers and snorkelers enjoy the clear cenotes, as do swimmers who want a peaceful swim. The turquoise water in cenotes is rich in minerals.
It feels like floating in pre history. You can see the columns of vines and the shafts of sunlight. Since the Maya were here, little has changed.
The Yucatn Peninsula contains most of the cenotes.
Do you want to find the best taco joint? It is not in a white tablecloth restaurant. It is on the road. There is something special about the chargrilling of pork at El Vilsito that makes it taste better than anywhere else. The sizzling hot plate could be the reason for the handmade quesadillas stuffed with zucchini flowers or nopales. The tub of self-serve salsas that make sopes (sprinkled with white panela cheese and lettuce) and tlacoyos (diamond-shaped blue-corn parcels of beans and meat) are much better than you thought. The fresh cut limes and impromptu chats give Mexican street food that extra zing. Oaxaca has some of the best street food in the world.
If you want to find the best street food, stop at a stand and look for a hissing comal where the smoke smells good. There will be home-made sauces on display. Customers who have just finished a taco will want another. There are two places in Mexico City where you can see all of this.
Xochimilco is the only part of pre-Hispanic waterways left. Colorful wooden trajinera boats are moving. The garden beds are made from reeds.
The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan ruled from an island in lakes. The Aztecs were able to balance the system of water. Imagine Xochimilco in Aztec times, with gardeners tending to the plots of green bean-vines, furry purple amaranth and plump chilis and tomatoes, as it still does today.
Mezcal is a drink that is drunk in warm-lit bars by people of all ages. Mezcal is made from the same plant but is roasted under volcanic rock. Visitors to Oaxaca would bring back flasks of potent stuff from their mom and pop farms.
In Mexico City's hidden Bsforo and Mano Santa, you can find a tasting flight of drinks made with Mezcal. Museo del Tequila y el Mezcal is a great place to learn about the drink.
Mezcal is only available in Mexico. The Los Danzantes are upscale and impressive. Oaxaca is a city.
A perfect Mezcal day starts with a guided distillery visit that will show you how to cook the pias in a volcanic rock pit. You can go to one of the tasting rooms. Cuish has drinks that are appetizing. In Situ is a great place to learn your Tobal from your Espadn. The traditional way to drink is with a slice of orange on the side.
An ancient ritual that uses 3000 years of indigenous cultural knowledge as medicine is called a temazcal. The kind of experience that people swear is life-changing is when a shaman guides you through a ceremony inside a dome while you sit in a circle.
In the dark, the shaman throws a herbal infusion on the hot rocks. The shaman and other participants begin the dialogue by thanking the earth. There are words in the Nahuatl language that the guidetones.
The session is not touchy feely. Before battle, warriors endure this ritual. After 90 minutes of building resilience and releasing toxins, you are able to cleanse yourself.
If you want to experience a real temazcal experience, follow spirituality seekers to Tepotzln or get the full picture on the Zapotec civilization. Xquenda has a mural of a pre-Hispanic ceremony.
There are bottles next to an easel. The artist is stepping out. There are clay fertility figures, skeletons-mché and dangling cherubs waiting to be found in theartesanas.
The Blue House is where Frida lived and died. There is an artist's silver jewelry, short bed, crutches, wheelchair and a missing leg here. While showcasing pre-Hispanic art and traditions, she had a lifelong disability and used it to her advantage.
The female power of the women of her mother's hometown was summoned by the dresses and shawls she wore. There are other places in Mexico City where you can find information about Frida. She feels her passion for Mexico in her house and courtyard. She has an amazing life and art.
Mexico City has more museums than any other city. The whole of Mexico's history can be found in its museums, from indigenous handicrafts to revolution.
Museo de Antropologa is one of the best museums in the world with a giant water feature at the center of its courtyard.
The "big three" muralists are men. Many public buildings are adorned with murals by Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. The patio walls of Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso are where Diego Rivera's El hombre en el cruce de caminos is located.
The Museo del Calzado shoe museum is a good example of a museum that caters to specific tastes.
The spirits of the dead can return to their loved ones once a year. Photos of the dead are lit by candle and shrouded in incense smoke in the altars. Da de Muertos is a time of celebration and remembrance. The tradition can be traced back to the Aztecs and the Olmecs.
If you visit Mexico at the end of October, you will see the nights turn festive as people crowd the squares, businesses and museums to judge the best decorated altars. Tagging along at a respectful distance is accepted and the sight of thousands of candles and flowers is a true Mexican experience.
mole is the most interesting Mexican dish for its mix of herbs and spices. Cocoa and three kinds of chilis give the sauce a chocolatey warmth, but mole contains a list of over 15 ingredients. It is eaten in restaurants that are painted blue.
Oaxaca is known for its colorful moles. A hit of hoja santa or "sacred leaf" is what distinguishes mole negro from other sauces. The best place to put mole is over chicken or Enchilada.
There are piatas above you. There are flowers and mangos in the air and fat sacks of spices nearby. On a warm day, the Mexican market is filled with fruit-salad stands, barber shops, and storekeepers. Even if you are in a posh neighborhood or a mountain village, everyday Mexican life is still happening in a mercado.
Incense float and pork crackling can be smelled in the one market. If you want to eat alongside families, this is the place to go. It is possible to taste delicious Mexican fruit like mamey and tuna in juice. Walking through a Mexican market is a lot of fun.
Mexican artesanas can be pretty or sweet. You are grasping centuries of skills and traditions when you hold up a piece at a workshop. There is a mask that might jump out at you. There is a mythology of the Huichol of Jalisco. Taxco silverware shimmers with history, first as silver gifts to Aztec gods, then as Spanish pocket money. The diverse story of Mexico is told by generations of weavers, pre-Hispanic potters and metalsmiths. If you pick up a piece from an artisan, you can contribute to their story.
The mgicos in Mexico feel like they are part of a magic town. The beauty of Mexican life can be experienced in each place. Many of the towns have a leafy Zcalo piazza or square at their center where families and friends can enjoy a weekend or long summer evening outside. It's not just that they're lookers, but they also maintain some natural or historical charm. In Taxco, where silver was mined by Aztecs and Spaniards alike, all white VW taxis cross its cobblestones. People come to Papantla to see the voladores whirl around a maypole.
The coast of Oaxaca is a great place to swim with Mexicans. There are 36 golden sand beaches in the area. Playa Carrizalillo beach is a gem in Puerto Escondido and is reached by steep steps to deter most tourists.
Maybe it's the Yucatn Peninsula'sRiviera Maya. The blue ribbon of water and white sand is appealing and you can still escape the crowds. The locals of Cancn and Tulum have a large public beach. At Playa del Carmen, the beach runs next to "5th Avenue" where all prices are in US dollars, but two blocks away from the souvenir strip and life seems to be the same as it was in the past. You can eat at a garden restaurant, drink at a wooden shack bar and walk across the beach.
Hearing the sound of a neighborhood tortillera is one of the easiest pleasures in Mexico. The secret of nixtamalization was unlocked by the mexicans over 3000 years ago. It is magic for a passerby to see the steaming hot tortillas parade down the conveyor belt and be bundled up in paper for a waiting line. Every few blocks, there are tortilleras.
It is possible to find at least one tortillera on the streets immediately around a mercado.
The article was last updated about 4 hours ago.
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