Pueblos Magicos

  That photo above is the two-page spread from a cover story of mine nine years ago in a travel magazine called TravelWorld. It was a piece on the top colonial cities in Mexico, places to visit away from the beaches that are more interesting and are a better travel deal. This is the old …

Mexico launched its Pueblos Mágicos (Magical Towns) program back in 2001 to recognize special places that “offer visitors a ‘magical’ experience—by reason of their natural beauty, cultural riches, or historical relevance.” Ten destinations were in the original round, including some of the ones below, with more added each year until the present. Over the years …

How cheap is Mexico for budget travelers? Well, not in the bargain basement, but it’s one of the best values in the world. Plus you can fly there for a reasonable price and stick around for six months if you want. Way back in 2005 I wrote a post about how Mexico wasn’t a featured …

Picture a place where the only way to access the town is through a narrow one-way tunnel more than two kilometers long. Where when you wander around it, you find abandoned, empty buildings around each corner and the loudest sounds are the braying of donkeys. There’s electricity, but the internet speed is crawling, even by …

It’s a strange feeling when you get to a destination that seems perfect for backpackers and there are none of them there. After a few days in Cuetzalan, a Pueblo Magico in the northern part of Puebla state in Mexico, I had the rare feeling I’d gotten somewhere before the crowds, that I’ve discovered that …