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Award-winning GAA tours of Mexico are friendly, good value, small group vacations: Mexico Family Discovery; Ruta Maya; Specials and Late Availability; Yucatan Highlights

A restaurant balcony in Oaxaca, during Mexico's Days of the Dead festival.

Click above to see photos starting with Mexico City or choose a region below

Mexico has been in the holiday business successfully for many years with a sensational combination of diverse landscapes, three coasts hosting extensive beaches (Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean's Mayan Riviera), spectacular ancient sites and especially pyramids, peculiar festivals, atmospheric colonial towns, dazzling sunshine, varied and delicious cuisine, haunting music, unusual drinks, chromatic coral, high surf and low prices.
It's a winner!

Chichen Itza's magnificent Kukulkan pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula.

Possible tourist activities in Mexico

• stop briefly in Mexico City for a wander around a couple of museums and a day out at the nearby Teotihuacan pyramid complex.

• take a few days in a couple of calm, colonial towns such as Oaxaca or Merida in the company of some good tequila (and find out how Mexicans drink the stuff. Hint, it's not via Margeritas!).

• attend a wacky festival such as the Days of the Dead.

• explore a Yucatan pyramid complex such as Uxmal or Chichen-Itza (very different from the massive but not so inspiring Teotihuacan).

• grab some beach time, perhaps with a snorkel or compressed-air tank thrown in. Choose between the Pacific Coast (more established, bigger beaches) or the Maya Riviera (better coral and access to ancient sites).

Oaxaca Zocalo (city centre), for local people.

Best weather in November-April

Worst: June-October (wet, hot); the Yucatan Peninsula is especially susceptible to hurricanes during this season but even if the big one doesn't strike the seas around may be rough and unclear, the skies cloudy and the beaches less pleasant to hang out on, though prices will be down.
March/April sees US College kid overload during the Spring Break (various schools, various dates).

Playa del Carmen, one of the 'Maya Riviera' beaches, Yucatan, Mexico.

Beaches: apart from large stretches of soft sand and warm waters, Mexican beaches offer laid back lifestyles, good facilities, excellent food and drink at reasonable prices, lively evenings with music and/or dance if you care for it, superb coral in some places and nearby ancient sites in others.

On the negative side beaches in Mexico are frequently overrun with package tourists, souvenirs are clichéd and poor quality, petty theft happens and local service people can be sour and unhelpful if things go wrong or tips are not evident. Still, that's the rich tapestry of life.
Ayy! Arriba! Vamonos!

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