Region

Southern Mexico

Mezcal, Monte Albán, Pacific surf, jungle ruins — our home turf.

Oaxaca · Chiapas

Chiapas

Cool colonial highlands, Maya ruins, jungle and living indigenous culture

Tiered turquoise cascades on the road between Palenque and the highlands

Unhurried highland town and the base for Montebello and El Chiflón

Dozens of multicolored lakes in pine forest on the Guatemala border

Maya city swallowed by jungle, with Pakal's tomb underneath

Highland colonial hub, Chiapas' cultural anchor and best base

Tzotzil town whose church fuses Catholic and Maya ritual

Kilometer-high canyon walls on a fast boat down the Grijalva

Chiapas' hot lowland capital — mostly an arrival gateway

Mexico's food-and-craft heartland, with a surf coast to match

Petrified waterfalls and cliff-edge mineral pools in the eastern valleys

Zapotec capital on a leveled mountaintop, 30 minutes from the city

Colonial capital where the food alone justifies the flight

Real surf town with a working port — not a resort in disguise