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Travel Plan for Mexico

Mexico Travel Plan SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico- 2010 is the year for Mexico, at least this is what the president says. This year is the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence, the 100th anniversary since its revolution, and the year that the Vagabond Journey family will go into the country deep. We are looking [...]

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Mexico Travel Plan

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico- 2010 is the year for Mexico, at least this is what the president says. This year is the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence, the 100th anniversary since its revolution, and the year that the Vagabond Journey family will go into the country deep. We are looking at taking a long haul through Mexico — we were given 180 days a the border to travel in this country, and it is looking as if we are going to use them all.

Mexico is cool. Good food plus good people plus affordable living plus everything that I could need or want in travel being right in front of me = happy travelers. I remember the looks on the faces of a few long term, around the world type travelers that I have met in other lands when the word “Mexico” is spoken. Mexico is cool they would tell me as their eyes lit up. It is.

Sitting just to the south of the big ol’ USA, I have never fully acknowledged Mexico as being a particularly attractive travel destination — perhaps because of its close proximity to my homeland. I must admit that in my early years of travel, I was generally drawn to the other side of the planet, to places as far away from where I came from as I could get. Then I went to these places, spent many years in them, and now I am back west: in Mexico. What this country lacks in shock value — no, I do not walk down the streets here with my mouth agape as I do in China or India — it makes up for with wholesomeness, beauty, subtle joys, and good, untesting living.

Plan of travel through Mexico, there are many options

There is something that strikes me about San Cristobal de las Casas in the south of Mexico, and it is that the people here really seem to enjoy living. You can feel this in the streets, you can tell it on the faces of the people, in their manner of speech, in the way they move. This is a good place. My daughter seems to enjoy being here as well, here understanding of Spanish is coming along nicely, she has little friends that she plays with, she goes out into the streets and the Maya girls who go around selling textiles to tourists play with her as if she was some kind of baby doll. Petra seems to know that traveling is about the people you meet, and, here in San Cristobal, there are streets full of people who delight in meeting her.

I want to stay in Mexico, give this country the full swing of travel: from south to north, stopping in selected places for one to two months each.

Petra with Maya girl in San Cristbal de las Casas


Video of Petra playing with Maya girl in the streets

Travel plan for Mexico

One month has ticked off of our six month Mexican tourist visas, we stopped in Palenque and then rented out a good room in San Cristobal de las Casas for a month. We just put the money down to stay in San Cristobal for another month — the living is good here, my daughter has a little friend in the hotel, my wife has things to keep her occupied, I am further developing VagabondJourney.com, and we are just about living within our budget.

From San Cristobal, north is the only way to travel — north to Oaxaca, north to Mexico City, north to some other places. We are looking at a four hub travel plan for Mexico, we want to make four little traveler nests to stay in for one or two months each.

A hub is a place where I rent out a room by the month and use it as a jumping off point for visiting other locations in the region.

Our plan of travel, in no particular order, is looking something like this:

Palenque- one week, completed.
San Cristobal de las Casas- two months, half completed.
Oaxaca
Vera Cruz
Mexico City
Guanajuato
Somewhere farther north?

Our plan is, as always, very unstructured, and the particular places we make into hubs will invariably change as we move into regions and find out what the word is on the street. In point, we will select places to stay when we get there.

We are always open to suggestions, please comment below if you know of places in Mexico that we should go.



Booking.com

Filed under: Mexico, North America, Travel Lifestyle, Travel Philosophy, Travel Preparation

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3692 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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  • Bob L October 13, 2010, 3:55 pm

    Mind your elevations. Some places in Mexico can get rather nippy at night in the winter.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com October 13, 2010, 5:26 pm

      Good call. It is pretty cold in San Cristobal, and we are just getting into autumn.

      Thanks,

      Wade

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  • Caitlin October 15, 2010, 7:46 am

    Hmmmm further north… I’ve heard that Zacatecas is really nice.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com October 28, 2010, 7:52 pm

      Want to go to ALL parts of Mexico, this is truly a great country.

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  • mecury October 15, 2010, 1:21 pm

    consider durango, it’s the wild west

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com October 28, 2010, 7:49 pm

      Surely will, thanks!

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  • Chris Smith October 18, 2010, 12:50 am

    Mexico Travel & Weather report:

    I exited Guanajuato early October, where it was getting cold and went to Lake Chapala for awhile to visit the RetireEarlyLifestyle website friends (where it was only cold in the mornings awhile and has a Hot Spring) just left warm sunny La Paz for the northern end of Baja, where it’s low 60-70F, with misty low clouds, generally overcast. Thinking of going back down the Baja 650 miles to desert oasis Mulege (thousands of river bank Palm trees and miles of very good beaches) – winter weather will be great. Figuring this will be a good place to Winter as Summer there is very hot. Oaxaca had some recent catastrophic flooding, might have just gone there and will be great soon enough – rains have about ended in Guatemala where my place in Panajachel was near covered in mud.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com October 28, 2010, 7:42 pm

      Back in Baja? Man, we are getting nearer to each other just to get farther apart again haha.

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  • Emery November 14, 2010, 11:52 pm

    Living in Texas, I meet a lot of people from Mexico, and I always ask them, “What state are you from?” So I get to hear about life in various parts of the country. Most are from the northern states, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, but I’ve met people from Mexico City and other areas as well. As for me, I’ve only ever been to the tourist spots in Quintana Roo via boat or plane, and I’ve never even made it to the border states. What can I say? I’m a sucker for the beaches.

    After your 180 days, if you find yourself heading north up through Texas, you’re welcome to stop by.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com November 15, 2010, 11:10 am

      Will do, surely, if I decide to work a little in the south of the USA. But it probably is looking like we are going to go to Colombia or another Caribbean Island after our Mexican visas run out so that we hit the USA in the summer.

      I have become a certifiable cold wuss haha.

      Thanks for the invitation, will surely take you up on your offer some day.

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