Arts &amp; crafts

Aguascalientes

Calm rail-town capital built around one giant April fair

Skip unless…City

Guanajuato City

Silver-mine city of tunnels, alleys and estudiantina nights

Must-see City

Morelia

Grand pink-stone capital with serious michoacano food

Worth it Pueblo

Patzcuaro

Purepecha lake town and the home of Day of the Dead

San Miguel de Allende

UNESCO colonial looks, a big expat scene and dollar prices

Yucatán Peninsula

Campeche

Walled, pastel colonial port that most Yucatán trips skip — and shouldn't.

Worth it Pueblo

Izamal

The yellow town: a Franciscan convent and ochre walls over Maya foundations.

Mérida

Safe, walkable colonial capital and the smartest base in the Yucatán.

Must-see

Pacific Coast

Pueblo

Comala

The whitewashed 'white village' of free botanas, coffee and volcano views

Guadalajara

Mariachi, tortas ahogadas and Mexico's second city without the polish

Northern Mexico

Pueblo

Creel

Rough-and-ready Rarámuri town and the main gateway into Copper Canyon

Durango

Walkable colonial center and the backlot of Mexico's Western films

Gulf Coast

Ruins

El Tajin

The Pyramid of the Niches and a flying ritual older than the Aztecs.

Must-see Pueblo

Tlacotalpan

Painted river town where son jarocho was basically born.

Xalapa

Coffee, cloud forest, and Mexico's second-best archaeology museum.

Central Mexico

Mexico City

Where nearly every central-Mexico trip begins and half of them end

Must-see City

Puebla

UNESCO streets and the region's most serious kitchen

Must-see

Southern Mexico

Oaxaca City

Colonial capital where the food alone justifies the flight

Must-see City

San Cristóbal de las Casas

Highland colonial hub, Chiapas' cultural anchor and best base

Must-see Pueblo

San Juan Chamula

Tzotzil town whose church fuses Catholic and Maya ritual

Baja

Pueblo

Todos Santos

A desert-meets-Pacific arts town gone semi-gentrified but still worth it