It may sound dramatic, but it breaks my heart when I hear people say “I would NEVER go to Mexico!” or when I see people in travel groups looking for, “recommendations for a <honeymoon><girls trip><getaway> in the Caribbean with great food, beaches, etc, open to anywhere! *Not Mexico”.

Or, the one that really gets me “I didn’t care for Mexico” or <clutch my pearls!> “The food in Mexico wasn’t good”… then, upon further investigation, it is clear this individual spent their entire time ‘in’ Mexico at an American owned all-inclusive.

Now, don’t get me wrong - while I am not one, I support the all-inclusive travelers! If that is how you want to spend your vacation, by all means, do and love every second of it! But, please, be cautious of gauging an entire country on a resort experience.

… Allow me a moment to step off my soap box…

As I am counting down to a two-week return to Mexico (with 2 nights at an all-inclusive! Ha, what a hypocrite), and a longer-term return next year, I am in full on Mexico nostalgia.

My introduction to Mexico was a day trip from San Diego to Tijuana when I was 9, which my parents did not adequately prepare me for, but I am grateful for because it offered a world view I didn't have growing up in Northern Middle America.

My first vacation to Mexico was as an 18 year old. My father took my best friend and I to Cancun as a sort of a graduation/18th birthday trip. I cried my way in to the country as a heavily armed Mexican Military officer told me my identification was not adequate (pre 9/11 when a birth certificate was acceptable... but the copy of mine I had was not). After he looked me square in the face and said “Do not get hurt, do not die” and stamped my tourist visa, it was off and running… somewhat cautiously… you know, to avoid getting hurt and/or dying, because the man with the guns and machete seemed pretty serious.

My next trip to Mexico (passport in hand) was my first adult holiday (American ‘holiday’, not Brit reference to ‘vacation’) spent outside the US. A friend and I decided that an anti-American-Thanksgiving was the perfect time to go to Mexico City. Well, she decided on Mexico City, I just went along because it was somewhere she has been wanting to go for years (yes, this is a theme).

It was the best “Thanksgiving” I ever had. Mexico City was everything I wanted in a non-beach trip: amazing food, culture, food, incredible people, food, community, food, incredible outdoor space, food, history, vibrancy, food (see a pattern here?). It was also a huge bonus that Mexico City LOVES Christmas. I am a Christmas freak and Mexico City must have known I was coming, because the first morning there I woke up to CHRISTMAS EXPLOSION! The lobby of the hotel had been transformed in to an incredibly tastefully tacky Christmas wonderland, that just kept getting better and better as we ventured out in to the city.

We loved Mexico City so much, that the following year, we spent Not-American-Thanksgiving there again; this time with my friend’s family. We had the most amazing Lebanese take out dinner at our beautiful Airbnb overlooking the city to start our “family” vacation. We had an incredible time, with more food and culture, and food, and history, and food (some traditions should never die).

I have been back to Mexico City twice since that second Thanksgiving, and am planning a return in the not so distance future. I recently spent 10 blissful, solo days in Playa Del Carmen and will be returning in a month, but it was really the 4 months spent in the Yucatan that sealed my love for Mexico.

Those months, in the midst of a global pandemic, were the least planned, most sporadic months of my life. It was those months in Merida, Celstun, Chixculub, Progeso, Lake Bacalar, Playa Del Carmen, and many, many stops (planned and not) in between, that slowed me down, opened my mind, chilled me out. I learned to be more spontaneous and sporadic. I learned to love and appreciate my body in a deeper sense than ever before, for all it does and all it is. It helped me calm my mind and learn to relax.

That trip also taught me a deeper level of patience, it brought me back to appreciation and gratitude of people, space, and … yup, you guessed it… food! (which is deserving of it’s own page).

I swam in the pink sea while watching flamingos walk along with shore line, I kayaked in mangroves, I climbed ruins, I killed a scorpion, I swam naked in a cenote, I rode a bicycle through the jungle, I jumped in to the most crystal clear lake I have ever seen, I ate the most incredible food, met the most beautiful people.

It is these months spent in this incredible region that make me so sad when I see “anywhere… except Mexico” or hearing “I would NEVER go there” in reference to Mexico or “I didn’t care for Mexico” when they really mean a resort. Mexico is so much more than beaches and resorts.