Southwest Airlines is already preparing for spring break next year with new flights to Belize, Los Cabos, and San Juan.
21.07.2023 - 08:44 / roughguides.com / Diego Rivera / Frida Kahlo
Thinking of visiting Mexico for the first time? Watch a few films before you go. Like great works of fiction, movies often provide an illuminating insight into the culture of a country, its landscape and its peoples. Mexico has always been a rich source of movie material, with its own prodigious film industry and plenty of Hollywood blockbusters set in the country. Here are a few cinematic gems to whet your appetite:
Any shortlist of Mexican films must include this historical drama, based on the novel by Mexican writer Laura Esquivel. The hype really is justified: it’s about as powerful and beautiful an evocation of middle-class Mexican culture in the early twentieth century you could hope for, featuring doomed love, superstition, eroticism, suffocating tradition, Revolutionary skirmishes and, of course, mouth-watering Mexican food. The backdrop is the dry scrub and copper-coloured deserts of northern Mexico, near the border towns of Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras.
While calling it “Mexico’s Pulp Fiction” is a bit of stretch, “Love’s a Bitch” is certainly one of the most creative and thought-provoking movies from south of the border, and comprises three distinct stories linked by a single car accident in Mexico City. There are disturbing dogfight scenes, scary neighbourhoods, disloyalty and infidelity – it’s pretty grim stuff, but compulsive viewing nonetheless, offering a journey into the darker side of modern urban Mexico. Filming locations include the trendy boho district of Colonia Condesa.
Super-horny slacker duo Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna represent the affluent, slang-spouting youth of Mexico City in this sexy, bleak but humorous Mexican road trip movie. Whilst their relationship with the alluring Maribel Verdú (including the notorious threesome at the end) anchors the story, the extremes of Mexican rural and urban poverty are never far from view – the contrast is artfully achieved, with scenes shot in the mountains of Oaxaca and on the beaches of Huatulco (mainly Playa Cacaluta) and Playa Zipolite.
Frida's portrait © robin.ph/Shutterstock
Salma Hayek’s unforgettable portrayal of ground-breaking artist Frida Kahlo is essential viewing; unless you make a special effort to avoid art completely during your stay in Mexico, you will almost certainly encounter the work of Frida or Diego Rivera (her unfaithful husband, played by Alfred Molina). Much of the film was shot in Kahlo’s former home, the Casa Azul (now the Museo Frida Kahlo) in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City.
Antonio Banderas stars as Pancho Villa in one of the strangest episodes of the Mexican Revolution – the filming of Hollywood production The Life of General Villa in 1914, when battle scenes involving Villa’s troops were actually
Southwest Airlines is already preparing for spring break next year with new flights to Belize, Los Cabos, and San Juan.
American Airlines will add a pair of new flights from Phoenix next year, flying to Mexico and Washington state for the winter.
Last week the State Department released a vague warning about Mexico travel to Playa Del Carmen, saying it had “received information about a security threat,” and prohibited government employees from traveling there for several days.
IHG Rewards members can make their points go farther when redeeming for award stays at 21 hotels in Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
For years now, hipsters have created their own modern trends by drawing inspiration from things that are classically Mexican. Consider woven blankets, huarache sandals, and of course the national fruit of both Mexico and hipsterdom— avocados.
If you’re headed to one of the most popular destinations in the world for spring break—yes, it’s Mexico—then check out these cheap Mexico vacations before you book.
From typical spring break beach destinations to a cultural capital, here are the most affordable Mexico spring break options this year.
The recent attention focused on a 60 Minutes report covering Allegiant’s maintenance problems may have overshadowed another airline horror story: Sun Country canceled two return flights from Minneapolis-St Paul—one to Mazatlan, the other to Los Cabos—this weekend, leaving somewhere around 250 passengers with return reservations stranded in Mexico.
Click on the image below to view the interactive version of this story.
Mexico is a country full of vibrant colors, rich culture, and breathtaking landscapes. From the beautiful beaches of the Pacific Coast to the colonial cities of the interior, Mexico has something for every traveler. One of the hidden gems of Mexico is Casa Aamori, a luxurious retreat located in the stunning town of Sayulita on the west coast of Mexico.
Mexico is one of the world’s most biologically diverse countries. Whether you have your sights set on the grey whale migration of Baja, swinging spider monkeys of the rainforests, or adorable coatis on Cozumel island, there's a whole host of interesting animals in Mexico. Though you might not want to get too close to Mexico's national animal – the jaguar!
The smell of vanilla hangs thick in the air over Papantla, a bustling hill town in the jungly northern reaches of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The prized aromatic has been cultivated here since pre-colonial times, by the same Totonac people who still live here, speak their own language, and practice a brand of Roman Catholicism infused with pre-Christian ritual; visit during planting season and you might see the blood of sacrificed chickens being scattered on the fields. Few foreign tourists make it to Papantla, but those who do, come to roam the ruins of one of Mexico's most important, yet enigmatic, Mesoamerican cities: El Tajín.