• Population 100 million
• Capital City Mexico City
• Time difference -6 hours GMT
• Language Spanish

To entice the visitor, Mexico offers a mix of impressive archaeological sites, fascinating colonial towns, beautiful beaches and traditional artisan markets. It is a country of great contrasts, where indigenous agricultural communities co-exist side by side with modern technological achievements.

Owing to an efficient airline and highway network, it is easy to get around this enormous country, which spreads south from the desert close to the US border through mountain ranges and valleys to the tropical forests and scrublands of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Modern Mexico is dominated by massive Mexico City, home to some 20 million inhabitants, and other sophisticated urban centres such as Guadalajara, (cradle of the all-pervasive mariachi music) which contrast so vividly with life in the rural economy and small colonial outposts.

Holidays taken in Mexico can include everything from whale watching in Baja California, jungle walks in Palenque, relaxing in luxurious converted haciendas, to happy hour in a Cancún bar.

You will not want to miss, however, the stunning archaeological sites of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations – Teotihuacán, Chichén Itzá, Palenque and Tulum being the most famous.