The 5 Best Mexico Luxury Hotels

The Best of Mexico: Ancient Capitals, Island Shores, and Luxury in Between

Mexico City is one of the most interesting cities on earth, and the weight is geological before it's cultural. Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, was home to an estimated 200,000 people in the year 1500, which makes it one of the largest cities in the world at the time when London had fewer than 75,000 residents. The colonial cathedral in downtown's Zócalo square was built directly on top of it, and the ruins are still visible beneath the square's surface.

Then, just five miles off the coast of Cancún, in what appears to be a completely different world, you'll find Isla Mujeres. Playa Norte is consistently ranked among the finest beaches in the world, with water so shallow and calm it reads more like a lagoon than the open Caribbean Sea.

Golf carts replace cars and the village runs on one main street. Some of the best luxury resorts in Mexico have settled here precisely for that quiet.

Only a two-hour flight and a thirty-minute ferry separate Mexico City and Isla Mujeres, though the distance in character is much harder to measure. One gives you civilizational depth. The other gives you the relief of the sea. Mexico can give you both without having to choose.