Mexico - Destination Holiday

Guadalajara is considered to be the most Mexican of Mexico's cities and its history dates back to the 16th century and due to this the city has a historic center with masterpieces of the colonial architecture. Visitors can explore the historic center either by taking a walk or by taking a "calendria", which is a horse drawn carriage making tours through the historic center. One of the main tourist attractions in the historic center is the Metropolitan Cathedral, known for its beautiful structure. It took 50 years for it to be built and the towers one can admire now are not the originals, since those were destroyed in 1818 by a strong earthquake, but this is not all Guadalajara is known for. The city is also considered to be the birthplace of the world famous Mariachi dance and of the Mexican hat dance. In order to celebrate this appropriately the people from Guadalajara hold every year the month-long October festival. Throughout this period there is an event for everybody scattered all around the city: concerts, rodeos, sporting events, folk dances and exhibitions. There are also other leisure activities to be found whenever in Guadalajara City. The city park "Los Colomos" is a great place to relax and enjoy the nature and you will find in it even Japanese Gardens donated by Kyoto, Japan - Guadalajara's partner city.

350 miles away from Guadalajara you can find Mexico City, the capital of Mexico and the country's most important city from many point of views: economic, industrial and cultural. With a population of 19.2 million people as of 2005, Mexico City is the largest city in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world. It hosted the Olympic Games in 1968 and the FIFA World Cup in 1970 and 1986. Mexico City was once the center of a whole Aztec Empire and the current town square is located on the same spot as once Montezuma's palace stood. The Plaza de la Constitucion, as it is called, is the second largest plaza in the world, since only the Red Square in Moscow is bigger. This is the place where every year on the 15th of September the country celebrates independence.

While walking over the Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City's main boulevard, you will understand why Mexico City is called the "Manhattan" of Latin America. Office buildings, luxury hotels, embassies, colonial hotels, all find place on the Paseo de la Reforma, but the most important tourist attraction is the Independence Monument, which has become unofficially the trademark of Mexico City. This city offers so many tourist attractions and leisure activities, that it might seem at first overwhelming, but if you set your priorities there is nothing that can stand into the way of enjoying yourself and the Mexico City Tourist Office will do anything which stands in their power to ease your choices. At Plaza Mexico there are usually Sunday afternoons from November through March, bull fights and Mexican Rodeos are held Sundays at noon in Rancho del Charro in Chapultepec Park. This park is the city's largest and is situated in the middle of the city. It contains three of the city's most important museums, an amusement park, Mexico's largest zoo and the residence of the Mexican president, Los Pinos.

Another one of Mexico City's attractions are the floating gardens of Xochimilco, which operate almost in the same way since Aztec times, 700 years ago. On weekends, especially on Sundays, the garden tend to become very crowded and a fiesta like atmosphere floats in the air.