Mexico Travel Guide

Want to go to Mexico but don't know how to make a plan? Is mexico safe, is it possible to rent a car in mexico, how is the weather in mexico, best time to go to mexico, The answer to many of your questions, such as how is the attitude towards the white man in Mexico Mexico travel guide This article is waiting for you, have a pleasant reading!

General Information About Mexico

• Country full name: It consists of the United Mexican States and 6 regions.
• capital city: Mexico City (Mexico City)
• Its population: 120 million. The country with the most obese population in the world after America.
• Currency: Weight :
• Dili: Although Spanish is not the official language in the country, the widely used language is Spanish, more than 60 local languages ​​are spoken apart from Spanish. The largest Spanish-speaking population in the world is in Mexico.
• Climate: Tropical climate, six summers of the year rainy, six months dry, the average temperature is around 30 degrees in general.
• Dini: Christian Catholic. The second largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil is in Mexico.
• Area: With 1.973.000 km2, it is the third largest country in Latin America by area, after Brazil and Argentina.
• neighbors: It borders Belize and Guatemala to the south and the United States to the north. The Mexico-US border is the second longest land border in the world, the first being the US-Canada border.
• Mexican Flag: If we look at the meaning of the colors and patterns on the Mexican flag; Green represents hope and the future, white represents unity and solidarity, and red represents the blood spilled for independence in Mexican history. The armada in the middle of the flag; The eagle with a snake in its mouth is depicted on the cactus, this coat of arms is based on an ancient Aztec legend.

Mexican History

Before going to Mexico, it is necessary to learn a little about the history of Mexico and to evaluate the present of the country by taking into account what happened in history.

Mexico was home to the world's oldest civilizations, the Olmecs, Aztecs, and Mayans. These civilizations, which worshiped the Sun and the Moon, lost their power to a large extent with the arrival and occupation of Mexico by the Spanish in 1519. Mexico's war of independence continued until the 1800s. Although they gained their independence, they took their religion, culture and language from the Spaniards due to the Spaniards who continued their missionary activities for nearly 300 years.

When the Spaniards came to Mexico, they believed that gods would come from the sky/sea, according to the Mayan belief. For this reason, they thought these foreigners coming from the sea with their armored clothes and huge ships as God and surrendered without resistance. By the time they realized the situation, the Spaniards had already reached the interior of the country and occupied the capital.

During the Spanish occupation, they confiscated Mexico's biggest sources of income, gold and silver. They partially or completely destroyed the old cities. Therefore, the Mayan Ruins that we can go and visit in Mexico today are those that have been restored and found. It is estimated that there are many ancient cities still unexplored throughout the country.

Is Mexico Safe?

I usually prefer to go to different geographies and places that are not visited very often. People are afraid of what they don't know. Whenever I go to a place like this, the first question asked is "Is it safe there?" is happening. What is the definition of “safe” for you? For example, is Paris or France safe, or Istanbul? If you are going to a metropolis, you always take risks such as snatching, theft, and harassment at night. The situation is the same in Paris, Istanbul and Mexico City. One of the reasons why it is not “safe” is the terrorist incidents happening around the world, most of which are in our country. Another reason is natural events, volcanic eruptions, and disasters such as tsunami. From what I have mentioned above, I can only say that the risk of volcanic eruption is much higher in Mexico than in Turkey. Apart from that, we did not encounter any security risks in the places we visited. But let me make an important note; The places we visited were the most touristic places in Mexico. Maybe the situation is different in more remote corners.

In general, if you are concerned about security in any country, I always advise you to be cautious. It will save you from being a target if we don't take your phone out of your bag whenever we need it, and if you have a large camera, not carrying it around to show you.

Before we went to Mexico, there were so many security warnings that we took a lot of precautions. Let me list it below;

• We never carried our passport with us, we carried photocopies of it in our bag.
• We constantly watched our phones and wallets in crowded places.
• We have prepared fake wallets against the risk of being stopped and extorted on the way. A wallet with a small amount of Usd inside, out-of-date and/or invalid credit cards, and invalid identification documents that we don't actually need. If someone cut our way and said "give us wallets", we would give them immediately. Luckily we never needed it. We even laughed to ourselves, “But we exaggerated” on the way back.
• There are wallets in the form of bracelets in which you can carry money, I took one of them with me, I have never used it either.
• We always use crossbody bags in places where there is a security risk. Thus, our valuable materials such as wallets, phones and cameras are always in front of us. We take care not to leave any valuables behind in the backpack.

Many of these measures are not exclusive to Mexico, we apply them wherever we think are a security risk. As long as we don't go to places like Japan, Iceland, UAE where there is no security problem, we are always cautious.

Does Mexico Require Visa From Turkish Citizens?

Mexico requires a visa from Turkish citizens. However, it is very easy to get a Mexican visa, you apply for a visa online and enter the country with a confirmation letter. If you have a valid US visa, you do not need this online visa. For more information on Mexico visa: Mexican visa

Car Rental in Mexico

Before we went to Mexico, we were quite worried if it was safe to rent a car in Mexico when we read the blogs. We did not have any problems in the Yucatan Peninsula, where we had a car rental experience, and car rental prices are also very cheap.

For more information about renting a car in Mexico, you can teleport to this post: Car rental in Mexico

Money Exchange in Mexico | Currency Exchange in Mexico

If you neglect the issue of exchanging money in Mexico, you can spend half a day wandering around to change money like us. I am writing in detail what you need to do so that you do not do that.

Airports are the easiest places to change money in Mexico. When you exit the luggage compartment at Mexico City Airport, there are banks' foreign exchange counters just across the street. Go past them and take the left towards the interior lines. Here you will see many exchange offices.

The photo below is from the bank counter. However, you can change money at the exchange office at 18.25. So, prefer exchange offices instead of banks. Exchange offices usually accept at least 100 USD banknotes.

Thinking that the airport rate is low, we exchanged a little currency at the Mexico City airport and said, "How can we find a place to exchange currency in the city?" However, we could not find a place to change money in the city of Valladolid, where we stayed for the second day, because;

• Banks, including international banks, do not exchange USD, banks do not accept USD due to bad memories from the past with America. For example, HSBC accepted euros.
• Banks that exchange USD do not accept Turkish passports, only Regio accepts Turkish passports and exchanges foreign currency, the exchange rate is also good. This information is on the world tour Keep a Country in MindIt came from
• There was only one exchange office in the city and it opened the shop at 11:00.
• You can withdraw money from your TL account from ATMs, I use my TEB account for such needs, since it has the lowest commission rate. However, I did not leave much money in my TEB account because we had enough USD with us. Since I missed the EFT time due to the time difference, we had to wait for the exchange office to open.

For details on withdrawing money from an ATM abroad, check out this article: Changing Money Abroad, Moving Money, Using ATM and Credit Cards

Weather in Mexico and the Best Time to Visit Mexico

Since Mexico is close to the equator, there is a temperature situation of around 30 degrees throughout the year. It has a climate consisting of two seasons, rainy and dry season. May-September are the rainy season, October-November and March-April are the transition months between the two seasons. It is the periods when the tourist crowd is less and the precipitation is less. December-February is the dry season, which is called the high season in Mexico, and the period when the most tourists come.

The country is quite large and the two sides of the country face different oceans, so although the air temperatures may differ, the above order generally applies.

When the air temperature is around 30 degrees almost throughout the year, if you are planning a trip to Mexico, there are things you must have with you;

• Sunglasses: It doesn't matter if you have a good or bad relationship with the sun, if you are planning to go to Mexico, you should definitely have sunglasses in your bag.
• sunscreen: If you are traveling to Mexico, you will see either ancient cities or the seaside. In both cases, be sure to have a high factor sunscreen, I always wore 50 factor sunscreen.
• Hat: I'm not very good with hats, I took a hat with me but I couldn't use it. My wife mostly traveled with her hat, in terms of health, it is best to travel with a hat. There were a lot of people walking around with umbrellas in ancient cities, the sun is really burning. In Teotihuacan, an area on my neck that didn't call it sunscreen was quickly scorched.

Mexican Food

It is a country that has entered the UNESCO list with its Mexican food. Meals made with breads called tortillas, which are mainly made of corn flour, are widely eaten. Tacos, Nachos, Burrito, Enchiladas, Fajitas, Mexican beans, tropical fruits form the basis of Mexican cuisine, while meat and fish are used a lot in Mexican cuisine. For details about Mexican cuisine and dishes Mexican Food Be sure to check out my post.

Mexico Travel Writings

All the Mexico travel articles I have written are listed below. You can reach the article you are interested in by clicking on the link, if you have questions that you cannot see the answer to, you can add them as a comment.

• For answers to questions such as do we need a visa before going to Mexico, is there a visa fee, is there a gate visa; Mexican visa
• If you would like to go to Mexico for only one week, if you go, what should the travel route be? 1 week Mexico itinerary
• If you are wondering if Mexico is a cheap country, what are the food and beverage, transportation and accommodation costs? Mexico trip cost
• Answers to the questions of is it safe to rent a car in Mexico, how much does it cost: Car rental in Mexico
• Travel guide with what you need to know before going to Mexico: Mexico travel guide
• For all the details about Mexico's Unesco-listed dishes: Mexican Food

Stay on track!