Hello and welcome to Mexico Travel Secrets! Through the pages of this website, I hope to show you the beauty of traveling through Mexico. I want to encourage you to travel to lesser-known and off-the-beaten-path parts of the country.
The Author Behind Mexico Travel Secrets
My name is Melissa Douglas and I am an established British Travel Journalist that has been working in the travel industry for the last seven years. I grew up in Nottinghamshire, in the UK.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and spending five years building a career in strategic procurement, I decided that I wanted to lead a more adventurous life that allowed me to entertain my love of travel. So, I quit the safety of a salaried position and moved to Seoul!
I spent a year teaching English in South Korea. Here, I started a blog as a hobby writing reviews of spas, restaurants, and local businesses around the country.
I used my blog as a writing portfolio. From there, I was able to secure numerous freelance travel writing positions around the globe.
I have written for the likes of Forbes Travel Guide, the Times of Israel, Matador Network, the Huffington Post, Kathimerini, Tripzilla, and Thought Catalog. My main website, High Heels and a Backpack is one of the world’s most popular solo female travel blogs. It has over 350,000 monthly readers and exists to encourage women to get out and see the world.
Exploring Mexico
I relocated to Mexico a year ago after spending the last four and a half years based in Greece (in Athens and on the island of Skopelos). At that time, I was well-established as a Greece and Mediterranean Travel Writer. I questioned whether it was a good decision to make the move.
However, my love of exploring each and every state of Mexico, and the fun that I have had building this website to share this passion with you, have reassured me that I made the right decision. I am based in the city of Merida, the cultural capital of the Yucatan state.
This colorful little colonial city has made a wonderful base to explore the wider Yucatan peninsula (Campeche, Yucatan state, and Quintana Roo). For the last year, I have made it my mission to get out and see as much of my new home as possible, and every week, I drive to different places in the Yucatan.
Some of the places covered on this site have never been written about extensively in English before (or at all). I realized how many untapped destinations there are in Mexico.
Sure Mexico is a popular travel destination. (Something like 20.1 million Americans travel to Mexico every single year.)
But you will find that most travelers visit the same few places: Tulum, Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, etc. How many people do you know that have visited Puebla or rural Chiapas and indigenous villages like Zinacantan and Chamula?
Inspiring You to See Mexico Off the Beaten Path
In virtually every country, you will find that people tend to stick to the same few places. It was something I noticed in Greece too. (There are literally thousands of islands and yet everyone wants to go to Santorini, Mykonos, Zante, Crete, and Milos)
In Mexico, this also seems to be influenced by the fact that a lot of people are nervous about their safety in Mexico. People feel more comfortable venturing to areas where many others have gone before.
Most visits to Mexico are trouble-free and you can have a wonderful time here if you use the same commonsense precautions as you would anywhere else in the world. That doesn’t mean having to stick to the resort areas either.
This website aims to provide you with everything that you could possibly need to have a more enriching, cultural trip to Mexico. You will find practical advice, suggested itineraries, inspirational quotes, and extensive travel guides to various cities, towns, and Mayan ruins.
Mexico is a phenomenally vast country (fun Mexico fact: it is the 13th largest country in the world!) So far, this site is predominantly dedicated to an in-depth look at the Yucatan peninsula. As time goes on, the content will expand to cover more Mexican states, as well as to provide think-piece articles on aspects of Mexican culture and traditions.
The site is updated periodically and strives to offer the most up-to-date, insider advice for Mexico. Of course, you should also always be sure to check your local government travel advice for Mexico for the latest developments in the country.
Contact Me
Need anything? Feel free to drop me a line at Melissa@highheelsandabackpack.com
