Before you plan for your last minute Mexico vacation, do you know that Mexico is the 3rd largest nation of North America. The least colorful, the least desirable sections of this fascinating country are right on our border and directly across from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

But if you proceed several hundred miles for your last minute Mexico vacation into the interior before you will finds what could be called the "real Mexico." There is certainly no other country we have seen in the world that offers so much in the way of the enjoyable things of life.

She has scenic beauty to rival anything in Switzerland; her climate tops by far that of Spain, Italy and Greece; her food rivals that of any European land save France, and any Oriental country save China; her historic monuments are surpassed only by Egypt; the variety of her countryside is rivaled nowhere from the deserts of the north, to the cool plateaus of her central sections, to the jungles of Yucatan. You can ski in summer, if you wish, or swelter in winter.

As in any country which enjoys (or suffers, according to how you look at it) a tourist boom, certain cities became centers of tourism and prices there zoomed. Such places as Acapulco, famed Pacific coast beach resort, quickly became almost as expensive as Florida or California.

Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, became a city of retired wealthy folk, sky-high in price by Mexican standards. Mexico City itself began to feel the boom and American style apartments and houses upped in price.

Other cities in Mexico: Mazatlan | Cancun | Los Cabos | Playa del Carmen

And if you are not in a hurry, check out What is it like to travel, live, or retire in Mexico? Inside information that keeps cultural differences and 3rd world difficulties from stopping you.