Veracruz

Rising from the edge of the central Mexican coast in a blend of palm-peppered boulevards, shady Spanish plazas and historic harboursides, this off-the-beaten-track town of the early 16th century represents the first European urban base in the entire country. But Veracruz is certainly not the museum piece cluster of colonial homes and churches you’d expect of a place with such a title; rather it blares forth with Marimba tunes and mariachi bars, and beguiles its visitors into danzon (dances) flurries and endless conversations with the locals.

Explore your way through the tight-knit roadways that shoot out from the lively Zocalo, weaving between stalls where Jarochos (the Veracruz natives) sit slurping bowls of mariscos soup to spy out the baroque Municipal Palace of 1608 and the grime-spattered faces of the Cathedral of Veracruz too. At the heady markets of the historic port district, your Veracruz tour guide will highlight the all-new city aquarium, the spooky Fort of San Juan de Ulua, and the pretty lighthouse of Carranza, while elsewhere, the beaches of Playa Marti and Villa del Mar resound with the thuds of volleyballs and the crash of the Caribbean swells.