If you want to work the hardest to find out the least, try gathering info from guidebooks about Mexico’s state of Veracruz.

Veracruz is a long state running north to south. East to West it’s only about 120 miles at its widest point. One edge is the Gulf of Mexico and the other is the ridgeline of the Eastern Sierra Madre. Capping the Sierra Madre is glacier covered Orizaba Peak, North America’s third highest mountain peak.

Here are the first things the guidebooks fail to tell you. Veracruz is beautiful; it’s full of eco-tourism and adventure tourism opportunities; it may be the safest place in the entire country, and the locals are the nicest people we’ve met anywhere in our travels.

You can travel the state on your own—going where you want and staying for as long as you want. There’s no need to join a tour, and there’s no need to use a travel agency. Being on your own, you’ll meet real people and participate in the warm and exciting daily life of Mexico.

Public transportation is super. With almost no Spanish at all you can get around very well and get anywhere you want to go. Driving down or renting a car is fine. Because the state is so narrow, a broad variety of environments are close together—much less time is lost to travel than in most areas.

The state has impressive and important archaeological ruins (the biggest is El Tajin), pristine undeveloped beaches (most notable is Villa Rica), white-water rafting, incredible birding, coral reef diving and snorkel, deep-sea fishing, dazzling rivers and waterfalls and forests, ocean opening lagoons, nature tours from ocean side to high mountain, and more and more.

There are almost no foreigners in the state. The opening paragraph up above tells you why.  You just don’t hear about Veracruz. Coming to Veracruz is coming to Mexico. The state has plenty for tourists to do. That’s because there is a lot of tourism. But in Veracruz the tourists are from Mexico itself.

The locals and the Mexican tourists love to encounter foreigners. Here, everyone wants to talk to us and visit with us. We’re an uncommon event. Walking down the street you’ll find the locals checking you out just as strongly as you’re checking them out. Your eyes will lock. Don’t be embarrassed; just smile and say hi. We want to know all about Mexico, and they want to know all about us.

Here are some places to find out about Veracruz. One is right here in Go2Veracruz. There is a non-commercial site www.traveltoveracruz.com that is dedicated to the State of Veracruz.

You’re always welcome to contact us at The Language Immersion School, Veracruz, Mexico (info@veracruzspanish.com), and we’re happy to provide you (at no charge at all) with info about both the City of Veracruz and the State of Veracruz. Helping with tourists’ questions is one of many small ways that we try to give back to Mexico for letting us live in this fun and wonderful part of the country. Email to a friend

© Linda and Eric Langner - The Language Immersion School 
E-mail: info@veracruzspanish.com

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