Two Perspectives on Mexico
We're Scott and Jenice — a San Diego-based travel writer who fell for Mexico on his first visit in 1999, and a cultural guide who brings the food, language, and context that turns a tourist visit into a real experience. 25+ years and countless trips across every region. Real prices in MXN and USD. This is how an obsession with honest travel content became the guide we wished existed.
Travel has always been my escape from the rat race — and honestly, I enjoy the planning almost as much as being there. Researching destinations, mapping routes, figuring out which ADO bus gets me from Oaxaca to Playa del Carmen with one change and the best timing. Mexico grabbed me on my first visit in 1999 and I've been back dozens of times since. Mexico City to Oaxaca to the Yucatan — the three regions that rewired how I think about travel.
I've been turned away at a cenote for the wrong sunscreen. I've paid MXN 180 for a Cenote Ik Kil ticket after driving past vendors selling water for MXN 80. I've eaten the same mole negro three times in one day in Oaxaca because I couldn't stop. I've ridden the ADO first class from TAPO to Oaxaca in the window seat at night, watching the mountains appear in the headlights.
I'm not a travel blogger. I have a regular tech day job. But Mexico keeps pulling me back, and I finally decided to put everything I've learned into something useful — a site with real practical knowledge, honest prices in MXN and USD, and an AI trip planner that builds itineraries from real experience.
Mexico has a food culture unlike anywhere else on earth — one of only two culinary traditions in the world with UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status. What that means in practice: the market vendors in Oaxaca who have been making the same mole negro for three generations. The mezcal producers in Matatlan who still crush agave with stone wheels. The street food in Mexico City that arrives from a cart before most restaurants open their doors.
My approach to Mexico is through food and culture first. The seven moles of Oaxaca are not just a menu — each one is a different expression of a region's history, climate, and identity. Guelaguetza isn't a festival you watch; it's a celebration you feel. Dia de los Muertos in a small Oaxacan village is nothing like the organized tourist version in the city.
I cover the cultural context Scott's logistics brain doesn't always catch — the right way to order at a market comedor, what Spanish phrases actually matter at ruins and cenotes, and the difference between a tourist mezcaleria and a real palenque visit. Scott handles the practical logistics. I handle the cultural layer that turns a good trip into an unforgettable one.
25 Years of Mexico
The trip that started it all — beaches, color-drenched markets, street food that rewired every assumption about what a meal could be. Close enough to drive to from San Diego, different enough to feel like another world. The addiction begins.
Two weeks. Mexico City to Oaxaca by ADO. The seven moles. Mercado 20 de Noviembre. Monte Alban at sunrise. Three palenque visits in one day. The realization that Mexico is not one country but twenty — each region with its own cuisine, language roots, and rhythm.
The Yucatan. Cenotes. Chichen Itza before 9am. The Pacific Coast — Sayulita, Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Escondido's Playa Zicatela. Colonial highlands — Guanajuato's colored stairs, San Miguel de Allende's cobblestones. Decades of trips, counting. Real prices paid. Real mistakes made and documented.
Video from ruins, cenotes, market streets, and coastal roads. The idea crystallizes: why does no Mexico travel site show you what these places actually look and feel like? The dream of a proper travel resource takes shape.
The guide we wished existed — with video content, an AI trip planner, real prices in MXN and USD, and cultural context from someone who actually understands the layers. Not recycled content. A real guide built by two people who keep coming back.
The People Behind the Pages
Beaches, tequila, and markets bursting with color — and closer than you think.
Tech professional by day, Mexico travel obsessive by every other waking moment. Based in San Diego. First visit to Mexico in 1999 — sparked decades of return trips across every region. Enjoys the trip planning almost as much as the travel itself. Has been turned away at a cenote for the wrong sunscreen. Has ridden the ADO night bus from TAPO to Oaxaca more times than is reasonable. Still searching for the perfect Oaxacan apartment for a long-term stay.
Cultural guide and food expert covering Mexico's depth — the seven moles of Oaxaca, mezcal palenque culture, Guelaguetza, Dia de los Muertos, and the market etiquette that no guidebook explains. Understands the layers of Mexican regional identity that most travel sites flatten into a single "Mexican" experience. Knows which comedor in Mercado 20 de Noviembre has been there since 1960 and which mole negro is worth ordering twice.
What You'll Never Find Here
We built this site because we got tired of Mexico travel content that's secretly a press trip recap or a sponsored hotel review dressed up as honest advice. We don't want you to experience the same challenges we did — early on and even recently. Discover Mexico exists because we wanted the resource we wished we had back in 1999.
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free hotel stays
Mexico experience
MXN & USD
More Than a Travel Blog
Discover Mexico isn't a collection of "Top 10" listicles. It's a living resource built on 25 combined years of real experience, local expertise, and technology that actually helps you plan a better trip. Here's what makes us different:
- Video guides for select destinations — see the markets, ruins, and coastlines before you book
- An AI trip planner that builds custom itineraries with real prices, not hallucinated estimates
- Every price listed in both MXN and USD, updated regularly based on what we actually pay
- Content from Jenice's Mexican network — real local insights, not a foreigner's surface-level take
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