I recently got back from a Mexico adventure with my mother. We went down for a quick 2 week trip because I owed her a vacation from last fall. Our Malaysian adventure got abruptly canceled last fall due to my tuk tuk accident which sent me home before she was to fly over and visit me. I picked Central Mexico because I explored this area a few years ago and I knew it would be a destination that mom would enjoy. Also, still healing from the accident, I was not up for a far flung adventure which made this close destination perfect.

Central Mexico, specifically the Jalisco & Guanajuato areas are a great travel destination, here you can experience local culture, see beautiful architecture and enjoy warm weather without being completely surrounded by tourists. This area of Mexico is home to fresh tequila, mariachi music and has a rich history. Mom had never been to Mexico and I wanted to show her a more traditional area that was still easily accessible for us. The route I planned has us going in a straight shot east visiting 5 towns before heading back west to fly home.

We booked our airline tickets as one ways, flying into Puerto Vallarta and out of Guadalajara. This allowed us to avoid extra backtracking on our route and the flight prices were actually cheaper than a round trip ticket from either destination. Being less visited than the Yucatan or the Baja, Central Mexico’s flights can be cheaper to find and the flight only took us 7 hours! Which is great coming from North Dakota.

Puerto Vallarta provided us a much needed relief from the lingering winter cold at home. We quickly got to our hotel in the Old Town district, checked in and went straight towards the beach. Puerto Vallarta has plenty of sights to see and being a resort town it was an easy introduction for mom to Mexico.

From there we went to the chaotic city of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city with a population of over 4 million. Guadalajara has a few distinct zones that are diverse and worthy to explore but with our time constraint we stuck to sightseeing just the Centro Historico zone.

Being in Guadalajara you have to at least make a day trip to the tiny pueblo town of Tequila! Yes, home of the drink, this area of Mexico contains almost all of the world’s Agave plants and these plants are actually what are used to produce tequila. Mom and I went on the same tour I did years before and we had a blast, I think….too much tequila. Really though it was fun, we toured a distillery and sampled the differently aged tequila along with other products made from the Agave plant. After the tour we were taking shots of tequila while being serenaded by a local mariachi band before our tour took us to the town of Tequila to explore.

Hangover mornings after our Tequila trip consisted of us on a bus to our next destination San Miguel de Allende, a good sized city known internationally for it’s are scene. Mom who was not feeling well, not because of the tequila, she actually got sick the day before we left home and had been sick throughout the whole trip and I was hurting from all of my travel injuries, decided to use are time in San Miguel de Allende to relax in our boutique Airbnb. We slowly explored some San Miguel while mostly catching our breath from the past week’s worth of travel.

Our last stop on our route was the picturesque, colonial mining town of Guanajuato City. This has to be one of my favorite cities in all of Mexico and a place I could spend a lot of time in. The city is dotted with small walking streets and is bustling with a young atmosphere. Being well rested mom and I packed in quite a few activities during our time here.

One thing I am glad we did not miss was visiting the San Gabriel Hacienda. I actually had something else planned for that day but due to a bout of sushi induced sickness, don’t get sushi in Mexico stick to the tacos, I was not up for the pre-planned full day’s activity.

Finishing up in Guanajuato we spent our last day on a bus back to Guadalajara to catch our early morning flight. I am grateful how this trip went and that we actually managed to cram a lot into our short holiday. The highlight for me was being able to introduce mom to my budgeted travel lifestyle and this trip was a great way to show her how I survive day to day along with what I have been up to these last few years traveling abroad. Our adventure together was fun and I hope to be able to do more with her in the future!

Final Thoughts

All in all the trip went great. It helped me with my newly acquired travel anxiety and it finally got me out of the house, after almost 6 months healing from the tuk tuk accident. I had a blast traveling with my mom, we haven’t had any mother – son bonding experiences in quite a few years. I just felt bad that mom got sick the day before we set off to Mexico and spent most of the trip feeling under the weather but she had high spirits the whole time and kept up with all of the activities!

If you want more detailed information for each of our stops, visit my Destination Mexico page or check out my 2 Week Backpacking Guide to Central Mexico.

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