Mexico City - Mexico is a country filled with hidden gems, from its artisan towns to its ecotourism and from its mountains to monarch sanctuaries. Mexico has an adventure for everyone and it is being recognized for its variety of tourism offerings.

In Veracruz, Adventure Travel Trade Shows showcase Mexico’s best tour operators with a few suggestions for voyages geared towards adventure tourism or ecotourism including Tapijulapa, Capulalpam, and the monarch butterfly reserves.

Towns such as Tapijulapa and Capulalpam de Méndez are overflowing with culture. Tapijulapa, Tabasco, is renown for its crafts, tradition, and nature. The picturesque cobblestone streets are lined with whitewashed houses and their red-tiled roofs, while artisans make crafts woven from regional vines called "matusay," that have been made for over half a century.

Tapijulapa is also home to ecological reserves. Inside Yu-Balcah, tourists walk through the jungle and experience endangered animals, camping, biking, and kayaking. The Kolem Jaa ecotourism center boasts a breathtaking collection of waterfalls, with botanical gardens and nature trails scattered in between.

The quiet Capulalpam de Méndez is nestled within the mountains of Oxaca. Originally settled a century ago, Capulalpam’s ecotourism center is equipped with zip lines that take visitors soaring over the Molinos River. Forest trails are accessable for mountain bikes, horseback riding, and local foot tourists providing the quiet serenity of nature, as well as excitement.

In the forests of central Mexico's Michoacan state hides the winter home to monarch butterflies, where the iconic creature is truly a marvel of nature. Every fall, tens of millions of the nearly threatened species fly to Mexico to seek refuge in the warm weather where there are only a dozen sites that the monarchs can thrive in. They fill the trees and completely coat the branches in flurries of orange and black, and those lucky enough to see these clouds of monarchs say it is a marvelous phenomenon.

Central Mexico has so much to offer that it's worth starting to plan a trip now, to catch the butterflies November through March.

The monarchs are far from the only attraction in the area. A great trip would include a day or two in Morelia, a beautiful colonial city; another couple of days in Patzcuaro, where artisans from all over the region sell their work on weekends and the Day of the Dead celebration is famous; and visiting the butterflies tops off an unforgettable vacation.