Going away on a vacation brings numerous benefits. It refreshes our enthusiasm, helps us to know ourselves a little better, and makes us, upon our return home, happier, healthier, and much more effective in coping with stress. The key to reaping the benefits of traveling is in the going away. Hardly anyone reaps full benefit from spending a vacation time at home working around the house.

Want a reason or two to take a Mexican vacation? Here are twenty:

1. Close to home: In this age of high security measures and high gas prices, Mexico is conveniently just across the border.

2. Tropical weather: You can easily get away to the warm tropics without having to travel far.

3. Lower cost of living: Sit back and relax in your paradise just across the border.

4. Relaxation: Vacations break your day-to-day routine. In Mexico there are plenty of places and spaces to gain full relaxation.

5. Stimulation of new sights: New sights give you new insights.

6. Meeting new people: Seeing how other people live broadens your perspective on our own live.

7. Learning a new language: Here an excellent opportunity to practice and improve your Spanish-speaking skills.

8. Experiencing the Mexican and Aztec cultures firsthand: Here is another opportunity to learn while you are vacationing.

9. Fellowship and camaraderie: Shared hardships and good times form long-lasting bonds of love and friendship.

10. Education: Remember the joy you experienced when you picked your first farm-fresh fruit, climbed a mountain, or learned a new language?

11. Adventure: Travel returns a sense of adventure to your life and improves your self-esteem when you accept and conquer challenges that don't exist in your routine life.

12. Surprise: It is the unexpected surprises in life that give you some of your fondest memories.

13. Beauty: When you open your eyes and take in new sights, you begin to tune into the majesty of nature.

14. Anticipation: The planning and preparation give you some of the most pleasurable experiences you can recall.

15. Memories: You will always have the joy of reflecting on your pleasant memories.

16. Freedom: A vacation gives you the freedom to do what you want to do. Even if you are generally satisfied, you may yearn for something more.

17. Self-discovery: In letting your soul talk to you, you develop your inner peace, creativity, and harmony.

18. Appreciation of things taken for granted: When you get home, you will get more out of life. You will notice the miracles where you live.

19. Time stands still: The best part is when you get completely lost in the moment.

20. Happiness: Constructive use of leisure time makes you a happier person. After all, isn't the major goal of our vacation happiness?

Now you have no excuse for not taking a vacation across the border. Or, do you? The choice is yours!

Here are some Mexican links to help you get started: