© Cozumel Tourism
Mexico’s largest island, just south of Cancún, has been an important destination since ancient times, when Mayan women from the Yucatán peninsula made pilgrimages to a shrine dedicated to the fertility goddess Ixchel. Though Hurricane Wilma hit the island in 2005, the damage has mostly been cleaned up. For some adventurous travelers, there was also an upside: the hurricane created new dive spots in the world’s second-largest barrier reef. Still, with only one town—San Miguel—Cozumel continues to feel intimate. Quiet beaches ring the island, and it’s still the kind of place where restaurants and nightclubs manage to co-exist comfortably alongside the ruins of the Mayan civilization that settled here 2,000 years ago.