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Barbara Kastelein has lived in Mexico for 13 years as correspondent and writer for a wide variety of publications, both foreign and Mexican.
She is author of the book Mexico Chic: hotels, haciendas, spas (Bolding Books, London, 2003; Grupo Océano, in Spanish, 2004; second edition, September 2007) and of the chapter “The Beach and Beyond: Three Vignettes of Dreams, Decadence and Defense” on the anthropology of tourism in Mexico, in the book Holiday in México: Historical Perspectives on Tourism and Tourist Encounters (2008, Duke University Press, USA).
In 2007 Barbara researched and wrote a book about the history and culture of hospitality and bicultural relations in Acapulco, focusing on the Hotel Fairmont Pierre Marques, for the 50th Anniversary of the hotel (The Pierre Marques, Acapulco: Remembering the past, celebrating the present and embracing the future, July 2007).
She is contributing writer for the coffee table guidebook to Mexico 52 fines de Semana (Editorial Mapas, 2007 and 2005) and between 1999 and 2005 she worked on updating seven guidebooks with Fodor’s Travel Publications (Random House, NY), one with Moon Handbooks (Avalon Travel Publishers) and she is also co-author of the second edition of the guidebook México: Health and Safety Travel Guide (MedToGo, USA, March 2007). At the end of 2007 she wrote “Places of a Lifetime” on Mexico City for National Geographic Traveler (due for publication in spring 2008).
Barbara has more than ten years of expertise in travel in Mexico, since she began her column “Travel Talk” in the newspaper The Mexico City Times (continued in The News, and then in The Herald International). She has covered business, such as the tourism and hotel industries, security and market trends, but has also explored folkloric qualities and identity issues, from the remote village fiesta, gastronomy, dance, religious expressions and music, to the preservation of ethnic traditions, the evolution and transformation of values, community and culture shock.
Barbara is known for her studies in the anthropological aspects of tourism and her interest in the growth of tourism in Mexico since the 1920s. Her writing is characterized by its exploration of the complex, and often comical, relationship between guest and host. The focus of her articles, vignettes and books forefront human relationships and the personal experience of the foreign traveler in the alien terrains of Mexico, as well as the Mexican hosts’ enthusiasm and ambivalence when confronted with an outsider.

Barbara Kastelein has lived in Mexico for 13 years as correspondent and writer for a wide variety of publications, both foreign and Mexican. She is author of the book Mexico Chic: hotels, haciendas, spas (Bolding Books, London, 2003; Grupo Océano, in Spanish, 2004; second edition, September 2007) and of the chapter “The Beach and Beyond: Three Vignettes of Dreams, Decadence and Defense” on t... More