Creel, Mexico

Once nothing more than a rough-and-ready backwater, CREEL is rapidly metamorphosing into a tourist centre. Recently tagged by the Mexican government as a "magic town", a precious accolade reserved for the country's more enchanting locales, Creel has seen tourism all but replace logging as its main industry. Plans are under way to build an airport, Best Western has moved in, and, as the locals are proud to point out, the town has recently received smart new pavements. Beneath the facade of development, Creel is still the backward mountain town it's always been, and, stepping off the train, one has the sense of stepping into a scene from the Old West.