(MONEY Magazine) – The weak clout of the U.S. dollar overseas and last fall's stock market fiasco have knocked the sand out of many a vacation plan this year. But don't head for the tanning parlor yet. Head for Mexico, where the falling peso allows you to craft virtually any weeklong vacation you please for less than $1,000 a person, including air fare. Top-drawer Mexican hotels charge about $100 a night for two. A couple of lobsters with wine cost $25 or so along the coast. And round-trip air fare runs $300 to $500 depending upon where you start. Compare that to a week's stay with ocean view at the Sonesta Beach Hotel in Miami, now about $1,800 just for the room. The same week at St. Bart's in the Caribbean: about $2,700, including air fare. But Mexico's inexpensive bed and board are only part of the bargain. Beautifully crafted silver jewelry, pottery and textiles cost half what they would at home -- if you could find them. Haggling can save you another 50%. Of course, there's more to Mexico than a cheap feast and a quick tan. Instead of just sun block and cerveza, combine your leisure with a dash of adventure -- a train ride through Mexico's equivalent of the Grand Canyon (four times bigger than our own), a pilgrimage to an ancient Mayan temple or a shopping trip to villages that are living shrines to Indian culture. Here, based on tips from travel agents and seasoned Mexico hands plus our own perambulations, are three weeklong south-of-the-border campaigns that mix touring with tanning for less than $1,000 a head.

THROUGH THE COPPER CANYON This trip starts on the high road to adventure with a train ride through the Sierra Madre and ends on the low road to surf and sun on the Baja Peninsula. You set out from the western city of Chihuahua (one-way air fare from Los Angeles, $200; Chicago, $220), boarding the Chihuahua-Pacific Railway at dawn for a five-hour, 7,000-foot climb to the rim of Mexico's vast Copper Canyon complex. More than a mile deep and spanning some 10,000 square miles of wilderness, the Copper Canyon and its four neighboring gorges cover four times the surface area of Arizona's Grand Canyon and includes Basaseachic Falls, at 806 feet one of the world's highest waterfalls. Yet not many tourists even know about Copper Canyon; often fewer than 100 visit in a day. The train ride is comfortable and quiet, the cars are generally in good shape, and the view is spectacular. Meals cost $5 in the dining car. Deluxe one-way fare: $40. Plan to spend at least two nights along the canyon, paying about $25 a night. Location, not luxury, is the strength of the hotels. Still, you can count on passable food and a clean, warm bed in the high sierra. Some popular hotels: Parador de la Montana in the city of Creel, Hotel Cabanas Divisadero Barrancas in Divisadero and the Hotel Mision near Bahuichivo. Make reservations through a travel agent or through the Hyatt Exelaris in Chihuahua or the Hotel Santa Anita in Los Mochis if you start from the western end of the line, which some travelers consider more scenic. Most of the hotels arrange guided hikes and horseback rides, so be sure to bring a Windbreaker and sweater plus jeans and sturdy walking shoes. After an evening of gawking at retreating shades of ocher, magenta and bleached sienna, look up. At night you can see every star in the universe. Eventually, the train delivers you to Los Mochis, a bustling agricultural center 15 miles from the Gulf of California. You fly from there to La Paz (about $35) and connect to a flight (about $50) to the luxury resort area at the southern end of Baja. The last stop, Cabo San Lucas, has several deluxe hotels. The priciest, the Twin Dolphin, runs $100 a day per person, but the others range from about $75 to $165 a night for two. There's sun all winter long, fabulous marlin fishing and miles of sparsely settled white beach. Several airlines, including Mexicana and Aeromexico, fly directly from there to the States. One way to Los Angeles costs $140; round trip, $245. Tours through Copper Canyon cost as little as $250, plus air fare, per person for four days and three nights. Among the operators: Sanborn Tours, based in Bastrop, Texas (800-531-5440), and Baja Adventures out of Encino, Calif. (800-543-2252).

SHOPPING THE INDIAN HEARTLAND Oaxaca, a city of 240,000, nestled amid soft-shouldered mountains atop a mile-high plateau, offers a fascinating mix of Mexico's cultures and ages. Though it's a modern state capital replete with traffic jams and discos, Oaxaca (pronounced wa-ha-ka) nonetheless retains its colonial poise in acres of red-tile roofs and stately archways linking prim, whitewashed walls. Above all, it is the faces of the Oaxacans that take you back to before the age of the conquistadors. This is Indian country. The people come mainly from seven indigenous tribes, including descendants of the Zapotec Indians, who were contemporaries of Julius Caesar, and the Mixtecs, who arrived more or less at the time when Venetian merchant Niccolo Polo was introducing son Marco to Kublai Khan. Squint your eyes a little, and you can discern the cultural imprimatur of a hundred generations in everything from the brilliant colors and striking designs to the rock-hard set of an old man's shoulders. The best time to visit is from November to May, when daytime temperatures range between a dry 75 degrees and 85 degrees and at night drop to the mid- 60s. A sampling of round-trip fares: Chicago, $450; Houston, $300; Los Angeles, $400; New York City, $470. Be sure to explore the outskirts of Oaxaca; the easiest way is a guided bus tour ($7) from your hotel. There are spectacular ruins dating from 700 B.C. on the hilltop of Monte Alban, and various artisans in many of the nearby villages. Hand-woven wool rugs (about $25) are made in the village of Teotitlan del Valle; black pottery ($5 for a bottle-size vase) at San Bartolo Coyotepec; hand-embroidered dresses and blouses ($10 to $20) at Ocotlan. The villagers are pleased when a tourist makes the effort to drive out to see their work firsthand, and by bargaining you save about 30% of the going rate in Oaxaca's busy marketplace. When you are ready for a few days on the beach, hop a flight to Puerto Escondido aboard a vintage World War II DC-3 (round trip, about $60). With unpaved roads and casual, inexpensive hotels, Puerto Escondido is a tranquil island resort with long stretches of unpeopled sand. Take a short boat ride ($5) and snorkel on a coral reef; the windsurfing and conventional surfing are both excellent too. Puerto Escondido hotels typically cost less than $40 a night; rooms are in demand during the winter, so book ahead. The popular Hotel Sante Fe, for example, has only 24 rooms; the Hotel Paraiso Escondido, 20 rooms. Fresh seafood is the entree of the day; if you spend more than $20 for two with wine, you may break the town record.

ANCIENT RUINS, MODERN RESORTS Merida, the major city on the Yucatan Peninsula, provides an east coast base for exploring the 1,400-year-old Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Mexicana and Aeromexico airlines fly there from Miami for about $200 round trip. Aeromexico also has a $230 flight from Houston. Though a busy, work-a- day city of half a million people, Merida is adorned with elegant mansions, stone statues and well-tended gardens. First-rate hotels average $55 a night. You can reach both archaeological sites in day trips, but plan to spend the night anyway for fun. Uxmal, only an hour's drive south, was a thriving Mayan metropolis 14 centuries ago. Here, stone edifices such as the Pyramid of the Magician rise high above the surrounding forest. Two local hotels, the Hacienda Uxmal and the Mision Uxmal, cost about $50 a night. Two hours east of Merida by car or bus, you will find Chichen Itza, a religious and ceremonial city for both the Mayans and the fierce Toltecs, their conquerors. Massive temples and administrative buildings survive, as does a seven-acre walled playing field where athletes competed to throw a ball through a stone hoop. To keep the game interesting, members of the losing side were beheaded -- a Mayan version of sudden-death overtime. There's also a well called the Sacred Cenote into which people were tossed as sacrifices to the gods. Things are more civilized today: hotels, at about $40 a night, include the Hotel Hacienda Chichen, with fan-cooled cottages, and Mayaland, a 1930s-style inn with gardens populated by toucans and other colorful birds. After Merida, escape to the beach on a 45-minute flight ($45) to the island of Cozumel in the Caribbean. Roughly 12 miles off the Yucatan coast, Cozumel has a 30-mile windward coast where development has been limited and privacy is paramount. There are a dozen or so resort hotels just a short ride from Cozumel's airport. Prices for a double range from about $80 to $120. You can put your feet up here -- no more history and ancient hieroglyphic writing with plenty of action but little plot. Beaches are white sand and the water is about 80 degrees, making snorkeling (about $8 a day) and scuba diving ($35) divine. Oh, and keep an eye out for sand dollars, those harmless circular sea urchins. By the time you get home, they may have reached parity with the greenback.